The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is a 1968

1968 in film

The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...

 film adaptation of the Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers was an American writer. She wrote novels, short stories, and two plays, as well as essays and some poetry. Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South...

 novel of the same name

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is the debut 1940 novel by American author Carson McCullers. Written in Charlotte, North Carolina, in houses on Central Avenue and East Boulevard, it is about a deaf man named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the US state of Georgia...

. It was directed by Robert Ellis Miller

Robert Ellis Miller

Robert Ellis Miller is an American film director. He has directed 50 films and TV episodes between 1959 and 1996.He was born in New York, New York.-Selected filmography:* Pointman * Brenda Starr * Hawks...

. It stars Alan Arkin

Alan Arkin

Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...

, Sondra Locke

Sondra Locke

Sondra Locke is an American actress, singer and film director.She made her film debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress...

, Laurinda Barrett, Stacy Keach

Stacy Keach

Stacy Keach is an American actor and narrator. He is most famous for his dramatic roles; however, he has done narration work in educational programming on PBS and the Discovery Channel, as well as some comedy and musical...

, Percy Rodriguez

Percy Rodriguez

Percy Rodriguez was a Canadian actor who appeared in many television shows and films from the 1950s to the 1980s...

, Chuck McCann

Chuck McCann

Chuck McCann is a film actor, television actor, stage actor, and a voice actor from Brooklyn, New York.-Early career:...

 and Cicely Tyson

Cicely Tyson

Cicely Tyson is an American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for her Oscar-nominated role in the film Sounder and the television movies The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots....

. Academy Award nominations went to both Arkin and Locke.

The film updates the novel's small-town Southern

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

 setting from the Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 era to the then-contemporary 1960s.

Plot

John Singer is a deaf-mute whose small world brings him in contact with a young girl, Mick, who cherishes a seemingly hopeless dream of becoming a concert pianist. At first hostile, Mick soon becomes friends with Singer, hoping to enlarge his small world. Three other central characters come to Singer for help also, each of them seeing in him a powerful force. Yet some are so obsessed with their own troubles that they fail to see that Singer has some very serious ones of his own.

Cast

• Alan Arkin
  Alan Arkin
  Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
  
   - John Singer
• Sondra Locke
  Sondra Locke
  Sondra Locke is an American actress, singer and film director.She made her film debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress...
  
   - Mick Kelly
• Laurinda Barrett - Mrs. Kelly
• Stacy Keach
  Stacy Keach
  Stacy Keach is an American actor and narrator. He is most famous for his dramatic roles; however, he has done narration work in educational programming on PBS and the Discovery Channel, as well as some comedy and musical...
  
   - Blount (as Stacy Keach Jr.)
• Chuck McCann
  Chuck McCann
  Chuck McCann is a film actor, television actor, stage actor, and a voice actor from Brooklyn, New York.-Early career:...
  
   - Spiros Antonapoulos
• Biff McGuire
  Biff McGuire
  William "Biff" McGuire is an American actor. In recent years he has used the name William Biff McGuire professionally....
  
   - Mr. Kelly
• Percy Rodrigues - Doctor Copeland
• Cicely Tyson
  Cicely Tyson
  Cicely Tyson is an American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for her Oscar-nominated role in the film Sounder and the television movies The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots....
  
   - Portia
• Jackie Marlowe - Bubber
• Johnny Popwell - Willie
• Wayne Smith - Harry
• Peter Mamakos
  Peter Mamakos
  Peter Mamakos was an American film actor. best known for playing Greek, Indian, Hispanic, French, Italian and Middle Eastern villains from 30s up until the 90s he had a reaccuring role as Jean Liffite on the ABC western The Adventures of Jim Bowie...
  
   - Spirmonedes
• John O'Leary
  John O'Leary
  John O'Leary may refer to:* John O'Leary , Irish nationalist who was imprisoned in England during the nineteenth century*John O'Leary , former Irish Fianna Fáil party politician and TD for Kerry South...
  
   - Beaudine
• Hubert Harper - Brannon
• Sherri Vise - Delores
• Don Swafford - Dr. Gordon

Awards

Academy Award nominations

• Best Actor in a Leading Role (Alan Arkin)
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role
  Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
  Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
  
   (Sondra Locke)

Golden Globe nominations

• Best Motion Picture - Drama
  Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
  This page lists the winners and nominees for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, since its institution in 1951. The organizer, Hollywood Foreign Press Association , is an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications...
  
  
• Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama (Alan Arkin)
• Best Supporting Actress
  Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress
  Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress may refer to:*Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture or*Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film...
  
   (Sondra Locke)
• Most Promising Newcomer - Female (Sondra Locke)

New York Film Critics Circle Awards

New York Film Critics Circle Awards

New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards....

• Won - Best Actor (Alan Arkin)

Writers Guild of America, USA

• Nominated - Best Written American Drama (Thomas C. Ryan)

Laurel Awards

Laurel Awards

The Laurel Awards were cinema awards to honor pictures, actors, actresses, directors and composers. This award was created by Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine, and ran from 1958 to 1968, then 1970 and 1971....

• Won - Best Cinematography (James Wong Howe)
• Won (2nd place) - Best Female Supporting Performance (Sondra Locke)
• Nominated (8th place) - Best Female New Face (Sondra Locke)