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MELVIN AND HOWARD
Review by Michael Jacobson
Stars:
Paul LeMat, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen
Director: Jonathan Demme
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
Video: Widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic
Transfer
Studio: Anchor Bay
Features: Commentary, Trailer,
Talent Bios
Length: 95 Minutes
Release Date: October 12, 1999
Film **
I don’t foresee anybody ever trying to make a movie about
my life. If they did, I doubt
anyone would actually pay to see it…in fact, I’d advise you to save your
money. It’s not that interesting.
Which is fine with me. I
think most of us live how we live, and touch who we touch, and try to make the
most of what we have. If the end
results are not exciting enough for Hollywood, so be it.
Melvin Dummar was just an ordinary person like you or me.
He struggled with bills and debts, dead end jobs, relationship troubles,
and he dreamed of one day having that wonderful ship come in.
If it weren’t for the fact that he claimed to have picked up a ragged
Howard Hughes one night in the desert, and that a will that was delivered to him
named him as a beneficiary to the eccentric billionaire’s fortune, I’d guess
none of us would have ever heard of him.
It was that controversial bit of information that made
Melvin Dummar a kind of pseudo-celebrity, which is why it’s strange to me that
the film, Melvin and Howard, pays
attention to it only a few minutes at the beginning and at the end of the film.
In between is just the story of Melvin.
And I don’t know what to make of it.
Melvin’s 15 minutes of fame would have made an intriguing film.
This movie, instead, deals largely with all the other minutes of his life.
I know this film was one of the most acclaimed of the
80’s, and I can say that it boasts a
good cast. I’m just not sure what
the point of making the movie was. The
controversy over the will was quite a big deal in its day, with a big legal
battle and extensive press coverage to boot.
It’s still an unresolved issue…the will that Melvin produced was the
only Howard Hughes will ever to surface, and the courts discredited it, and so
Melvin never saw a penny of the $156 million that he was supposedly entitled to.
It’s definitely a most interesting and intriguing story.
Which is why I was left scratching my head as to why the
film blew right through it in the final moments, electing instead to tell the
life story of a man who’s life never would have been the basis of a film
otherwise. Melvin (LeMat) picks up
a ragged old man (Robards) and drives him to Vegas, then the rest of the story
is all Melvin. We see his bike
being repossessed. He loses his
wife (Steenburgen, in an Oscar winning role) not once, but twice.
The highlight of his world is making milkman of the month at his job,
which wins him a new TV set.
Melvin is called a loser in the film…I don’t call him
that. He’s simply a man with a
lot of bad luck, and not enough common sense to handle what little good luck
comes his way. When his wife wins
big on a local game show, he doesn’t handle the money wisely.
He buys an expensive car and boat, only to have them gone by the next
reel of the film, along with his wife. He
eventually buys into a gas station in Utah, only to find himself in a situation
where he has no gas to pump because he can’t afford to pay for it.
All of this is the heart of the movie.
Then in the final stretch, the will is dropped on his desk,
we see him asked a few questions in court, and he walks away declaring that he
knows he’ll never see a penny of it, which is confirmed in the movie’s
printed epilogue.
So the question I kept asking myself is, why was the movie
made? Why would the most
interesting parts of Melvin’s story be only casually touched upon so we can
watch him struggle with day to day life, deliver milk, and try to keep from
getting one more possession taken away? Would
you make a film about Stanley Kubrick and spend an hour and a half dealing with
his career as a free lance photographer in the late 40’s and early 50’s,
only to say in the last few minutes, “oh, and then he went on to make 12 of
the most influential and acclaimed films in movie history”?
Try as I may, I can’t find a point.
And I don’t mean any disrespect to Melvin Dummar’s life in saying so.
Like I mentioned, my life’s not worth making a movie about either, and
I have nothing like his encounter with Howard Hughes to make anyone even
consider doing so.
Video **
Anchor Bay delivers an anamorphically enhanced disc that unfortunately is not very good. Like many 80’s films, this one definitely shows it’s age. It’s a bit drab looking, and darker scenes (which include virtually the entire beginning with Melvin and Howard together) are murky with very poor definition.
Audio *1/2
As for the soundtrack, some mono mixes sound livelier than
others, and this one falls flat, though clarity is not a problem.
It just has no dynamic range at all.
Features ***
The disc includes a Jonathan Demme commentary, a trailer,
and cast bios for the three stars.
Summary:
Some films you get, others you don’t. I guess it’s fair to say I’m in the minority as far as critics go by not caring for Melvin and Howard. For me, the gap between the film it could have been and the film it actually is, is just too great.