
His only friend is a mentally disabled mute, Spiros Antonapoulos, who continually gets into trouble with the law, since he does not know any better. John Singer is a deaf-mute who works as a silver engraver in a southern US town.

The film is recognized by the American Film Institute in AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated. The film updates the novel's small-town Southern setting from the Depression era to the contemporary 1960s. It stars Alan Arkin and Sondra Locke (in her film debut, age 24), who both earned Academy Award nominations for their performances.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is a 1968 American film adaptation of the 1940 novel of the same name by Carson McCullers.
