The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter received Oscar nominations for both Best Actor (Alan Arkin) and Best Supporting Actress (Sondra Locke, making her film debut). Despite this, the film is obscure today. Most of its attention has come from schools for the deaf, as the lead character is a gentle and sympathetic deaf mute.

It probably didn't help the film's reputation that it was subjected to withering reviews, and had an unhappy ending. tvguide.com and Leonard Maltin both pan the film, which is short on story but long on character development.

Alan Arkin plays John Singer, whose best friend Spiro Antonapoulos (Chuck McCann) is also a deaf mute. Unlike John, Spiro is also retarded and destructive. When Spiro is committed to a distant state mental institution, John moves to a nearby town to be close to Spiro. John rents the bedroom of teenager Mick Kelly (Sondra Locke), whose impoverished father (Biff McGuire) is unable to work due to a hip injury.

John makes new friends with an alcoholic derelict (Stacy Keach), and a proud black doctor (Percy Rodriguez) with an estranged grown daughter (Cicely Tyson). John is something of a Good Samaritan, whom others turn to for help with their emotional problems. But John becomes frustrated when it seems that his efforts are all for naught.

Prejudice is a key theme of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Prejudice is demonstrated against blacks, whites, deaf mutes, alcoholics, the retarded, the emotionally disturbed, and the poor. All of the major characters are flawed in some important way, which makes them vulnerable to intolerance from others. Perhaps the message here is that we all have such flaws, and that we need to support each other in order to get through life.

Arkin is surprisingly effective and emotive as a deaf mute. While many of the subplots (e.g., Mick is coming of age, a black man is practically lynched) are familiar from innumerable other films, the characters all have ironical aspects that make them unique. For example, John is an avid chess player, but is frustrated in finding an opponent. The doctor hates whites, refusing even to treat them, but he is forced to adopt the traits that he despises before he can make amends with his daughter.

The story was based upon a novel by Carson McCullers. Thomas C. Ryan adapted the screenplay, and was also one of the producers. Although he was only in his twenties at the time, it would be his final film. Locke has since become better known for playing Clint Eastwood's love interest in several of his films. Keach, who already had his trademark mustache, eventually went on to television success as tough guy gumshoe Mike Hammer. (70/100)