John Singer is a deaf-mute who works as a silver engraver in a southern US town. 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. When Spiros is committed to a mental institution by his cousin, who is his guardian, John offers to become Spiros' guardian, but he is told that Spiros will have to go to the institution until this has been arranged. John decides to move to a town near the institution in order to be near his friend. He finds work there and rents a room in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kelly, who are having financial difficulties as a result of Mr. Kelly's recent hip injury.
Because the Kellys' teenage daughter, Margaret ('Mick'), resents having to give up her room to him, John tries to win her friendship. He also tries to become friends with Jake Blount, a semi-alcoholic drifter, and Dr. Copeland, an embittered African American physician who is secretly dying of lung cancer. John helps interpret for a deaf-mute patient who is seeing Dr. Copeland. Copeland's deepest disappointment is that his educated daughter, Portia, works as a domestic and is married to a field hand. Meanwhile, Mick has an outdoor teenage party at her house, but is disgusted after some boy guests disrupt it by fighting and setting off fireworks.
Following a successful attempt to win Mick's friendship by encouraging her love for classical music, John visits Spiros and, although he takes him out for the day, John is lonelier than ever when he returns home. Meanwhile, Portia and her husband are attacked and he is jailed for defending himself at an incident at a carnival. Portia gets upset at Dr. Copeland for not perjuring himself to help bring out the truth about what happened in the fight. Dr. Copeland and Portia's relationship gets even more strained after her husband has his leg amputated after being placed in irons for trying to escape jail.
John gets them to reconcile after Portia learns from John of Dr. Copeland's illness. Mick willfully loses her virginity to the sensitive older brother of one of her classmates after she realizes that her father's injury has permanently disabled him and she will have to leave school and work to help support the family. Disturbed by her sexual initiation, she ignores John's request for some company. John goes to visit Spiros and learns that he has been dead for several weeks. After visiting his friend's grave, pacing and apologizing over and over in sign language, John returns to his room and commits suicide.
Some months afterwards, Mick brings flowers to John's grave and meets Dr. Copeland. As they talk, Mick asks the question, "Why did he do it?" Dr. Copeland leaves, and the film ends with Mick admitting out loud to John's open grave that she loved him.
Alan Arkin was the first actor chosen for the film.[6]
Sondra Locke, then known as Sandra Locke, was a 23-year-old WSM-TV (Nashville, Tennessee) staff employee when she auditioned for the role of Mick on July 28, 1967.[6] To seem younger, Locke shaved six years off her age—a lie she maintained for the rest of her career.[7] Although she was soon outed by The Billings Gazette[8] and The Tennessean,[9][3] it took decades for syndicated outlets to catch on. Actress Bonnie Bedelia, four years Locke's junior, told the Los Angeles Times that "they decided I was too old" to play Mick.[10]
To mask the obviousness of Locke's age discrepancy, press releases containing a biographical sketch of the 1944-born actress omitted her time at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) as well as her residence in Nashville, where she had moved in 1963 after dropping out of college.[9] Locke did eventually admit to lying about her age in her 1997 memoir, The Good, the Bad & the Very Ugly, but claimed to have knocked only three years off, rather than six.[11][12] In her final interview, conducted in 2015 for a podcast called The Projection Booth, Locke lied that she "was just graduating high school" when she started work on the film.[13] By the time awards season rolled around, she was, in fact, about to turn 25, making her the oldest nominee in the New Star of the Year – Actress category at the 26th Golden Globe Awards.
Locke's salary was reported as $15,000 in contemporary articles in the movie press, but she later said it was less than one-third that amount.[11]
For the role of Mick's love interest Harry, director Robert Ellis Miller cast Wayne Smith, five years younger than Locke, even though the character is described in the screenplay as being older than Mick.[14]
Percy Rodriguez, who played Cicely Tyson's father, was only six years older than Tyson. Although Laurinda Barrett played Locke's mother, she was only 12½ years older than Locke.
Principal photography began on September 18, 1967, in Selma, Alabama, and lasted for six to eight weeks.[15] Locke married Gordon Leigh Anderson during the second week of the shoot. She falsely stated in an on-set interview that he was two years her senior;[16] this subterfuge would be disseminated in reference sources.[17] In fact, Locke's husband was three months younger than her.[18]
Reception
Film critic Derek Winnert awarded the movie four stars, and Renata Adler of The New York Times praised the cast, especially Alan Arkin as Singer, whose performance she described as "extraordinary, deep and sound."[citation needed]
Gregg J. Kilday of The Harvard Crimson criticized how some characters are "cardboard remains" of novel versions; he wrote that Spiros "is grossly overplayed", Blount "has been reduced to a drunken bum (someone was afraid to dirty their camera in politics)" and that Dr. Copeland and Portia's relationship "plays like a Black Power version of The Secret Storm."[20]
^ abSlaughter, Sylvia (May 28, 1989). "Sondra vs. Clint in palimony suit". The Tennessean. Nashville. Don Locke loves his sister. He misses her, and he regrets the fact that his three daughters don't have any knowledge of Sondra other than what they see on TV or in print or hear from gossipmongers. 'Sondra's not this kind of bad character,' he says. 'Maybe she's changed, but she was my big sister who used to play baseball with me. Sondra's gonna be 45 May 28 ...' Locke's publicist claims Sondra will be 42 today.
^"People etc". The Billings Gazette. May 25, 1969. Sweet little Sondra is actually 25 years old and married. Because of the movie, people think she's about 13, so she's now considering offers to do a nude layout for a magazine to prove she's no kid, and pave the way for adult roles.
^ abHieronymus, Clara (December 24, 1967). "Nashvillians in the Times". The Tennessean. Nashville. The spelling of her name has been changed to "Sondra," her age lowered to 17 years for publicity purposes, and her residence in Nashville, where she was employed by WSM, wiped out.
^Smith, Cecil (October 8, 1967). "Bonnie's Westward Stage Trek". Los Angeles Times.
