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| Melvin and Howard | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster byJohn Alvin | |
| Directed by | Jonathan Demme |
| Written by | Bo Goldman |
| Produced by | Art Linson Don Phillips |
| Starring | Paul Le Mat Mary Steenburgen Pamela Reed Jason Robards |
| Cinematography | Tak Fujimoto |
| Edited by | Craig McKay |
| Music by | Bruce Langhorne |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million[1] |
| Box office | $4.3 million[2] |
Melvin and Howard (stylized asMelvin (and Howard)) is a 1980 Americancomedy-drama film directed byJonathan Demme.[3] Thescreenplay byBo Goldman was inspired by real-lifeUtah service station ownerMelvin Dummar, who was listed as the beneficiary of $156 million in awill allegedly handwritten byHoward Hughes that was discovered in the headquarters ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints inSalt Lake City. Anovelization of Goldman's script, which itself won theAcademy Award for Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen, later was written byGeorge Gipe. The film starsPaul Le Mat,Jason Robards, andMary Steenburgen, who won theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film was released on September 19, 1980, receiving positive reviews from critics.[4]
MillionaireHoward Hughes loses control of hismotorcycle and crashes in theNevada desert. That night, he is discovered lying on the side of a stretch of U.S. Highway 95 whenMelvin Dummar stops his pickup truck so he can relieve himself. The disheveled stranger, refusing to allow Melvin to take him to the hospital, asks him to instead drive him toLas Vegas, Nevada. En route, the two engage in stilted conversation until Dummar cajoles his passenger into joining him in singing aChristmas song he wrote. Hughes then suggests they sing his favorite song "Bye Bye Blackbird", and they do. The man warms to his rescuer and he is dropped off at theDesert Inn (which Hughes owns and in which he resides).
Most of the remainder of the film focuses on Melvin's scattered, up-and-down life, his spendthrift, trust-in-luck nature, his rocky marital life with first wife Lynda, and his more stable relationship with second wife Bonnie. Lynda leaves him and their daughter to dance in a sleazy strip club, but eventually returns, but she remains frustrated by her husband's futile efforts to achieve theAmerican dream. Melvin convinces her to appear onEasy Street, agame show hybrid ofThe Gong Show andLet's Make a Deal, and although hertap dancing initially is booed by the audience, she wins them over and nabs the top prize of living room furniture, a piano, and $10,000 cash.
Melvin agrees to invest in an affordable house in a new development, but while Lynda tries to keep their finances under control, he rashly buys a newCadillac Eldorado and a boat, prompting her to take their daughter and toddler son and sue for divorce. Melvin is comforted by Bonnie, the payroll clerk at the dairy where he drives a truck, and the two eventually wed and move to Utah, where they take over the operation of a service station her relatives had owned.
One day, a mysterious man in a limousine stops at the station ostensibly to buy a pack of cigarettes, but after he drives off Melvin discovers an envelope marked "Last Will and Testament of Howard Hughes" on his office desk. Afraid to open it, he takes it to Mormon headquarters and secrets it in a pile of incoming mail. It does not take long for the media to descend upon him and his family, and eventually Melvin finds himself in court, admitting he once met Hughes but vigorously denying he forged the will that finally fulfills his dreams.
The real Melvin Dummar has a cameo appearance as a man behind a bus depot counter.Gloria Grahame has a short appearance as Mrs. Sisk, but the majority of her role was cut and doesn't speak any dialogue.
