if Henry and Joanne and the boy weren't shown at the beginning, and simply appeared at the hotel unknown to the viewers? The first time I saw it on TV I missed the opening scenes and was amazed by the ending. Believing Joanne Woodward really meant, "How do you play this game?" heightened the already crackling tension of the card game. Then again, I'm one who wouldn't have minded if Henry and Joanne were indeed a pure, innocent couple passing through town!
I have to respectfully disagree. I think showing the "family" roll into town helps deflect any suspicion from the twist at the end because that helps gives us the very impression you say you wouldn't have minded being the case. I.e., that they "were indeed a pure, innocent couple passing through town!"
I also have to disagree with that. Consider how that would have changed the movie. I suppose an alternative could have been for Mary to sincerely/innocently march into Ballinger's bank to ask for a loan on a hand that did turn out to be worthless, having Ballinger throw her out and then have the brainstorm that serendipity had dropped a chance for his revenge into his lap so
he goes over to the game to bluff the others out of the pot. Then at the end we find out that Meredith really was a crappy card player because his hand was squat.
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movieghoul
12 years ago
I remember watching Big Deal at Laredo on Tv in 1961 (this film was based on that show), and at the point when the banker enters the card room and the game, my father, who was very astute in figuring out twisty plots suggested that the hand was in fact worthless, but the banker had figured out how to use it and his reputation for stinginess to his advantage.
After the sting was revealed, we all agreed that we liked dad's ending better.
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MrSiegal
12 years ago
I like your dad's ending too!
How do the angels get to sleep when the Devil leaves his porch light on?
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