Simply A Masterpiece

Best movie of this year hands down!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Firstly, things I loved : The idea of a mystery / western movie. How most of the cast did their roles fairly. The music while Yaphet Kotto's death, which was a variation on Maurice Jarre's theme music, as joyful as the background's atmosphere, yet with a smart tense twist. A number of lines : "There's only one thing worse than a crook, that's a clumsy crook", "Somebody gave Stoney a new string tie. Only it was made of barbed wire, and a little tight", "Sometimes the truth is actions, not words". And the theme song which was the top of this movie for me.Then, things I didn't love : Oh, dear. Take a list : Dean Martin was too indifferent; like it's "I'll say the lines, do the moves, then give me the money please". And while he was 51 year old, he seemed older, with run-down, if not sick, features. For instance, during his scene in the cemetery, he was too pale as if he was the one to be buried !Director Henry Hathaway didn't do anything dazzling along the way, or maybe didn't want to. Actually, more than one point tells you that not much effort was exerted. In one moment, when Martin punches Roddy McDowall in front of the latter's sister, you'll notice that there wasn't a proper sound effect for the punch. And in another, when the same 2 clash in the cemetery, their fight was weak, childish, and shot while both of them were wearing the same color and outfit (so you couldn't tell who's who !). Let alone that the few action scenes were done routinely. That's why I felt TV-ish western for all the time.The romantic part wasn't taken care of seriously. I mean the young girl loves the lead, and he loves the older woman; so why is that ? Does the girl related to issues like land and stability, and the lead is always a traveling gambler, so that's why he preferred the barbershop's owner ? Is that woman more experienced, so she's more suitable for him ? Well, the movie itself doesn't give a hoot, and the whole romantic scenes seemed eventually irrelevant.Speaking about the writing, the matter of Robert Mitchum saying a line that ends a scene, while he walks away from the people, repeated dully. I thought that Mitchum didn't have to turn the chair over the card table to assure for Martin that he's the killer. And I didn't get the constant talk about the coming development with Ruth Springford as Mama Malone; that wasn't a relief, or part of the drama, or sort of satire which serves some purposed substance ?? Was there any use out of this, other than filling the blanks between the scenes of the main "loose unknown killer" plot ??Roddy McDowall can be a lot of characters, but the violent psychopath killer isn't one of them. He tried his best, and did well, but he wasn't the character for me, and the "very well" rank could have been given for another actor in that role. While Jarre's music is nothing but one theme and variations for it, it did bore sometimes, and – worse than that – sounded sarcastic in the wrong place; like the first sequence. Then, that awful climax. OK, I can't describe it as a climax in the first place. It's all about talking endlessly, then one fast bullet form the protagonist to kill the antagonist ?? Nobody ever bothered themselves to make something more big and satisfying ?? This is not a way to end a movie, and not a way to kill a proficient gunslinger like Mitchum's character. They didn't have the time, the money, the energy ?? I really don't know. But what I do know is that when this lazy executive spirit dominated, the movie got cold, and it turned out to be that Dean Martin wasn't the only indifferent around ! They even gave the mystery's solution away in the original poster (s); which's a proof for how uninterested most of this movie's makers were. Now it could be a fact that an uninterested movie equals an uninteresting movie !

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.

"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 only a minor challenge for astute audiences. You will spot the actor committing the crimes long before the film identifies him in its second-to-last scene. If you study the stable strangling scene, the killer's headgear reveals his identity. The characters in "True Grit" scenarist Marquerite Roberts' screenplay, based on Ray Gaulden's novel, are flat since they change neither their mentality nor their morality. Nevertheless, Roberts boots around a provocative question about "who people were before they became who they are" which segues with the mystery. Otherwise, this Hathaway horse opera is sturdy enough, contains a believable cast and knows how to blend comedy with drama nimbly enough so it rarely becomes either heavy-handed or repetitious. Compared with 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." "5-Card Stud," however, does surpass "Shoot Out" and "Nevada Smith." Although some critics didn't cotton to Maurice Jarre's orchestral score and even denigrated it as "Dr. Zhivago" on the range,' I contend it is superb music and differs from anything that Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, or Ennio Morricone would have provided. Jarre's score enlivens the action and enhances the atmosphere. The Dean Martin "5-Card Stud" title song marks this sagebrusher as a traditional western. As far back as the 1950s, most major sagebrushers contained a ballad about the story or the hero with lyrics like ". . . play your poke and he'd leave you broke." The song here paints a portrait of the protagonist and his poker playing skill.Interestingly, "5-Card Stud" makes some racial references that chipped away at the usual barriers. In one scene, Mitchum's gunslinging preacher doesn't think it inappropriate 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 an Indian could be buried in a white graveyard.Professional gambler Van Morgan (Dean Martin of "Sons of Katie Elder") 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"),and Ever's ranch hand Stoney Burough (George Robotham of "The Split") continue to gamble with newcomer Frankie Rudd (Jerry Gatlin of "The Train Robbers") until Nick catches Rudd cheating 'red-handed' and assembles a lynch party. They haul Rudd against his will 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 buffalos 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. 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 return to Rincon. Two things have changed since Morgan rode out. First, the town has acquired a gun-toting pastor who renovates the church and holds services. 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. Lilly and Nora contend for Morgan, while our hero closes in on the new preacher Jonathan Rudd. "5-Card Stud" boasts several good scenes. Hathaway does a good job of staging a shoot-out in the streets of Rincon when paranoid miners go berserk because they fear they may be the next victims of the local serial killer. If you slow down your DVD or VHS copy, Dean Martin loses his Stetson when he seizes an axle to let a wagon haul him out of harm's way. You can see his headgear fall off completely. In the next scene, Martin's 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 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 is good enough for a rainy day.

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