Editing Melvin and Howard (section)

=== Critical response ===
On [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]] the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "A spirited character study and clear-eyed treatise of the American Dream, ''Melvin and Howard'' hits the jackpot with its lovable cast and director Jonathan Demme's humanism."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/melvin_and_howard/ |title= Melvin and Howard (1980) |website= [[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date=September 20, 2023}}</ref>

In his review in ''The New York Times'', Vincent Canby called the film a "sharp, engaging, very funny, anxious comedy" and commented, "Mr. Demme is a lyrical film maker for whom there is purpose in style...''Melvin and Howard'' is commercial American movie-making of a most expansive, entertaining kind."<ref>Canby, Vincent. (1980-09-26) [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B00EFDE1538F935A1575AC0A966948260 Melvin and Howard (1980)]. Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-05.</ref>

Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' described it as "wonderful" and added, "This is a slice of American life. It shows the flip side of [[Gary Gilmore]]'s Utah. It is a world of mobile homes, Pop Tarts, dust, kids and dreams of glory. It's pretty clear how this movie got made. Hollywood started with the notion that the story of the mysterious Hughes will might make a good courtroom thriller. Well, maybe it would have. But my hunch is that when they met Dummar, they had the good sense to realize that they could get a better – and certainly a funnier – story out of what happened to him between the day he met Hughes and the day the will was discovered. Dummar is the kind of guy who thinks they oughta make a movie out of his life. This time, he was right."<ref>[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19810213/REVIEWS/1010320/1023 Melvin and Howard]. Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-05.</ref>

''Variety'' said, "Jonathan Demme's tour-de-force direction, the imaginative screenplay and top-drawer performances from a huge cast fuse in an unusual, original creation."<ref>[https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117793064.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0 Melvin and Howard]. Variety.com (1979-12-31). Retrieved on 2011-10-05.</ref>

Pauline Kael gave the film a very positive review in ''The New Yorker'': "[[Jonathan Demme]]'s lyrical comedy ''Melvin and Howard'' which opened the [[New York Film Festival]] on September 26, is an almost flawless act of sympathetic imagination. I doubt if [[Jason Robards]] has ever been greater than he is here. [[Mary Steenburgen]]'s Lynda Dummar has a soft mouth and a tantalizing slender wiggliness, and she talks directly to whomever she's talking to – when she listens, she's the kind of woman a man wants to tell more to. Demme shows perhaps a finer understanding of lower-middle-class life than any other American director."<ref>Pauline Kael : ''[[Taking It All In]]'' {{ISBN|0-7145-2841-2}} pp. 71–78</ref>

Dennis Bingham's ''Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre'' cites ''Melvin and Howard'' as the first film in the subgenre "biopic of someone undeserving," or "BOSUD," which was later popularized by [[Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski]] with ''[[Ed Wood (film)|Ed Wood]]'', ''[[Man on the Moon (film)|Man on the Moon]]'', ''[[The People vs. Larry Flynt]]'', and ''[[Auto Focus]]''.<ref>Dennis Bingham [https://books.google.com/books?id=NW-v7-tlRZYC ''Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre''] (Rutgers University Press, 2010) {{ISBN|0-8135-4658-3}} p. 148</ref>

[[Paul Thomas Anderson]] has cited the film as one of his favorites. [[Jason Robards]]'s last feature film appearance was in Anderson's ''[[Magnolia (film)|''Magnolia'']]''. [[Robert Ridgely]], who played the host of the fictional "Easy Street" game show in this movie, would later be cast as Colonel James in Anderson's ''[[Boogie Nights]]''.

The comedy show [[Second City Television|''SCTV'']] parodied the film in a sketch called "Melvin and Howards". Melvin ([[Rick Moranis]]), after picking up Howard Hughes ([[Joe Flaherty]]), also picks up [[Howard Cosell]] ([[Eugene Levy]]), Senator [[Howard Baker]] ([[Dave Thomas (actor)|Dave Thomas]]), and [[Curly Howard]] ([[John Candy]]).