A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)

Powerful

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This film is perhaps to long but it kind of is a Western with a theme that would be used later on and much more effectively in "The Sting". While this movie has a great cast with Joanne Woodward, Henry Fonda, and Jason Robards particularly effective, the script could have been so much better if it had been developed more with the characters. It does have poker in mind, and the bluff in particular as themes.What the film does not do is develop the story line better. In The Sting, all of the characters are carefully developed and even though you have it all in front of you what is going down, there is enough else going on that you still enjoy the actual deception and get a feeling for the characters. This film has some great characters and even though the story tries to hide what is going on, it sort of tips it's hand. Robards here plays a pretty good heavy, but it is never explained why he is one of 4 guys who all get played by Fonda in the game. What is really not making much sense is how all the players at the table all have a good enough hand to stay in until the end. Poker just does not work that way. It is hard to swallow all of them staying in for huge money. The poker game in The Sting makes more sense with 2 players surviving for the big pot, and everyone else dropping out.Even though the viewer is not told a lot about the minor characters in the cast until after the game, it becomes too easy to suspect there are other motivations for everyone before the big bluff happens. This story was first done as a television production and then was expanded here into a movie. While the results are good, they are not perfect. Some great support here from Burgess Meredith and Charles Bickford among others. I feel this is an actors school sort of film. There are some great lessons for method acting from a great cast, but the film falls just a little short of being a great one. Think if the director had been better about how they paced the film, which at times it seems to stop in its tracks or winds up a bit slow, it would have been better.

It must have been tough, writing and directing a full-length feature that swivels on an event that only takes half an hour.Henry Fonda, his wife Joanne Woodward, and their young son are stranded for a few hours in a Western town where a high-stakes poker game is going on. Fonda, a poker addict, is drawn into the game and loses the $4K his family had been saving for their new farm. He winds up holding what he considers a winning hand -- we don't know what it is -- and when he's informed that he must put up an additional several hundred, which he doesn't have, he drops on the floor, still holding his cards.Woodward is forced to take his place but asks that the nature of the game be explained to her. She listens attentively while another player, Kevin McCarthy, explains to her, "We are all holding cards. Some cards are better than others. We all think we have the best hand. And we have all bet four thousand dollars that we have the best hand." Well, of course Woodward's stash has already been gambled away by Fonda, but she crosses the street to borrow money from the owner of the local bank, offering as collateral the hand of cards she is holding. The filthy rich bankers gawks and lends her enough to raise the pot and drive everyone else out of the game.That's not the end. Legal ethics prevent me from revealing more of the plot. I think I can go so far as to say, "Don't worry." The laying on of hands by the bank is the pivotal event. The notorious skinflint who owns the bank would never lend money unless he was certain of getting it back. However, the story must be made tensile to fill the time slot.So we get an opening scene of a boisterous saloon, clamorous cowboys, rollicking tunes, riotous laughter at remarks and wisecracks that aren't in themselves funny. Okay, the film needs some juice, but this is like transfusing blood into a patient whose life is hardly worth the expense of saving. There are anti-climactic scenes that drag on much too long after the point has been made, or are themselves entirely irrelevant.Nice cast, though. Fonda may be too old for the part of a naive guy setting out to make his fortune on a small farm but Woodward is just fine. I can't help wondering if Fonda and John Qualen swapped stories about working for John Ford in "The Grapes of Wrath." I imagine Fonda approaching Qualen with outstretched hand and saying, "Why, MULEY!" Charles Bickford as a player is stiff but has a magnificent exit. Jason Robards' part is unsympathetic but he has one of the more expressive faces on the screen. And he's a good actor with considerable range. Catch him in "All The President's Men," as the hard-nosed Ben Bradlee.It's much too long for the simple story it has to tell and it's so loud and forceful that it leaves your eardrums in a grievous state. Worth seeing but not seeking out.

"A Big Hand for the Little Lady," begins with credits rolling as we see a horse-driven hearse speed across a variety of Western landscapes. The area is central Texas, well north of "San Antone." Charles Bickford (as Benson Tropp) stops at two places to summon Jason Robards (as Henry Drummond) and then Kevin McCarthy (as Otto Habershaw) to join him. In each stop, a woman calls out after the fleeing man, pleading that he not go now, "not now." That is the only hint of comedy until well into the picture. Yet, we viewers know that this is supposed to be a Western comedy, so we're on our toes waiting and watching for the humor. We get a dose of it in the characters around the room of the closed poker game. But, that belies a more clever comedy in this story. And, that may start to play out at different times for different viewers. For me and probably many others, that happens when Henry Fonda (as Meredith) shows his poker face as he picks up his cards one at a time with a huge pot on the table. It's so obvious that we realize something must be afoot. I think that's the biggest, most obvious poker face ever done in a movie.This film isn't of the big laughs variety. Rather, it is a movie of clever scripting, some surface funny lines, and a deeper, entertaining plot. As other reviewers have done, I'll also refrain from giving it away. Except to say that I guessed the outcome correctly; but then enjoyed watching to see how it played out.The cast for this film is outstanding. All give excellent performances. But, I think one stands out. Jason Robards is the classic cur in this film. He plays Henry so well that he's a delight to watch. His lines are among the funniest in the whole film. Toward the end of the film, Joanne Woodward (as Mary) says, "Gentlemen all. All such gallant gentlemen." Henry replies, "Well, we're gallant on Sunday. This is Friday and we're playing poker. Now you wanna play with us, you ante up $500."This is a most enjoyable movie – fit for the whole family.

An ex-gambler passing though a small town with his wife and son can't resist participating in a high-stakes poker game, thereby risking his family's life savings. Judging from the furious activity and the loud, exaggerated manner in which much of the supporting cast delivers its lines, one would think this was a riotous comedy, but it's not all that funny. However, this Western is generally enjoyable, thanks to a good cast headed by Fonda and Woodward. This was the final film of Bickford, a reliable character actor for four decades. There is a twist at the end, but the execution is somewhat clumsy, leaving more questions than answers.