Produced and directed by Fielder Cook and written by Sidney Carroll, this above average comedy Western stars Henry Fonda and features Joanne Woodward in the title role. The exceptional cast also includes Jason Robards, Paul Ford, Charles Bickford, Burgess Meredith, Kevin McCarthy, Robert Middleton, and John Qualen.
Fonda plays a reformed "on the poker wagon" gambler now homesteader that happens upon the high stakes annual game between Robards, Bickford, McCarthy, Middleton, and Qualen in a remote town. Though his wife (Woodward) and his preteen son Jackie (Gerald Michenaud) try to keep him out of it, Fonda is unable to resist joining the game even though the $1,000 entry fee is a quarter of their life savings intended to be used to buy a 40 acre farm in San Antonio, Texas.
When Fonda has all $4,000 of his family's money in the pot and he's $500 short of being able to call the most recent bet, Woodward bursts into the room where the game is being played (the back room of a hotel/saloon run by James Kenny). While explaining the situation to her, he suffers a heart attack and must be attended to by the beloved but poor local doctor (Meredith).
Because wealthy farmer Robards left his daughter in the middle of her wedding to play poker, and defense attorney McCarthy departed the courthouse just before he was deliver his closing remarks to keep his client from the gallows, the men are impatient to finish their game.
Though she professes to know nothing about poker, Woodward pleads to play on her husband's behalf because of their dire financial situation. Though undertaker Bickford hates women, Middleton is persuaded to bend the rules and allow her to leave the room (with the others save Qualen in tow) to go and see banker Ford about a loan.
Convinced that he's being put on by the others, especially since the only collateral Woodward offers is the hand she shows him, Ford has his clerk (Milton Selzer) throw them out. However, shortly thereafter, Ford arrives at the game to verify that they were joking, only to find that they were not.
Then, after a soliloquy about how conservative his investment philosophy has been, Ford says that he's backing Woodward, based on her hand, calls the $500 and raises the rest of them $5,000, after which each of the others folds. Though they lost, the men feel charmed to have been in the presence of the little lady so devoted to her husband.
But the story doesn't end there, and I won't spoil the denouement which includes a couple of different sequences and a surprise ending.
Fonda plays a reformed "on the poker wagon" gambler now homesteader that happens upon the high stakes annual game between Robards, Bickford, McCarthy, Middleton, and Qualen in a remote town. Though his wife (Woodward) and his preteen son Jackie (Gerald Michenaud) try to keep him out of it, Fonda is unable to resist joining the game even though the $1,000 entry fee is a quarter of their life savings intended to be used to buy a 40 acre farm in San Antonio, Texas.
When Fonda has all $4,000 of his family's money in the pot and he's $500 short of being able to call the most recent bet, Woodward bursts into the room where the game is being played (the back room of a hotel/saloon run by James Kenny). While explaining the situation to her, he suffers a heart attack and must be attended to by the beloved but poor local doctor (Meredith).
Because wealthy farmer Robards left his daughter in the middle of her wedding to play poker, and defense attorney McCarthy departed the courthouse just before he was deliver his closing remarks to keep his client from the gallows, the men are impatient to finish their game.
Though she professes to know nothing about poker, Woodward pleads to play on her husband's behalf because of their dire financial situation. Though undertaker Bickford hates women, Middleton is persuaded to bend the rules and allow her to leave the room (with the others save Qualen in tow) to go and see banker Ford about a loan.
Convinced that he's being put on by the others, especially since the only collateral Woodward offers is the hand she shows him, Ford has his clerk (Milton Selzer) throw them out. However, shortly thereafter, Ford arrives at the game to verify that they were joking, only to find that they were not.
Then, after a soliloquy about how conservative his investment philosophy has been, Ford says that he's backing Woodward, based on her hand, calls the $500 and raises the rest of them $5,000, after which each of the others folds. Though they lost, the men feel charmed to have been in the presence of the little lady so devoted to her husband.
But the story doesn't end there, and I won't spoil the denouement which includes a couple of different sequences and a surprise ending.