melvin and howard

Yesterday during lunch my friend Jason mentioned something about an interest in Howard Hughes. (I don't think I asked why. Note to self, remember to ask follow up questions.) I asked him if he had seen The Aviator (which I guess qualifies as a follow up question, but not a very good one because, well, the answer is either "yes" or "no"), but then remembered that there was a much better movie (okay, I haven't seen The Aviator yet) about Howard Hughes that I saw years ago called Melvin and Howard. It stars Paul LeMat as Melvin Dummar and Jason Robards as Howard Hughes (after he was old and a little nutty), who meet when Dummar gets out of his car to take a piss and finds Hughes lying on the ground. LeMat, by the way, is the guy from American Graffiti who spent the night driving around with a teenage Mackenzie Phillips. Worth adding to your Netflix queue. If you want to read a real review, check out this link to Roger Ebert's site.