Just the title alone tells us the audience that something nefarious is underway. A father, mother and their ten year old son stroll into this small mid-western town on a broken wheel so Mary (Joanne Woodward) is directed by her husband Meredith (Henry Fonda) to go find the blacksmith and have the damaged wheel repaired. Mary is worried that her husband Meredith will be tempted to get into the annual big stakes poker game that the wealthiest men in the county are participating in so she directs her ten year old son Jackie (Jean-Michel Michenaud) to stay glued to his daddy's side and not let him get involved in this high stakes poker game with the families life savings.
You see where this is going now? Okay so Meredith cannot resist going up to his hotel room and grabbing enough of his families cash to get involved in this once in a lifetime high stakes poker game. Meanwhile their son Jackie is left holding his fathers poker hand with instructions not to let any of the other players sneak a peek at his so-called winning hand. I thought son Jackie's emotional pleas for his father to listen to his mom and not get involved in the poker game were over the top and in poker terms a "real tell" what was really going on.
As the suspense of this single poker hand continues Mary arrives back at the hotel only to discover her worst fears have been realized and Meredith has dipped into their life savings to play poker after promising her he would not. As great an actor that Henry Fonda is, his fake heart attack leading to Mary's need to take over his potential winning poker hand was expected based on the film's title alone.
It is an okay time waster but an Alfred Hitchcock suspense, or Agatha Christie murder mystery it is not. I give it an average 6 out of 10 rating only because of the great cast of first rate actors starring in this film.
You see where this is going now? Okay so Meredith cannot resist going up to his hotel room and grabbing enough of his families cash to get involved in this once in a lifetime high stakes poker game. Meanwhile their son Jackie is left holding his fathers poker hand with instructions not to let any of the other players sneak a peek at his so-called winning hand. I thought son Jackie's emotional pleas for his father to listen to his mom and not get involved in the poker game were over the top and in poker terms a "real tell" what was really going on.
As the suspense of this single poker hand continues Mary arrives back at the hotel only to discover her worst fears have been realized and Meredith has dipped into their life savings to play poker after promising her he would not. As great an actor that Henry Fonda is, his fake heart attack leading to Mary's need to take over his potential winning poker hand was expected based on the film's title alone.
It is an okay time waster but an Alfred Hitchcock suspense, or Agatha Christie murder mystery it is not. I give it an average 6 out of 10 rating only because of the great cast of first rate actors starring in this film.