Melvin et Howard

Everyone thinks Raging Bull is the best film of the 1980's, but Melvin and Howard holds up better for me. Paul Le Mat should have been nominated for an Oscar, and this film should have made him a star. It's such a waste that Le Mat isn't used in more films.

At least Mary Steenburgen's excellent performance didn't go unnoticed -- she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Bo Goldman's cleverly constructed, highly nuanced script won another Oscar.

Director Jonathan Demme went on to greater success and acclaim with Silence of the Lambs, but he achieved something special with Melvin and Howard. Most directors would play Melvin Dummar's story for easy laughs, and while Demme finds humor in the material, he also explores with depth and sensitivity how the American Dream has failed some of its most ardent aspirants.

The film's opening interaction between Dumar (the quintessential dreamer/loser) and Hughes (who found his dream but lost himself)is hauntingly brilliant. As they drive along in Melvin's truck, on the cusp of desert's dawn, Melvin manages to draw Hughes out of his crusty and maniacal shell by getting him to sing one of his self-written songs. As dawn opens, Hughes is still singing. It is probably his most uncomplicated - yet happiest moment in years.

Melvin never does receive any money from the disputed and disregarded will. But he really does not care. He still has his dreams, and knows that validation can be found in impecunity as he reflects upon his encounter with Hughes: "No, I'm not going to see that money. That's all right. Because you know what happened? Howard Hughes sang Melvin Dumar's song. He sang it." Some moments are truly better than all the pain that money can buy.

I saw this film only recently. I was sparked to see it because I was interested in seeing Paul LeMat in what I had heard to be was his most defining film role. From the first scene I was hooked. The scene in which the character of Melvin picks up Jason Robards, playing Howard Hughes, in the desert. The two singing Bye Bye Blackbird to each other and then remarking about the scent of sage and greasewood was both touching and humorous. Robards short performance in the film was underrated and one of the best I have seen him give. Paul Le Mat is wonderful, giving a performance that is oozing with comical sweetness and vulnerability. He is one of the only actors I have seen to truly embody the blue-collar man authentically. Mary Steenburgen in daffy and hilarious. There was not a lacking actor in the film in my opinion. It is a travesty that Paul LeMat never achieved the success that he could have with performances like this and in his many other seldom viewed films. This offbeat treat is one of the best written movies I have seen in a long time. If you get the chance to see it, please do.

I just noticed that "Melvin and Howard" registered a mere 6.6 on the IMDb rating scale. Don't you believe it! This is a great American movie. Director Demme and writer Goldman take a footnote to history -- a contested Howard Hughes will that named Melvin Dummar, a milkman who once loaned him a quarter, as one of his heirs -- and turn that slight material into a wry meditation on the American Dream. Or more specifically, the thin line that separates the American Dream from pure hell. Demme has a great eye for people like Dummar, a dreamer whose clock for realizing his dreams is winding down. The performances are terrific, especially Paul Le Mat as Dummar (whatever happened to Le Mat?) and Mary Steenburgen who won an Oscar for playing his wife. Jason Robards does one of his patented cameos playing a real life character (his Howard Hughes makes a neat hat trick with his Oscar winning performances as Dashiell Hammett and Ben Bradley.) Watch for the real-life Melvin Dummar as the counterman in the bus station where Steenburgen makes a sandwich for her daughter. This is a small but knowing and winning movie. It definitely gets my vote for "Milkman of the Month"!

The story of hard-luck Melvin E. Dummar, who claimed to have received a will naming him an heir to the fortune of Howard Hughes.

I can't say I'm an expert on Howard Hughes, and I have never heard this story before. After watching the film and looking into it a bit, I am somewhat interested. Especially knowing that Agent Gary Magnussen was involved.

But the film itself is just alright. Very little of it has anything to do with Hughes or the courtroom drama. Much pf it has to do with the boring life of Dummar and the problems he had with his wife. This was okay, as far as movies go, but certainly nothing extraordinary. I would not place it among Jonathan Demme's best.