Poker in Cinema: Big Hand For The Little Lady
by Bodog Poker | Sep 28 2010
1966's Big Hand For The Little Lady is one of those movies that's been lost to history; it's not available through retail channels on DVD and VHS copies of it can fetch real money on the used market, despite the slow death of that format. Thankfully, Turner Classic Movies happens to sell oddball older films and a copy found its way to my doorstep, Directed by journeyman Fielder Cook (whose adaptation of From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was a personal favorite growing up,) the movie stars Henry Fonda as Meredith, Joanne Woodward as Mary and Jason Robard Jr as Henry Drummond, three massive stars of the period with a nice supporting cast of familiar faces whose names you forget just after the credits roll.
While it's ostensibly a western, this comedy could take place in the modern day with a few adjustments. The film kicks off in Laredo, where the five richest men in the territory have gotten together for their annual big-money, high-stakes poker game; their regular lives are put on pause while they attend to the business they so love. It's into this game that Meredith (Henry Fonda) stakes his family's life savings behind his wife and child's back. As the stakes get higher and higher, the game builds to a climactic hand and Meredith collapses under the strain.
Barely conscious and being pulled away from the table by the town doctor, Meredith signals to his wife to continue the game. Mary (Joanne Woodward) sits down at the table, looks around and asks, very simply “How do you play this game,” and the reaction from the high-rollers is hilarious, particularly as their protests aren't centered around playing against a neophyte, but a woman. It becomes obvious, though, that Mary's a quick study once she's brought up to speed. Ignoring further protests on the part of the high rollers, she crosses the street to talk to the local bank owner. She shows him her hand and says that she needs $5,500 to make the raise. He agrees to the loan and that is, in the game, what we call a tell.
Upon hearing that the tight-fisted bank manager has offered her a loan based on a card hand, the high rollers all fold. Mary goes back to the bank manager, pays back her short-term loan with interest, and the family goes back on its way out west, leaving behind a group of men who are genuinely touched at the pluck and resolve shown by these working class folks.
The very end of the film, however, shows that Mary, Meredith and their "son" are card men and card sharps and they scammed the other players. Mary was actually the bank manager's girlfriend and the entire exercise was a revenge scheme designed to get back at the businessmen who played in the game. Years before they had swindled him out of a fortune and this was his way of getting back.
Typical of Hollywood productions, the movie does play fast and loose with the realities of poker - few smaller hands are shown and the action gets hot and heavy very quickly — but the comedy, when combined with the performances, lets even the nit-pickingest poker player enjoy the action. It's unlikely, it plays fast and loose with the game, but Big Hand For The Little Lady is a great classic film for that poker fans should seek out.
