BEFORE: It's funny how the linking works sometimes. I had this one scheduled next to "Harold and Maude" for a long time, simply because the two films had names in the titles, and they seemed to be black comedies with similar tones. Then it languished at the bottom of my watchlist for a while because there didn't seem to be a way to link to it. Then when I tore my list apart and rebuilt it last time (or perhaps it was the time before that), I realized the connection, with Michael J. Pollard carrying over from "Little Fauss and Big Halsy", this film could provide the perfect link betwen the Robert Redford chain, and three films featuring Mary Steenburgen. And hey, last night's film also had two names in the title, so there you go.
It might have made more sense to watch this right after that OTHER film about Howard Hughes, but I don't think I had access to this film then.
THE PLOT: The story of hard-luck Melvin Dummar, who claimed to have received a will naming him an heir to the fortune of Howard Hughes.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "The Aviator" (Movie #846)
AFTER: Another unusual coincidence - both "Little Fauss and Big Halsy" and this film have a motorcycle accident as a plot point. It's little things like that help me to feel like I'm on the right track somehow.
But if "L.F. & B.H." suggested that life is a never-ending parade of one greasy spoon after another, where the same waitress serves you the same food, day after day, no matter how far you seem to travel on your particular racing circuit, then this film seems to suggest that life is a never-ending parade of dead-end jobs, break-ups and make-ups, repossessed autos and futile attempts to get out of debt as you chase the American dream. I'm not saying that's incorrect, it just seems to be a strange topic for a film.
The Melvin in the title is Melvin Dummar, a service-station owner (former metal-worker, former milkman) who was named the beneficiary to Howard Hughes' fortune in a hand-written will that was allegedly found in the Mormon headquarters in Salt Lake City. Supposedly Melvin had found Howard Hughes, a noted recluse, after a motorcycle crash (wait a minute, do recluses ride cycles?) and after Hughes turned down a trip to a hospital, Melvin drove him back to Las Vegas, where Hughes owned the famous Desert Inn.
But it's really about what happens to Melvin later, as his first wife leaves him so she can be a stripper (I wasn't sure why she couldn't stay with him and also do that) but then returns pregnant and they remarry. He later convinces her to appear on a talent-based game show called "Easy Street" and they argue over how to spend the money that she wins. I'm just not sure I'm sold on what this all says about 1970's America, land of the free and home of the get-rich-quick schemes. Whatever happened to working hard and putting aside a little money each week so you can go on vacation or something?
Well, when in doubt, there's always Wikipedia, which tells me that this is based on the true story of the real Melvin Dummar, whose second wife, Bonnie, had worked for a magazine titled Millionaire, which the wealthiest Americans at the time subscribed to, and would have had access to Howard Hughes' memos and signature, so for that reason the "Mormon Will" was declared a forgery by the courts.
Of course, one should always try to help people in need, or those who have been in an accident, and not just because they could secretly be billionaires. And you can't always rely on your songwriting talent if the best thing you can create is "Santa's Souped-Up Sleigh" - hey, isn't that the same fake Christmas song that was heard in "About a Boy"? No, I guess that was "Santa's SUPER Sleigh"...
Also starring Paul Le Mat (last seen in "American History X"), Jason Robards (last seen in "The Paper"), Mary Steenburgen (last seen in "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy"), Pamela Reed, Jack Kehoe (also last seen in "The Paper"), Charles Napier, Robert Ridgely, with cameos from John Glover (last seen in "Julia"), Dabney Coleman (last seen in "Downhill Racer" - three Dabney Coleman appearances this week, how did I miss that?) and Gloria Grahame (last seen in "The Big Heat").
RATING: 3 out of 10 milk trucks
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