Before Hallmark developed their own channel I remember seeing this on a Sunday night on CBS. The cast this variety of great performers such as Bernadette Peters, Tom Skerritt, Judith Ivey, Matthew Modine, Jake Weber, Jerry O'Connell, and the scene stealer James Earl Jones. Sammy Ayers has the town convinced he's a deaf mute and after twenty years of pulling off the charade things come to a head. How could someone pull off such a con is amazing and takes a lot of self discipline plus a lot of luck. Even in that day and age Sammy would have been turned over to social services. The show stealer is Barrington's, GA own answer to Fred Sanford Archibald Thacker played by James Earl Jones as the local junk merchant. With most of the townsfolk not realizing he has been laughing all the way to the bank until he buys it due to his side job. Growing up Sammy has been antagonized by one Tolliver Tynan the spolied entitled son of the town's leading citizen. Because Tolliver's father was smart financially after his death people assumed the apple didn't fall from the tree. Boy were they wrong. MR. Tynam's placed the estate in a trust which was wise. Tolliver starts to use church funds to invest in his sure fire investment schemes only to fall short. What the clueless one failed to grasp is that most people could see right through him. Finally things catch up and he has to pay the piper. From there it gets worse for him.

There are some terrific performances in this film - Matthew Modine, Tom Skerritt, Judith Ivey, James Earl Jones - but the director and writer seem uncertain whether this is a sentimental drama or a satirical comedy. As it stands it is a peculiar mixture of both with the drama spoiling the comedy and the comedy spoiling the drama. And what a terrible waste of the magnificent talent of Claire Bloom!

I saw this on TV one night and fell in love. Matthew Modine plays Sammy Ayers(the adult) who as a child is left alone on a bus after his mother is murdered. He arrives in a small Georgia town and sits quietly all day waiting for his mother arrive. The people in town then determine that he's deaf and mute. As an adult he does odd jobs for all the people in town, all the while listening to everything everyone tells him, including secrets! Jake Weber plays Tolliver Tynan, Tallasses(Sammys love interest)brother and the source of all Sammys trouble. Tom Skerritt stars as Norm, owner of the bus depot and a sort of father figure to Sammy. James Earl Jones also stars as Archibald Thacker, a rum runner who knows a thing or two about some of the secrets in the town. As one of the big secrets threatens the town Sammy struggles with what to do. A great story and wonderful acting make this a movie I would recommend to anyone.