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5 Card Stud (1968)

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13 comments in total

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12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Great murder mystery western, 27 febrero 1999

Author: Marta de United States

Murder mystery westerns don't come along every day, and while this one is kind of slow moving, it's still a great movie.

Dean Martin is cool and steady as the gambler who takes part in a game of 5 card stud that turns deadly. When he tries to stop the lynching of a cheating player, he's overpowered. Soon after the lynching, every one in the game is methodically murdered in the most inventive ways. One man is strangled with barbed wire, another is drowned in a flour barrel, etc. Dean spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out who's doing the killing.

While Dean is great, Roddy McDowall is fantastic as the sniveling brother of Dean's girlfriend. He's a mean, cowardly, lying weasel, and no one ever played a weasel better.

Yaphet Kotto is fine as the bartender, and Inger Stevens has a small, shining role as the local purveyor of tonsorial delights (a barber). Robert Mitchum comes into the film a little late; while he's straight and true as the scripture-spouting preacher who sweeps out the long abandoned church and begins hold services, you know he's hiding something.

All in all a fine film. Maybe a little too long; the whole movie doesn't amount to much more than enjoyable entertainment, but the actors and the acting in it are really worth watching.

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13 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
A Deadly Poker Game, 11 octubre 2004

Author: bkoganbing de Buffalo, New York

5 Card Stud is a re-make of Dark City which was released in 1950 and was Charlton Heston's feature film debut. Dean Martin is now playing the Heston part and in many ways he's reprising the role he did in Some Came Running. The role of gambler comes natural to him, it was one of many professions Dino tried in his youth before discovering show business.

In the original the part Robert Mitchum plays originated with Mike Mazurki. Mazurki had a limited role in Dark City so Mitchum's part has been built up considerably. As always Robert Mitchum is interesting.

The original Dark City involved a high stakes poker game in which Don DeFore got trimmed of the rent money and just about everything else. Rather than go home, he kills himself. Soon afterward his psychotic brother goes on a rampage against everyone in that game.

It's no suicide here, but a lynching as the victim is caught cheating. If you've seen Dark City than you already know who the murderer is and it's not too hard to figure it out here.

In the supporting cast, standing out are Roddy McDowell as the spoiled son of a local rancher who leads the lynch party and Yaphett Kotto who is the bartender in the saloon where the fatal poker game took place.

Martin and Mitchum work well together, this is good entertainment.

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
And then there were none., 29 febrero 2004
Author: dbdumonteil

(It seems that some people are offended by the title of my review because they do not know Agatha Christie's English title of "and then they were none" which includes a derogatory world ;could you please delete my first review and put this one instead:it's the same with the American title of Christie's book)

Agatha Christie meets western.It's really a whodunit!A cheat is lynched and then someone is doing away with the hangmen,one by one.And like in Christie's classic ,they are guilty and their deaths follow the same pattern:they all die strangled .Murders scenes recall more a thriller than a western .So does Maurice Jarre's music.The cast is perfect with an excellent Roddy McDowall whose character holds a grudge to the whole world.A lot of witty lines add spice to the plot.Dean Martin sings the title song.

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8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Great sleeper western, 3 septiembre 2001

Author: occupant-1

The corrosion of any sort of quality in the screenwriting of recent decades makes tight plotting a surprise wherever one finds it. Here it is. The ongoing verbal duel between Martin and Mitchum is Shakespeare compared to the posturing of recent tough-guy flicks. Also see Martin's acting in "Rio Bravo" to find significant talent in an often-overlooked comic actor.

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7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Classic Western with attractive cast, 17 septiembre 2000

Author: RNMorton de West Chester, Pa

Martin is (unwilling) member of card game that lynches cheater, in 1880s West. Participants in hanging soon find themselves dying off from mysterious causes. Deano is solid as "the best gambler in the West"; great performances also by Roddy McDowall as lynching ringleader, Inger Stevens as the local madame, and particularly Mitchum as the gun-toting, Bible-quoting preacher who comes to town. My favorite of the non-Eastwood westerns.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
"When a gambler lets his game wind up in a killing, pretty soon he doesn't have a game.", 8 noviembre 2007

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) de Mexico

Despite his attempt to stop the execution, Van Morgan (Dean Martin) was hit by a gun on his head and thrown out, at night, in the streets of Rincon, Colorado and the clumsy crook was lynched…

