A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)

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Product Description
As the biggest high-stake poker game in the West begins, compulsive gambler turned homesteader, Meredith, is drawn into the game. With the entire family fortune at stake, he suffers a heart attack when delt a winning hand. Mary, his pluck penny-pinching, long-suffering wife, steps in. As she plays the hand, she assails her rivals with fortitude and guts. Each is transformed into a model of sensitivity. But a twist ending reveals Mary has had more than fortitude up her sleeve all along.

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

Actors: Burgess Meredith, Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Charles Bickford
Directors: Fielder Cook
Writers:
Producers: Fielder Cook

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