Synopsis
A card cheat was hung... then all hell broke loose!
The players in an ongoing poker game are being mysteriously killed off, one by one.
1968 Directed by Henry Hathaway
The players in an ongoing poker game are being mysteriously killed off, one by one.
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"5 Card Stud" is a 1968 film directed by Henry Hathaway. It's obviously a Western in conventional aesthetics, but I didn't want to fully the label the film completely within that genre because there is a lot more to this film's genre placement that meets the eye. The narrative of the film circulates from an origin point of a card game gone violent. It doesn't take a wild guessing game to assume what card game is played based upon the title of the film, naturally it's a game of 5 Card Stud Poker. In the midst of things, with gambling flowing heavy on the table, a cheater is discovered which results in some of fashioned western justice distributed upon that…
"I've got just one rule: me first, nobody second."
Pointedly effeminate psychopath Nick Evers (Roddy McDowell) incites an intemperate table full of angry players to lynch an unlucky cardsharp amidst a poker game organized by peaceable professional gambler Van Morgan (Dean Martin), who gets pistol-whipped from his horse into a shallow stream for trying to intervene. Shortly thereafter—right around the time mysterious gun-toting fundamentalist preacher Jonathan Rudd (Robert Mitchum) shows up—the players start dying with alarming rapidity. A reputed mystery ensues in which Van exhibits atrocious investigative instincts but is finally able to identify and pursue the killer with the aid of his sagacious Black auxiliary Little George (Yaphet Kotto). A listless romance subplot sops up approximately a half hour…
"No killer's scared of God." - Van Morgan,
Banger theme song.
This is really a mystery thriller set against a Western backdrop and it kind of gets bonkers, but in the best of ways. Roddy McDowall is a very interesting actor that always draws me in, and Mitchum and Martin both have great presence. The story is a bit goofy at times but super fun and generally speaking the production and direction are competence plus. I don't know, I just vibed with this one and enjoyed the mystery.
For fans of whodunnits and movies with lots of men.
functions as more of a whodunit than a western proper, despite its set dressing, and Mitchum is characteristically great but what's most surprising about this isn't its genre ambiguity or eclectic cast (which also includes a young Yaphet Kotto and the marquee attraction of Dean Martin), it's how impressively grim an affair it is for a late 60s studio genre film, feeling much more in line with the violence of its european contemporaries than most of what was coming out of hollywood at the time (but would be in short order)
Roddy McDowall’s accent is about as convincing as Dean Martin’s overt stunt double in this rather straight forward tale of misconstrued revenge. Mitchum is fantastic as the mysterious preacher with suspiciously great aim, Dean Martin bumbles his way through as the rather nondescript but amiable ‘good guy,’ Yaphet Kotto gets a decent part as the loyal friend and world weary black dude caught up in this white people nonsense, and Roddy McDowall shines as a slimy rat bastard of a prick. Then there’s two totally pointless women, the virgin and the whore, who both pine after Dino despite the clear 30 year age gap. This movie has it all! At least they don’t ever force you to give a shit…
This 1968 Western from director Henry Hathaway can rightly be described as a bit of an oddity, for many different reasons. The presence of Dean Martin isn't odd, he made a variety of Westerns both good and bad, but here he sings the theme tune, and takes the lead role alongside co-star Robert Mitchum, in what might have been a first for me, a mystery/Western?
5 Card Stud begins with a card-cheat being lynched by the other players in the game in Rincon, Colorado. Roddy McDowall's Nick Evers is the vengeful leader of the group, a spoilt and vindictive young man, intent on showing what frontier justice looks like. One man attempts to stop the hanging, Dean Martin's Van Morgan,…
Fun little forgotten western that plays out like part Ten Little Indians murder mystery and part slasher flick. Competently directed by Henry Hathaway the year before he helped the Duke nab the Oscar for True Grit. It’s about 15 minutes longer than it needed to be, and I could have done without a 51 year old Dean Martin grotesquely romancing an actress literally half his age, but this is perfectly passable entertainment otherwise. Roddy McDowell is a lot of fun as a slimy creep with a slippery accent, uncle Jesse from Dukes of Hazard shows up, Yaphet Kotto is intriguingly present and accounted for and Bob Mitchum is charismatically riffing on his sinister preacher man schtick from Night of the Hunter.
An under the radar gem I’d never heard of, but am glad I gave a look.
Over the course of his long and storied career, Mitchum sure did seem to enjoy working in pictures that brought preachers down a peg or two.
DuBFaL-Western-Weeks - Shot 2 - Film-Nr.9
Ein Western 🌵mit zwei meiner Western-Heroes sollten doch eigentlich einen guten Western garantieren, oder?
Die Partner von John Wayne in zwei legendären Western sind die Hauptdarsteller in diesem Genrebeitrag von Henry Hathaway aus dem Jahr 1968 nämlich Robert Mitchum (El Dorado) und Dean Martin (Rio Bravo). Das Titellied hat Dean Martin auch gesungen 😍.
In Todfeinde - so der deutsche Titel - wird ein Falschspieler einer Pokerrunde ♠️♥️♦️♣️ von den anderen Spielkumpanen gelyncht. Nur Van Morgan (Dean Martin) versucht das Verbrechen zu verhindern, scheitert allerdings. Als ein Prediger (Robert Mitchum) kurze Zeit später in das Städtchen kommt und das Verbrechen anpreist, geschehen auf einmal Morde - die Opfer: die Teilnehmer der Pokerrunde ♣️♦️♥️♠️.
Dean…
Wow. This is basically a slasher with a coat of Western paint on it, and I dug the crap out of it. It also has a great cast, including Yaphet Kotto, who was in here way more than I was expecting. I was also taken by surprise by the humor. Normally Westerns have those moments where I blink a few times and go, oh that was supposed to be a joke, but I legit laughed out loud at least three times here.
I mostly dug the ending, but the ending ending was a little flat and confusing for me. Overall, I had a great time, and would recommend this, even if Westerns aren’t your thing. 3.75, rounded up.
NOTES -…
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…
JB’s review: 7/10
“Good Western with Martin and Mitchum.”
Fun oddity that I didn’t know about; a late whodunnit in a western setting (only without western narrative tropes). A cast of card-playing Hollywood veterans get picked off one by one. Not all of them are entirely convincing, but their characters are colorful.
The late 60’s influence allows more generously amoral antics to entertain the screen than were generally seen in the States at that point—but maybe in Italy.