Westerns are usually about the fast draw. You know the drill: two guys staring each other down in a dusty street while a tumbleweed rolls by at the perfect cinematic moment. But 1966 gave us something weirder. It gave us a poker movie masquerading as a frontier drama. If you haven't seen it, A Big Hand for the Little Lady is basically one long, high-stakes bluff, and the only reason the whole thing doesn't collapse under its own theatrical weight is the A Big Hand for the Little Lady cast. Honestly, this lineup is a "who’s who" of 1960s character actors who were arguably better than the lead stars of their era.
It’s a movie about a card game. That’s it. Well, mostly.
Henry Fonda plays Meredith, a reformed gambler traveling across Texas with his wife and son. They’re heading to a farm they just bought with their life savings. They stop at a hotel in Laredo. There’s a legendary, high-stakes poker game happening in the back room. You can see where this is going. Meredith, who clearly has a "problem," gambles away every cent of the family’s future. Then he has a heart attack mid-hand. Enter his wife, Mary, played by Joanne Woodward. She’s never played a hand of poker in her life. She has to take over his seat to save their lives.
The Heavy Hitters Behind the Table
The brilliance of this film isn't just the plot twist; it's the faces sitting around that table. Director Fielder Cook didn't just cast actors; he cast archetypes of the American West.
Jason Robards plays Henry Drummond. He’s the local tyrant, the guy who owns half the county and doesn't have time for your feelings. He’s actually introduced while trying to marry off his daughter, but he abandons the wedding preparations because the lure of the "big game" is too strong. Robards plays him with this incredible, simmering impatience. He isn't a villain in the mustache-twirling sense; he's just a man who respects nothing but money and guts.
Then there is Charles Bickford. He plays Benson Tropp. If Robards is the fire, Bickford is the ice. He’s a funeral director who treats the poker game like a religious rite. It was actually one of Bickford’s final roles—he died about a year after the film was released—and he brings this heavy, somber authority to the room. When he speaks, the air in the scene feels thinner.
Then you have Kevin McCarthy as Otto Habershaw. You might remember him from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but here, he’s a lawyer with a slick veneer and a nervous energy that perfectly balances the stoicism of the others.
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The table is rounded out by Robert Middleton as Dennis Wilcox and John Qualen as Jesse Buford. These guys weren't just "extras." They were the backbone of Hollywood's Golden Age. Qualen, specifically, had that high-pitched, nervous delivery he used in The Grapes of Wrath and Casablanca. Seeing him sit across from Henry Fonda again, decades after they did The Grapes of Wrath together, adds a layer of meta-textual history that modern audiences might miss.
Why Joanne Woodward and Henry Fonda Worked
Let's talk about the leads.
Henry Fonda was the king of the "honest man." Whether it was 12 Angry Men or Mr. Roberts, if you needed a guy who represented the moral compass of America, you called Fonda. That’s why his performance here is so gut-wrenching. Seeing the "moral" Henry Fonda descend into a sweating, shaking gambling addict is uncomfortable. It’s supposed to be. He plays the addiction with such sincerity that you actually feel sick for his family.
But then there’s Joanne Woodward.
She had already won an Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve by this point. She was a powerhouse. In A Big Hand for the Little Lady, she has to play the "Little Lady" with a mix of Victorian terror and pioneer grit. When she walks into that smoke-filled room—a space where women were strictly forbidden—she carries the weight of the audience's hope. The way she stares down these titans of industry and land-ownership is the core of the film’s tension.
The chemistry isn't romantic; it's desperate.
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The Character Actors You Recognize But Can't Name
One of the coolest things about the A Big Hand for the Little Lady cast is the deep bench. Look at the hotel staff and the townspeople.
- Burgess Meredith: Long before he was Mickey in Rocky or The Penguin in Batman, he was the frantic Doc Scully. He’s the one who has to treat Fonda after his collapse. He brings a frantic, kinetic energy to the film that breaks up the tension of the card room.
- Paul Ford: He plays Ballinger. Ford was famous for playing blustering authority figures (like Colonel Hall in The Phil Silvers Show). He adds a layer of skeptical humor to the Laredo setting.
- Virginia Gregg: She plays Mrs. Drummond. She doesn't have a lot of screen time, but she represents the repressed, frustrated domestic life that the men are all escaping by hiding in the back room of a hotel to gamble.
The Twist and the Craft
Without spoiling the ending for the three people who haven't seen a sixty-year-old movie: the ending changes everything you think you know about these characters. It’s a "prestige" Western that is actually a con-artist movie.
The reason the twist works—and the reason it’s still discussed in film schools—is that the actors play it straight. There are no winks to the camera. Jason Robards doesn't play his character as if he’s in a comedy. He plays it like a Greek tragedy. When the "Little Lady" shows her hand to the banker (played by Paul Ford), the reaction shots from the cast are a masterclass in silent acting.
The film was actually based on a teleplay called The Big Deal, which aired in 1958. That version didn't have the star power of this 1966 theatrical release. The expansion of the script allowed these actors more room to breathe, more time to develop the "ticks" of their characters—the way Tropp cleans his glasses, the way Habershaw adjusts his suit.
Accuracy Check: Was This a Real Poker Game?
Poker enthusiasts often pick apart movie hands. In this film, they are playing "Five Card Stud." It’s a brutal version of poker because so much of the hand is visible, yet the "hole card" keeps the mystery alive.
The betting in the movie is technically illegal by the standards of the time in Texas, but the script acknowledges this by having the characters basically own the law. This adds to the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) of the storytelling. The writers knew that in a lawless Laredo, the only law was the man with the biggest stack of gold.
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Critics at the time, like those at The New York Times, noted that the film felt a bit like a filmed stage play. They weren't wrong. Most of the action happens in one room. But when you have the A Big Hand for the Little Lady cast in that room, you don't need sweeping vistas of the Rockies. You just need a close-up of Jason Robards’ eyes.
Why You Should Care Today
Most Westerns haven't aged well. They can feel slow, or worse, deeply problematic. A Big Hand for the Little Lady escapes most of those traps because it’s a psychological thriller. It’s about the masks people wear.
It’s also a rare 60s film that puts a woman in a position of absolute power over a group of wealthy, arrogant men. Even if the ending adds a layer of complexity to that dynamic, the imagery of Joanne Woodward sitting at that table, refusing to blink, is iconic.
If you're a fan of Rounders, Ocean's Eleven, or even modern shows like Poker Face, you owe it to yourself to see where the "prestige con" genre really found its footing. It’s a film that proves you don't need a high body count to have a high-stakes Western.
How to Experience the Film Now
To truly appreciate the A Big Hand for the Little Lady cast, you have to look past the "Ozymandias" style of the 60s color grading.
- Watch for the non-verbal cues: Pay attention to the way the men around the table react when Mary (Woodward) admits she doesn't know the rules. Their condescension is palpable, and it makes the eventual shift in power much more satisfying.
- Compare the performances: Watch Henry Fonda in this, then immediately watch him in Once Upon a Time in the West (where he plays a cold-blooded killer). It shows the incredible range he had during this specific decade of his career.
- Identify the "That Guy" actors: Use the film as a game. See how many actors you recognize from The Twilight Zone or Perry Mason. This movie is the ultimate "That Guy" encyclopedia.
The film remains a testament to a time when Hollywood relied on dialogue and character beats rather than CGI explosions. It’s smart, it’s cynical, and it features one of the most cohesive ensemble casts ever put on a Technicolor screen.
Next time you're scrolling through a streaming service and see a thumbnail of a woman in a bonnet holding a poker hand, don't keep scrolling. It’s not the movie you think it is. It’s better.