A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)

Totally Underrated

Without a doubt one of the most unsung and unknown great movies.

The cast alone should say something, Henry (Never made a bad movie) Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Burgess Meredith, Charles Bickford,
and of course Paul Ford in a most memoriable role as Ballinger.

If you liked My Cousin Vinny you'll savor Big Hand for the Little Lady,
it trumps MCV and that ain't no easy task.

This is one of my Top Twenty All Timers, up there with all the heavy
and yet it has never received the notirioty it truely deserves.

If you haven't seen Big Hand stop reading right now and Google up Amazon.

In conclusion, it's one of those rare ones that nobody doesn't like.

Rob Mackenzie July 7, 2008

Classic Fonda

When you receive this dvd, do yourself a favor and do not
read anything about the film that is usually printed on
the dvd case. This movie must be watched without any hint
as to what is going to happen. You will be very pleased and
entertained, and surprised too. Fine acting by all players
is represented here. May 31, 2008

Finally on DVD

I was so happy to find this movie had finally become available on DVD. it's is one of our favorite movies. If you haven' seen it, I highly recommend it. It was a big surprise for my husband at Christmas. February 10, 2008

A one joke movie, but what a clever joke...and what a great cast of fine actors

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. The DVD looks just fine. There are no extras. December 29, 2007

Without doubt, the best poker movie ever...

Another reviewer already encapsulated the plot very well. I just want to add that the cast is at the top of their game. Every character is so believable - a bunch of classic Western characters in the roles they were born to play. Burgess Meredith is delightful as the town doctor who has been caring for all the ingrates too long. At the end his dreamy expression listening to "Rosie" and thinking about what he'll do with his cut is my second favorite scene. My favorite scene is when Joanne Woodward goes to the banker for a loan using her hand as collatoral. The banker, Paul Ford (playing JP Ballinger), says "Ossa on Pelion, madam" accusing her of piling one mountain of flummery on another. I have used that expression numerous times since I first saw this movie in the early 70's in a dormitory on one of those old projectors people had. I finally found out what Ossa and Pelion were. They were the mountains in Greek mythology that two brother giants tried to pile up on top of Mt Olympus to reach and attack the Olympian Gods in Heaven. Jason Robards more perfect casting as Henry Drummond. A truly unforgettable movie. November 6, 2007

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