Feeling uncomfortable, Van Morgan leaves for Denver the next day … In the days of his absence, two of the seven card players have been dead, one being drowned in a flour barrel, the other got it with a twist of wire…

For Little George (Yaphet Kotto) who went to see Van in Denver, it looks to him somebody is out to kill every man at that party which is a real good reason for Van to steer clear of Rincon if he is figuring on coming back…

Meanwhile, a gold rush has brought a bunch of outsiders to the town so, on his return, Morgan finds new faces like Jonathan Rudd (Robert Mitchum), the preacher with a Bible in his hand and a Colt in his belt ; and Lily Langford (Inger Stevens), with her elegant barbershop and her gorgeous lady 'barbers.'

Robert Mitchum plays the man who is looking for the man who is looking for him… Tension mounts when Nick Evers (Roddy McDowall) saves the hunter a long hunt… Dean Martin waits as the gambler who doesn't bank on his cards, because if he does, he winds up broke…

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Not a bad movie, 25 mayo 2006
Author: lee1888 de United States

Not a bad movie. Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin pull this one off pretty good. There are a few flaws in the plot but it all works out in the end. It's a good popcorn movie to watch when you have nothing to do. Besides the mild violence, I think your kids could watch this one with you as a family movie.

Roddy McDowall plays the whinny little weasel perfect. You hate him from the start to the ending, and can't wait for him to get his. And this is what a great actor can make you feel. And Inger Stevens plays the temptress so well. How could anyone not fall for a beautiful woman like her? She could make a good man go bad, and a bad man blush.

So break out the popcorn, sit backs and doesn't expect too much, and you might have a smile on your face after the movie.

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Not a Hathaway Classic like "The Sons of Katie Elder" but nevertheless Entertaining, 4 julio 2008

Author: Van Roberts (zardoz@bellsouth.net) de Columbus, Ms

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Garden of Evil" director Henry Hathaway's western whodunit "5-Card Stud" pits 'hellfire gambler' Dean Martin against 'gunfire preacher' Robert Mitchum in a frontier tale about lynching, murder, and revenge. Mind you, deducing the whodunit will pose a minor challenge to astute audiences. You will spot the actor committing the crimes long before you learn his identity in the second-to-last scene. If you study the stable strangling scene, the killer's headgear gives him away. The characters in "True Grit" scenarist Marquerite Roberts' screenplay based on Ray Gaulden's novel are flat because they neither change either their their mentality or their morality. Nevertheless, Roberts boots around an interesting question about "who people were before they became who they are" which segues with the mystery. Otherwise, this horse opera is study enough, has a believable cast and knows how to blend comedy with drama nimbly enough so that it rarely becomes either heavy-handed or repetitious.

Compared to Hathaway's other oaters, "5-Card Stud" doesn't top "True Grit," "The Sons of Katie Elder," "Garden of Evil," "From Hell to Texas," or "Rawhide." However, "5-Card Stud" surpasses "Shoot Out" and "Nevada Smith." Although some critics don't cotton to Maurice Jarre's orchestral score and denigrated it as "Dr. Zhivago" on the range, I contend that it is superb music and differs from anything that Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, or Ennio Morricone would have done. Jarre's score enlivens the action and enhances the atmosphere. The Dean Martin song at the beginning and end of "5-Card Stud" marks this sagebrusher as a traditional western As far back in the 1950s, many major westerns contained a ballad about the story or the hero with lyrics like ". . . play your poke and he'd leave you broke."

Interestingly, "5-Card Stud" makes some racial references that chipped away at the usual barriers. In one scene, Robert Mitchum's gun slinging preacher doesn't think it matters that a black man be buried among whites, something that marked this western as a departure from Jim Crow mentality. John Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven" had broken ground earlier with a gunfight so that an Indian could be buried in a white graveyard.

