From Amazon.com
This quiet, sentimental 1968 drama based on the Carson McCullers novel is considered a classic contemporary coming-of-age film about alienation and love. Alan Arkin (
The In-Laws) stars as a kind, but lonely deaf-mute who befriends a lonely teenage girl in his boarding house. Set in the deep South, the film depicts a wistful small-town life with an undercurrent of turmoil and intolerance. It features a standout performance by Arkin and the debut of Sondra Locke (
Bronco Billy,
Sudden Impact) as two fundamentally lonely people who find solace in themselves as they reach out to each other.
--Robert Lane