A Big Hand for the Little Lady
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| A Big Hand for the Little Lady | |
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| Directed by | Fielder Cook |
| Produced by | Fielder Cook |
| Written by | Sidney Carroll |
| Starring | Henry Fonda Joanne Woodward Paul Ford Jason Robards |
| Music by | David Raskin |
| Cinematography | Lee Garmes |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1966 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country | US |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
A Big Hand for the Little Lady (released in the UK as Big Deal at Dodge City) is a 1966 western film, made by Eden Productions Inc. and released by Warner Bros.. It was produced and directed by Fielder Cook from a screenplay by Sidney Carroll, adapted from their TV play Big Deal in Laredo which aired on the DuPont Show of the Week in 1962.
The film stars Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Paul Ford and Jason Robards, with Charles Bickford, Burgess Meredith, Kevin McCarthy, Robert Middleton, John Qualen, Virginia Gregg, Chester Conklin, and Mae Clarke. The original TV play starred Walter Matthau as Meredith.
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[edit] Plot
The five richest men in the territory gather in Laredo for their annual high-stakes poker game. The high rollers let nothing get in the way of their yearly showdown: When dour undertaker Tropp (Charles Bickford) calls for them in his horse-drawn hearse, cattleman Henry Drummond (Jason Robards) forces a postponement of his daughter's wedding, while lawyer Otto Habershaw (Kevin McCarthy) abandons his closing arguments in a capital trial. They are joined by Wilcox (Robert Middleton) and Buford (John Qualen) in the back room of Sam's saloon, while the curious gather to get occasional reports.
Settlers Meredith (Henry Fonda), his demure wife Mary (Joanne Woodward), and their young son Jackie are passing through, on their way to purchase a farm near San Antonio, when a wheel on their wagon breaks. They wait at Sam's while the local blacksmith repairs it. Meredith, a recovering gambler, learns of the big poker game and begs to sit in, "just to watch," but Mary won't hear of it. However, while she's taking the wagon to the blacksmith, Habershaw invites Meredith into the back room. He buys into the game by staking the family's entire savings, meant to pay for the farm.
The game builds to a climactic hand; the gamblers raise and re-raise until more than $20,000 is in the pot. Meredith, out of cash, is unable to call the latest raise; under the strain, he suffers a heart attack. The town physician, "Doc" Scully (Burgess Meredith), is called to care for the stricken man. Barely conscious, Meredith pushes his poker hand to the returning Mary as he is being carried away. His intention is clear: he wants her to play out the hand.
Taking his seat, Mary naively asks, "Gentlemen... how do you play this game?" The other players object loudly to playing with a woman, particularly one who doesn't know the game, but eventually give in. The situation is explained to her: if she can't match the last raise (and any others that may follow), she will be out of the hand.
Despite the men's objections, she goes to the local bank to borrow additional funds. With Jackie and the five gamblers trailing behind, Mary crosses the street and talks to the owner of the Cattle and Merchants' Bank, C. P. Ballinger (Paul Ford). He assumes she is trying to play a practical joke on him, but when he learns otherwise, after seeing the hand, he loans her $20,000. Realizing that they can't match the resources of the bank, the other players fold. Mary collects her sizable winnings (minus Ballinger's stake plus interest) and leaves. The game breaks up.
Her determination earns her the admiration of the men. Drummond is so touched that, when he returns home to the waiting wedding ceremony, he talks privately to his weak-willed, prospective son-in-law, gives him $2000, and orders him to run away and find himself a better wife than his daughter.
The denouement takes place in the gambling town of Black Creek, where it is revealed that Meredith, Mary, and even their "son" are confidence tricksters and expert card sharps. Led by Ballinger and with the collusion of "Doc" Scully, they perpetrated a scam on the five poker players, who years earlier had swindled the banker in a land deal. "Mary" is actually Ballinger's girlfriend Ruby. She had promised him she would give up gambling after the caper, but when she sits down to a "friendly" little poker game, it is clear that she had no such intention.
[edit] Cast
- Henry Fonda as Meredith
- Joanne Woodward as Mary
- Jason Robards as Henry P.G. Drummond
- Paul Ford as C.P. Ballinger
- Charles Bickford as Benson Tropp
- Burgess Meredith as Doc Joseph Scully
- Kevin McCarthy as Otto Habershaw
- Robert Middleton as Dennis Wilcox
- John Qualen as Jesse Buford
- Jean-Michel Michenaud as Jackie
- James Berwick as Sam Rhine
[edit] Award nomination
Joanne Woodward was nominated for the Golden Laurel Award for Female Comedy Performance.[1]
[edit] External links
- A Big Hand for the Little Lady at the Internet Movie Database
- Big Deal in Laredo at the Internet Movie Database
- A Big Hand for the Little Lady at All Movie Guide
- A Big Hand for the Little Lady at Rotten Tomatoes
- Original New York Times review
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