Professional gambler Van Morgan (Dean Martin of "Sergeants 3") takes a break from a Saturday night poker game while Sig Ever's son Nick (Roddy McDowell of "Planet of the Apes"), stableman Joe Hurley (Bill Fletcher of "Hour of the Gun"), Mace Jones (Roy Jenson of "Big Jake"), storekeeper Fred Carson (Boyd 'Red' Morgan of "Violent Saturday"), Ever's ranch hand Stoney Burough (George Robotham of "The Split") continue to play poker with newcomer Frankie Rudd (Jerry Gatlin of "The Train Robbers") until Nick catches Rudd cheating 'red-handed' and organizes a lynch party. They take Rudd out to a stream and string him up from the bridge. Barkeeper George (Yaphet Koto of "Live and Let Die") warns Morgan and Morgan lights out after Nick and company to thwart the necktie party. "You don't hang a cheat," Morgan growls, "you kick him out of town." When Morgan arrives, Frankie is swinging with a noose around his neck, and Nick clubs Morgan on the back of the head with his six-gun.

Mama Malone (Ruth Springford of "Vengeance Is Mine") discovers Morgan strewn on the boardwalk the following morning and summons George to help the battered gambler to his room. Morgan decides to pull out of Rincon and try his luck in Denver. Before he leaves, he rides out to Sig Ever's spread to bid goodbye to Sig's comely daughter Nora (Katherine Justice of "The Way West") and deck Nick as repayment for clobbering him at the hanging.

Naturally, the town marshal (John Anderson of "Young Billy Young") can neither identify the lynch mob nor can he identify the hanged man. Later, participants in the card game begin to die. One is wrapped up in barbed wire, another is hanged in the church, and still another is suffocated in a barrel of flour. Indeed, Hathaway and Roberts make each death look different. Eventually, George visits Morgan in Denver and Morgan decides to ride back to Rincon. Two things have changed since Morgan rode out of Rincon. First, the town has acquired a gun-t0ting pastor who renovates the church and holds services, and second Lilly Langford (Inger Stephens of "Hang'em High") has opened a barbershop that features a $20 item that intrigues Morgan when he visits her establishment for the first time. Lilly and Nora contend for Morgan, while Morgan closes in on the new preacher Jonathan Rudd.

"5-Card Stud" boasts several good scenes. The shoot-out in the streets of Rincon when paranoid miners go berserk because they fear that they may be the next victim of the local serial killer is well staged. If you slow down your DVD or VHS copy, you can see Dean Martin lose his Stetson when he grabs hold of an axle to let a wagon haul him out of harm's way. You can see his headgear fall off completely and in the next scene is hat is back on his head. Nevertheless, it is still a neat gunfight with Morgan and Rudd standing back to back against the opposition. The scene at a windmill where Rudd hits each of the windmill blades because he was aiming at the spaces in between the blades is fun, too. George plays a role in the story and provides his buddy Morgan with a clue to the killer's identity. The animosity between Nick Evers and Van Morgan is feisty throughout the action with Nora trying to do her best to dampen it. Van Morgan and Lilly have some amusing banter. The expository scenes about Nick's childhood almost make his character marginally sympathetic.

Indeed, "5-Card Stud" is no classic, but it good enough for a rainy day.

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
goofs, 13 agosto 2006

Author: spooksterbill de United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Yes, this is a very good movie and I highly recommend it to all viewers. There is one big goof in this movie. When Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum are shooting at the windmill, they are using a revolver that is known as a break-top model. Later during the big shoot-out in town, they are using .45 Colt Peacemakers. Did any body notice this or any other goof. I thought that Inger Stevens was a welcome addition to the cast. I have always thought that Katherine Justice may have been too young to play the love interest to Dean. The other cast members certainly were a who's-who's of character actors with the exception of Yaphet Kotto and Roddy Mcdowall, who both went on to film careers that are well documented.

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
the camera's focused on an unfocused project, 14 junio 2006

Author: mgrindberg de Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A nicely cast and casually carried out western with a sense of humor. Everyone seems to more or less bluff their way through with a minimum amount of conviction, though the story is nonetheless well presented. The always cool Dean Martin fits right in as do Robert Mitchum and Roddy McDowell. Mitchum's role as a gun-toting preacher with a hollowed out bible to conceal his derringer, on a mission to avenge his card-cheat brother's lynching, is kind of reminiscent of what he did in Night of the Hunter. Roddy McDowell plays the spoiled older brother of Deano's girlfriend, the bad apple of the family of a wealthy rancher. The appearance of Inger Stevens pretty much rounds things out, as she opens a combo barber shop and whore house and flirts around with Martin.

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