5 Card Stud (1968)

Best movie of this year hands down!

To me, this movie is perfection.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This really isn't such a bad movie. A solid cast makes it more entertaining than it might have been otherwise. It just has a "throw away" sort of quality because, for a movie that's supposed to a mystery-Western, it's quite easy to predict. Also, it can't overcome the hilarious miscasting of Roddy McDowall, who can't quite suppress his English accent.It's essentially an Agatha Christie sort of deal: during a card game, a man is caught cheating, and the players impulsively decide not just to punish the cheat, but to hang him. Soon after, these same men die mysteriously. A gambler named Van Morgan (Dean Martin) who'd tried to prevent the hanging knows that he could still be on the hit list. Soon, a gun toting stranger, Jonathan Rudd (Robert Mitchum), comes to town to preach.This is worth sticking with for some things. First of all, both Martin and Mitchum exude their trademark cool. Mitchum, doing a variation on his role in "The Night of the Hunter", is especially amusing. Second, a young Yaphet Kotto gets a rather good role as the bartender in one of two competing saloons. Third, there are some very lovely ladies in the cast, Inger Stevens as Lily Langford, and Katherine Justice as Nora Evers. Finally, there's a first rate assortment of character actors on display: John Anderson, Denver Pyle, Whit Bissell, Ted de Corsia, and Roy Jenson.McDowall, cast as Pyles' son, manages to be pretty good at playing a worthless weasel sort of man, but he simply looks too out of place here.The theme song crooned by Dino may not be one of his best, but it *is* kind of catchy.Six out of 10.

It's a film noir/Western/suspense of bizarre beauty and extraordinary performances ; being based on a novel by Ray Gaulden and interesting screenplay by Marguerite Roberts . A card shark is caught cheating, he is taken out and lynched , later on , this engenders several murders . The players in an ongoing poker game are being mysteriously killed off, one by one . A professional gambler (Dean Martin) who attempted to prevent the lynching tries to ensnare the assassin with the aid of a preacher (Robert Mitchum) with a weapon .Suspenseful film dealing with a card player who is lynched by the drunkards he was playing against. Tension from the opening game going on until ending and never lets up , being for Agata Christie aficionados . This is a tremendously exciting story of an obstinate card player and a strange preacher with a gun . It begins as a slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with dark characters , strong supporting work , solid plot and in whodunit style . The tale is almost grim , a priest comes to a town just in time to make sure its citizenry but later the events get worse . Main cast is frankly magnificent . Sympathetic Dean Martin as as a reluctant card gambler and nice Robert Mitchum as a gun-toting preacher . First-rate Robert Mitchum in similar role and performance to ¨Night of the hunter¨ that was the acting of his life . In addition , Roddy McDowall steals the show as the cynic Nick . Supporting cast is extremely good such as Inger Stevens as Lily Langford , Katherine Justice as Nora Evers , John Anderson as Marshal Dana , Yaphet Kotto as Little George , Denver Pyle as Sig and Whit Bissell as Dr. Cooper , among others . Good Technicolor cinematography by Daniel F. Fapp . Enjoyable musical score ties up a top-notch Western package ; it is composed by the maestro Maurice Jarre . Furthermore , agreeable song by Dean Martin , including lyrics by Ned Washington . Watchable results for this offbeat Western .This well-paced in cracking style flick is compellingly directed by Henry Hathaway and usually works very well , taking a firm grip on the action and suspense . Here he directs efficiently Dean Martin and with strong screen presence by Robert Mitchum , both of whom collaborated in some Western . Hathaway himself was only even nominated for an Oscar , but his movies themselves are testimony to his skills to heighten narrative tension and shoot action so exhilarating it made adrenalin run . He does the human touch and full of insight that accompanied him during most of his films and the story develops pleasantly in a large frame with an interesting plot and fully adjusted to the requirements of the action . Henry was a craftsman who had a long career from the 30s with successful films , and especially Westerns , as ¨Brigham Young¨ and ¨Raw Hide¨ . In his 60s Hathaway still got the vigour to make some fiery movies as ¨From Hell to Texas¨, ¨How the West was won¨, ¨Nevada Smith¨, and ¨Shoot out¨ . He was an expert on Western genre as he proved in ¨True grit¨ , ¨Five card stud¨ , ¨Nevada Smith¨ ,¨How the West was won¨ , ¨Rawhide¨ , ¨Brigham Young¨ , ¨Buffalo Stampede¨, ¨Garden of evil¨ and ¨The sons of Katie Elder¨. Rating : nice Western that will appeal to Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin fans .

I'm more of a Mystery than a Western fan myself; "Five Card Stud" is a rather unique genre crossover - a bit like "Ten Little Indians" with gunfights thrown in. Leisurely paced but never boring, occasionally humorous without losing its seriousness, it is particularly recommended to those looking for the offbeat. It may be a little disappointing that the most obvious suspect turns out to be the person responsible for the killings, but the ironies and the morally grey areas of the story remain strong. The film also benefits from a great cast: Robert Mitchum is both amusing and larger-than-life as a preacher who's also an ace shooter ("By day he sweats for a pinch of yellow dust, and at night he squanders it on LUST!"), but extra-sweet Katherine Justice and extra-slimy Roddy McDowall stand out as well; and in 1968 it was still fairly uncommon even for an excellent black actor like Yaphet Kotto to be allowed, like he is in "Five Card Stud", to hold his own against an otherwise entirely white cast. Score and photography are top-notch. *** out of 4.

After a poker player is lynched for cheating, the members of the lynching party start dying one by one. This Western is fairly well made by veteran Hathaway, but the plot is too simplistic to raise it above mediocrity. The identity of the killer is so obvious that even a two-year old can figure out who done it. Apparently, there are no two-year olds in town, as nobody seems to have a clue who it could be. Martin is his usual unflappable self as one of the card players who tried to stop the hanging. Mitchum plays a variation on his psycho preacher character in "The Night of the Hunter." McDowall seems out of place in a Western. Stevens provides love interest.