A Big Hand for the Little Lady | 
| Director: Fielder Cook
Actors: Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Paul Ford, Charles Bickford
Studio: Warner Home Video
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $12.41
as of 9/4/2010 04:08 CDT details
You Save: $7.57 (38%)
New (23) Used (6) from $12.41
Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 12,721
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 085391184294
UPC: 085391184294
EAN: 0085391184294
ASIN: B000UPMZ1W
Release Date: November 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
After a naive Texas homesteader looses his savings in a poker game, his wife takes his place at the table but has no idea how to play.
Amazon.com
It's the day of the annual high-stakes poker game in Laredo, an eagerly anticipated event reserved for the richest men of the territory. But into the smoke-filled backroom of the host saloon comes a weak-willed family man (Henry Fonda), who's coincidentally passing through town with a large wad of money in his possession. Despite the protests of his demure wife (Joanne Woodward), he's drawn into the game, which holds many twists for everybody. This plain-looking Western plays like a TV movie that got an upgrade to an A-level cast: along with Fonda and Woodward, there's a choice array of character players at or near the poker table, including Jason Robards, Kevin McCarthy, Charles Bickford, Burgess Meredith, Paul Ford, and veteran heavy Robert Middleton. All of which makes it easy to ignore the cheap production values and enjoy the enormous bluff at the heart of the game. The director was Fielder Cook, a longtime veteran of high-quality television (including series teleplays from the Fifties golden age and the superb Waltons pilot, The Homecoming), an able hand with this kind of thing. The denouement won't shock too many people, but it makes for a satisfying hand--not a straight flush, but a nice little three of a kind. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
 Fonda & Woodward May 2, 2010
Elizabeth C. Sprenkle (Lompoc, CA USA)
Henry Fonda and Jane Woodward were at their best in this delightful story with a twist. We saw it years ago and knew we wanted to add it to our collection of favorite movies.
 A Big Hand for a Little Lady DVD April 29, 2010
R. J. Linton (Holladay, Utah)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This gets a zero! The product has not been delivered and was purchased on 3/28. Today is April 29th, one month later. Please provide a refund.
Fun, fun, fun!!! April 23, 2010
Movie Fan (USA)
Watch it the first time to get the storyline, then watch it again to enjoy it. First saw this when it was released in 1966 and fell in love with it. Who knew Charles Bickford, Paul Ford and Jason Robard could be so loveable? The suspense is finely layered throughout the movie and keeps you interested while the surprise at the end makes you appreciate the characters all the more. It gives you that "little guys finally win" feeling but still lets you like the less than horrible bad guys.
 Amusing western con game film made memorable by terrific ensemble cast March 27, 2010
Muzzlehatch (the walls of Gormenghast)
Though the DVD cover art, and most of the posters I've seen for this film promise something rather sexy, don't be mislead. Not that A BIG HAND FOR THE LITTLE LADY, directed by Fielder Cook - whose best-known film this probably is - doesn't have some femininity, in the form of Joanne Woodward, but if you are looking for something salacious, you won't find it. What you will find instead is one long con-game of a film revolving around poker, and set in Laredo, Texas around 1900. It begins with a montage of several men riding or taking stages, seemingly in great hurry, and eventually converging on the town. The men are Drummond (Jason Robards), Tropp (Charles Bickford), Habershaw (Kevin McCarthy) and Buford (Jesse Qualen), and they all meet in a backroom of a hotel/saloon with Wilcox (Robert Middleton) for a once-a-year hand of poker. These are the richest men in the territory, and they'll let nothing stand in the way of their game - not even weddings or court cases - a fact pointed out by the cynical Doc Scully (Burgess Meredith). It's a game that allows no interruptions, no postponements, no limits and no exceptions to the rules that they've all agreed on.
Until, of course, they ARE interrupted by a couple of settlers, Meredith and Mary (Henry Fonda and Joanne Woodward) and their young boy Jackie (Jean-Michel Michenaud). The family's wagon has broken down, and they need it fixed - right on the very day of this big poker game. And Meredith apparently has a gambling problem, but he assures Mary that all he wants to do is watch the game. Yeah...we know how that will turn out. I haven't seen an enormous number of films about gambling, but I have seen a few, and it's not usually a big leap to guess in a film like this that things aren't going to go in the straight line that the game's participants think they're going in. It's not hard to guess that there's going to be a scam here - the only real question is, who's involved, besides (one probably guesses) the naive-seeming couple? Could it be the Doctor, who seems rather intemperately disposed towards the rich gamblers? The owner of the hotel, who clearly enjoys the notoriety - but perhaps might enjoy a larger stake in the winnings? Or perhaps Mr. Habershaw, who seems much more kindly disposed to the intruders - especially the feminine member of the trio - than the rest of his high-rolling companions.
There's nothing particularly fresh or novel about the way the storyline develops - I doubt it was all that new in 1966 either - and I for one am typically not so well disposed towards the clean-scrubbed 60s westerns where everything looks far too clean and bright; the same year's remake of STAGECOACH comes to mind - but the actors really go a long ways towards making this enjoyable, if not particularly memorable. Fonda does the desperate, diseased gambler part well enough and Woodward is fine as the wife who is clearly not as innocent as she makes out, but the real honors go to Jason Robards at his cynical, sarcastic best - his scene towards the end of the film with his prospective son-in-law is as fine a piece of bitter hilarity as I've seen in a while; this is really Robards at the top of his always-impressive game. Paul Ford as the sour bank manager who Meredith goes crying to is also loads of fun. So if you're paying attention at all, you'll probably figure much of this out before half the characters do - but hopefully you'll be amused enough by the bluster, sarcastic humor, and charm on display not to mind.
All in all, a pleasant enough western-set comedy, smoothly put together and paced quickly enough that the several small plotholes are easily elided, with a terrific score by the great David Raksin.
Just the way I remembered it December 15, 2009
J. Lott (Arlington, TX USA)
This is a really fun older movie. The acting is very good, and the story is different. Great family movie for kids about middle school age and up.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
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