The following epilogue appears at the end of the film: “Howard Hughes died in April, 1976. The ‘Mormon Will’ was thrown out of Clark County Superior Court in June, 1978. Lynda is a housewife and lives with her husband Bob in Garden Grove, California. Melvin and Bonnie live in Willard, Utah, where Melvin drives a delivery truck for Coors Beer. A will acceptable to the courts has yet to be found.”
       The following acknowledgments appear in end credits: “Special thanks to: Judge Keith Hayes, Calvin Aberle, Ron Bayless, Louis Bertini, Roger Dutson, Morgan Cavett, Jan Gregson, Charles House, Bessie Jackson, J. J. Johnson, Richard D. Keefe, Dan Keyes, Annemarie Korzeniowski, Geraldine Roberts.” End credits state: “This picture was filmed entirely on location in California, Nevada, and Utah, where the events actually occurred.”
       Production notes in AMPAS library files stated that as producer Don Phillips watched Melvin Dummar’s reaction in a television interview the day after being named in industrialist Howard Hughes’ alleged will, Phillips concluded that the circumstances were perfect to spin into a movie. After Phillips met with Dummar’s attorney, he teamed up with producer Art Linson, and the two approached Universal Pictures with the project. A 12 Jul 1976 Box news item announced that Universal Pictures bought film rights to The Melvin Dummar Story, about his alleged chance meeting in the Utah desert with the reclusive Hughes.
       An 18 Apr 1979 DV article reported that Universal president Ned Tanen had a relationship with screenwriter Bo Goldman, and tried to interest him in several projects at the time. Tanen insisted that Goldman meet with Phillips and Linson. They, in turn, urged him to travel to Willard, UT, for a meeting with Dummar. Goldman was unexpectedly moved by Dummar’s circumstances, and his humble beginnings. For Goldman, the story was one of survival, and the disappointment or fruition of people’s dreams.
       For his research, Goldman revisited the route that Dummar claimed he traveled with Hughes. According to production notes, Goldman spent three weeks with Dummar, who showed him the area on the Tonopah Highway in NV where he first encountered Hughes all the way to Hughes’ destination at the Las Vegas Sands Hotel. In Orange County, CA, the men visited the fifteen homes that were part of Dummar’s peripatetic childhood, and Goldman was introduced to Lynda, Dummar’s ex-wife.
       The 18 Apr 1979 DV stated that during his research, Goldman also befriended a maid, who raised eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. Later, Goldman received feedback on his first draft to increase the role of “Melvin.” Around this time, the “Mormon will” which had named Melvin as one of Hughes’ heirs was ruled a fake. Despite Dummar’s fall from grace, Goldman believed ninety percent of Dummar’s story because the amount of detail he knew could not have been invented, and he instinctually felt that Dummar did not forge the will. In a 27 Oct 1980 DV article, director Jonathan Demme also commented that Dummar knew details that seemed authentic. When he gave the alleged Hughes a ride, the man had blood oozing from his ear. Later, Hughes’ autopsy report stated that, at the time of his death, he had an infection in his inner ear.
       A 16 Nov 1977 HR brief announced that Mike Nichols was hired to direct the picture. However, a 11 Dec 1978 LAT article reported that Nichols left the project due to other commitments, and the fact that actor Jack Nicholson, his choice for the role of “Melvin,” would not be realized. A 7 May 1979 HR brief stated that actress Diane Keaton was hired by director Jonathan Demme, but withdrew from the project.
       Articles in the 30 Aug 1978 Var, 26 Feb 1979 HR, and May 1979 Millimeter stated that principal photography began 26 Feb 1979 in Glendale, CA, and would continue to Salt Lake City, Willard and Ogden, UT, Las Vegas, and Reno, NV, and Orange County, CA, for additional filming. The 30 Aug 1978 Var reported that the film’s budget was between $3 and 4 million. In the 27 Oct 1980 DV, Demme stated that the movie cost approximately $7 million. According to a 10 May 1979 HR brief, the production schedule was ten weeks, and principal photography was completed that day.
       The 27 Oct 1980 DV reported that Demme aimed for the greatest degree of verisimilitude in his use of locations, props and courtroom dialogue. He used the actual courtroom, gas station, and a Polynesian restaurant in La Habra, CA, where events took place. The presiding judge in the court case was a background actor in the courtroom scene in which the actual “Mormon will” was used, and much dialogue in the scene was taken from court transcripts. Although Dummar did not say that Hughes sang in the car during their travels, Demme used two songs written by Dummar to embellish the story, and gave him a cameo role as a lunch counter waiter at a bus station.
       Two pieces of improvisation came about when Demme had to deviate from the truth. To recreate Bonnie Dummar’s appearance on the game show, Let’s Make A Deal (1963--present), the filmmaker approached the show’s master of ceremonies, Monty Hall. When it came time to shoot the sequence, Hall’s lawyers protested the use of the show’s name so a new game show titled Easy Street was invented and used instead. In another sequence in which Dummar holds a press conference, the questions were spontaneous, and Paul Le Mat’s answers were improvised, according to Demme.
       A 22 Dec 1980 LAT news item stated that the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures included the film as Number Five in its list of “top English language films.” A 7 Jan 1981 DV article announced that the film had been named the National Society of Film Critics’ best picture of the year. The society also awarded the film best supporting actress (Mary Steenburgen), and best screenplay.
       The film received two Academy Awards: Actress in a Supporting Role (Mary Steenburgen) and Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen). It received the following nomination: Actor in a Supporting Role (Jason Robards). The film also received a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (Mary Steenburgen). Other Golden Globe nominations included: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture–Comedy or Musical (Paul Le Mat), Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, and Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical.