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Melvin Dummar (Paul Le Mat) may be a plain man, none too bright, not likely to stay in any job for long, but he can at least dream. He would like to be songwriter and composes dreadful ditties such as "Santa's Souped-up Sleigh". While driving his pickup across the Nevada desert he gives a lift to a shabby, bearded stranger (Jason Robards) who has had a misfortune with his motorbike. He drives him through the night to Las Vegas, makes him sing along to "Bye Bye Blackbird", then slips him a handful of change and drops him off at the backdoor of one of the plush hotels on the Strip.
Thinking no more of the encounter, he returns to a haphazard lifestyle with his wife (Mary Steenburgen). Years later, his life is thrown into total chaos when the eccentric tycoon Howard Hughes dies, leaving $156 million to Melvin. It seems Hughes was the man out in the desert.
There is more than a touch of Preston Sturges to the plight of the small-town hero suddenly besieged by the press, long-lost relations, scroungers on the make, and above all, the lawyers who move in to contest the bizarre will. Jonathan Demme's film pokes gentle fun at the couch potato taste of middle America, and his cast perform brilliantly. Le Mat has made many films, including "American Graffiti" but was never as good as this before or since.
Look out for the real Melvin Dummar who appears in the film behind a bus station lunch counter.
