Runtime: 104 minutes
Directed by: Henry Hathaway
Starring: Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Inger Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Katherine Justice
From: Paramount
A Western/mystery hybrid scored by Maurice Jarre? Sign me up.
This currently being streamed on the Criterion Channel plus a mutual here on Letterboxd putting this over real strong made me think this was worth a shot. The fact that this stars Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum was also of great interest. Turns out, Mitchum plays a preacher; while not the type that has “love” and “hate” tattooed on his knuckles, he still carries around a revolver, which is used quite well by himself.
5 card stud the poker game was popular during the latter half of the 19th century but has fallen out of favor in most places since then. How it's even played is irrelevant; just note that a random new guy in a game is caught cheating and the sociopath of the group decides that... he should be hung from the neck until dead! As this was not a big tournament-rather, it was a casual game played in a bar after hours-that was quite the overreaction. Well, those that were in the game (including Deano, who unsuccessfully tried to stop said hanging) start being hunted down, and killed via different methods of strangulation. Whether you call it an early slasher or a version of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None-which inspired the entire horror genre anyhow-it was different for a Western even if many Western cliches were still present.
Whether or not you can easily guess the culprit or perhaps even their reason why, 5 Card Stud was a pretty good time. There's mystery, vengeance, several shootouts-all those deaths have the small town on edge-some chuckles, the charisma of Martin & Mitchum, a nice Jarre score, and several supporting cast members that I am rather familiar with: Roddy McDowall, Denver Pyle, even the legendary Yaphet Kotto. While not a must-see genre example, it provided enough entertainment to me. After all, Deano romances two women-because of course-and there's even a whorehouse in disguise.
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