That was an excellent one.

Just so...so bad

An absolute waste of money

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The opening of A Big Hand for the Little Lady has so much frantic build up, the scoping scenery shots as far as the eye can see with a grand western music score and for what? A game of poker; but rightfully so as this may be the best poker movie I'll ever see. I don't know how to play poker nor do I have any interest in cards, but it doesn't stop me from being absorbed in this fascinating and inspired comedy.Much humour is derived from Henry Fonda's performance as a gambling addict who attempts to act naive and innocent in order to mask his addiction; resulting in the man becoming a ticking time bomb and the suspense which derives from watching this guy throwing his livelihood away. At one point in the film however it stops being entirely comic in which I start feeling sorry for how pathetic Fonda's character has become; the effective quick switched between comedy and drama is superb. Backed by a cast of charismatic gents as they bicker and tell outlandish stories of what they abandoned in order to attend the game of poker and take the rules of poker so seriously, even when a man's life is one the line. The only issue I would take with the film are the unnecessary remaining 10 minutes which drag along after the film's plot has been resolved. I'd love to see this concept of a poker game going out of control expanded upon and taken to new heights. Not a remake but the same concept in a different setting and perhaps a bit zanier, I would like to see. The sub genre of the western comedy intrigues me. Westerns as a whole I find hit and miss but when presented in comedic form I have a much easier time caring about what's happening on screen.

Finally got to watch this recently released DVD (which is beautiful) from the 1966 classic, with an all star cast including, Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Burgess Meredith, Jason Robards, and many others. I call it a classic, because it is the third best poker movie ever made, with only "The Cincinnati Kid" and "Rounders" topping it. There are some movies we come across in our lifetimes, that we just love. There's no other word for it, than love. This is a movie I love, because the story is so damn good it makes me smile every time I watch it, which is often. I've been playing poker my whole life it seems, and now I am playing even more often. I saw this movie at the theaters, I really did, and it totally blew me away, with a reveal that I can't even give a clue about or the movie would be ruined for anybody caring enough to check it out. It is definitely one of my favorite movies of all time, and for poker players, all I can say is what the hell are you waiting on, this is the real deal, so to speak.

What a cast of characters in A Big Hand for the Little Lady: Henry Drummond, a rich and irascible rancher who put his daughter's wedding on hold just as the vows were starting; Otto Habershaw, a slick, handsome and morally questionable lawyer. Habershaw left a client probably to hang when he ran from the courthouse and jumped on his horse just as he was supposed to sum up for the defense; Benson Tropp, wealthiest undertaker in the region, who has no use for women unless he's burying them; Dennis Wilcox, another wealthy rancher, a big, loud man who enjoys joking at other's expense; and Jesse Buford, small, aging and just as wealthy. He, Wilcox and all the others are sticklers for the rules. High stakes poker rules, that is. And what a cast: Jason Robards (Drummond), Kevin McCarthy (Habershaw), Charles Bickford (Tropp), Robert Middleton (Wilcox) and John Qualen (Buford). Plus Burgess Meredith as Doc Joseph Scully, a man getting old who is tired of saving people and getting produce as payment, and Paul Ford as C. P. Ballinger, a banker who knows the value of collateral. The five are poker players, and for each of the last 17 years nothing, absolutely nothing, has stood in the way of their annual game. They hold it in the back room of a saloon and hotel in Laredo. It's become a legend in the territory for the money they've lost and won They're just starting the first hand when into town comes a hard-luck family on a wagon with a busted wheel, on their way to start again on 40 acres near San Antonio. Meredith (Henry Fonda) is a nice man trying to do his best. He's also a fool for cards, a man who has lost so much of his family's hard-earned money that his wife, Mary (Joanne Woodward) made him solemnly promise that he'd never touch cards again. Mary wants to believe him. Their 12-year-old son is about to get a lesson of a lifetime. It's not long, while Mary takes the wagon to the blacksmith, that Meredith has begged for a chance just to watch the game. He can't help licking his lips. His son can't help begging his pa not to. Soon Meredith has taken the family's $4,000 stake, all the money they have in the world, to get in the game. You know the rest...he wagers and he loses. Wait. He wagers, alright. He has the best hand he's ever been dealt in his life...but he's about to be out-raised. He begs for a loan so he can stay in the game...and has a heart attack. It's up to Mary, back from the blacksmith and who has never played a game of poker in her life, to convince the five hard-bitten players that it's only fair that she be allowed to play her husband's hand. The five bicker a bit but reluctantly agree, and are stunned when Mary takes the hand and marches to the bank, with them following, to convince C. P. Ballinger to use the hand as collateral for a loan on her bet. Does the movie have a more satisfactory ending than a dead Henry Fonda clutching his heart, a tearful Joanne Woodward seeing these committed poker players take every cent her family has? Oh, yes, indeed. No one dies, and there is one of the most satisfying endings, with a twist and a sting, you'll ever hope to see. What makes this movie so engaging - after all, it's basically 1 hour and 35 minutes of a poker game - is that twist at the end and the skill and charm of the actors. As good as Fonda and the others are, the movie really sits up when Woodward, Robards and McCarthy are doing their stuff. Woodward is so skilled an actress that I sometimes think we take her for granted. That would be an unwise action in this movie. Robards, who was probably America's greatest stage actor in the last 60 years and one of it's best screen actors, turns Henry Drummond into a fine mixture of frustration and selfishness. Robards can make us smile in sympathy over even an unlikeable character like Drummond. See just how good an actor Robards was with his performances in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten (Broadway Theatre Archive) and Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (Broadway Theatre Archive). Kevin McCarthy, a fine actor with great charm, could play weak, strong, sleaze or integrity with equal believability. Here, he's all charm and quite willing to make a move on Mary, but he holds back, surprising even himself. I don't want to short-change Fonda. As Meredith, he's stuck for most of the movie playing a weak man in the grip of poker fever, and henpecked as well. He captures our sympathy even while we pity the poor man. A Big Hand for the Little Lady is something of a one-joke movie, but it's a first-class, clever joke with a great cast.

I recall seeing the TV version of this when I was a kid. In that version, the "son" was revealed to be an adult performer from a circus. In the movie, the son is clearly identified as a child but there is still a comment from Henry Fonda that they need to return him to the circus. That never makes sense to me. Without the plot twist that he is an adult, what does the circus have to do with anything? And why would the child be handling the cash? That only makes sense if he is actually an adult. Has anybody else wondered about this plot point, or am I over-analyzing? (Also, is there a cast list for the TV version or has that been lost? I don't find it on IMDb. In my memory, the "son" was played by the same young actor in both versions... but it's been too long for me to be certain of that.)