Art Linson worked with music supervisor Don Phillips who wanted to be a producer. Philips would bring Linson ideas for films, one of them being an article about Melvin Dunbar. Linson felt there was only a movie in the story if Dunmar was telling the truth. When Linson met with Dunmar he was so taken with the man and his story he agreed to make the movie.[5]
Linson set up the project with Universal. Bo Goldman was originally hired by Universal presidentNed Tanen to meet with Melvin Dummar in 1976, and Goldman then worked his story into a screenplay, even after Dummar's will was determined to be a fake. Linson said the first draft was calledSonny and focused on Dunmnar's childhood. Linson and the studio liked the writing but felt it needed another draft.[6]
Mike Nichols was originally slated to direct the film, and supervised an eight-week rewrite by Goldman. After months of deliberation, Nichols decided not to direct. Linson wrote "It wasn’t the first script that Nichols had walked away from after making it better. He was having a great deal of trouble pulling the trigger in those days; the pressure of failure was overtaking the joy of success."[7] Linson said Universal remained committed in part because the studio had invested so much money in the script. Eventually Jonathan Demme signed to direct.[8]
Jack Nicholson andDiane Keaton were in talks to star, but they dropped out of the project.[1] Jonathan Demme wanted to use Paul Le Mat and Roberts Blossom, who had been inCitizens Band. However Universal wanted a star so Jason Roberts replaced Blossom.[9]
Filming began inGlendale, California on February 26, 1979, and also took place inSalt Lake City andWillard, Utah as well asLas Vegas, Nevada, lasting a total of 10 weeks and wrapping on May 10, 1979.[10]
Mary Steenburgen revealed that she was worried about having to appear completely naked in the film. "In a scene, I'm at a strip joint and I quit. I rip off what I'm wearing, throw it in the air, and walk naked out of the place. The night before the scene, I thought, 'Who is going to be there tomorrow? There's going to be a skeleton crew.' I didn't sleep that night, but I thought I was prepared for what was going to happen. I had totally forgotten there were going to be about sixty guys - extras from Central Casting - sitting around. I did it OK for about the first eight times, but I started to lose it. I was becoming upset because these guys kept making comments. I called Malcolm [McDowell], and he said, 'Listen, you've done it. You have already put it on film. Do it one more time, and just try and do it real well.' I had lost sight of that. I was so busy worrying about my clothes I had forgotten about the moment of it. I knew it was a moment of bravery and freedom, and he reminded me of that. So I went back and I did it really well. As I walked out, I flipped off the construction hat of the guy at the bar and I waved goodbye to all the other dancers on the stage. That is the one they used," Steenburgen recalled.[11]
Monty Hall was going to play himself in the film but a week before he was to shoot he read the script and dropped out. The script had to be rewritten so his character became a fictional one.[9]
The film was not a box office success but was highly acclaimed critically.[9]
Onreview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "A spirited character study and clear-eyed treatise of the American Dream,Melvin and Howard hits the jackpot with its lovable cast and director Jonathan Demme's humanism."[12]
In his review inThe New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film a "sharp, engaging, very funny, anxious comedy" and commented, "Mr. Demme is a lyrical film maker for whom there is purpose in style...Melvin and Howard is commercial American movie-making of a most expansive, entertaining kind."[13]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times described it as "wonderful" and added, "This is a slice of American life. It shows the flip side ofGary Gilmore's Utah. It is a world of mobile homes, Pop Tarts, dust, kids and dreams of glory. It's pretty clear how this movie got made. Hollywood started with the notion that the story of the mysterious Hughes will might make a good courtroom thriller. Well, maybe it would have. But my hunch is that when they met Dummar, they had the good sense to realize that they could get a better – and certainly a funnier – story out of what happened to him between the day he met Hughes and the day the will was discovered. Dummar is the kind of guy who thinks they oughta make a movie out of his life. This time, he was right."[14]
Variety said, "Jonathan Demme's tour-de-force direction, the imaginative screenplay and top-drawer performances from a huge cast fuse in an unusual, original creation."[15]
Pauline Kael gave the film a very positive review inThe New Yorker: "Jonathan Demme's lyrical comedyMelvin and Howard which opened theNew York Film Festival on September 26, is an almost flawless act of sympathetic imagination. I doubt ifJason Robards has ever been greater than he is here.Mary Steenburgen's Lynda Dummar has a soft mouth and a tantalizing slender wiggliness, and she talks directly to whomever she's talking to – when she listens, she's the kind of woman a man wants to tell more to. Demme shows perhaps a finer understanding of lower-middle-class life than any other American director."[16]
Dennis Bingham'sWhose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre citesMelvin and Howard as the first film in the subgenre "biopic of someone undeserving," or "BOSUD," which was later popularized byScott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski withEd Wood,Man on the Moon,The People vs. Larry Flynt, andAuto Focus.[17]
Paul Thomas Anderson has cited the film as one of his favorites.Jason Robards's last feature film appearance was in Anderson'sMagnolia.Robert Ridgely, who played the host of the fictional "Easy Street" game show in this movie, would later be cast as Colonel James in Anderson'sBoogie Nights.
The comedy showSCTV parodied the film in a sketch called "Melvin and Howards". Melvin (Rick Moranis), after picking up Howard Hughes (Joe Flaherty), also picks upHoward Cosell (Eugene Levy), SenatorHoward Baker (Dave Thomas), andCurly Howard (John Candy).