Cheap Five Card Stud (DVD) (Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Inger Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Katherine Justice) (Henry Hathaway) Price

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Customer Reviews of Five Card Stud

Too Cool
O.K...so it's not your traditional western. Not too many horses, no cattle, Indians or lumbering, grizzley western sterotypes favored by dusty, old f*rts who worship at the shrine of Audie Murphy and John Wayne. This is more like a who-dun-it than an oater. Wonderful, campy, over-the-top performance by Roddy McDowell and starring two of the coolest guys EVER...Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum. The latter virtually reprising his NIGHT OF THE HUNTER role as a preacher man. Some great fight scenes and murders (a guy strangled by barbed wire..another strung up by the neck from the church bell, etc.) and it all starts with a card game gone wrong when one of the players is found cheating. He is lynched by the rest of the guys at the table but soon they themselves are being murdered...one by one! Inger Stevens is on hand as the local brothel madam and there is host of great 60s heads in other supporting roles. (Denver Pyle, Whit Bissell, etc.) Dino does the catchy theme song. Not really an all-time classic but fun to check out now and again. I'm glad I bought it.

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A Missed Opportunity
FIVE CARD STUD is a movie which never quite realizes its potential. It basically has a promising screenplay and a solid core of talented actors in Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Roddy McDowell and Inger Stevens. Katherine Justice and Yaphet Kotto aren't bad either. In one way the film looks like a convenient vehicle to utilize the many talents of Dean Martin, especially the opportunity for him to sing the catchy theme song.

The script is based on a novel by Ray Gaulden. It reminds me somewhat of THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN by Rex Stout. In FIVE CARD STUD a crooked gambler is lynched by a group of angry poker players. Soon thereafter the lynchers begin to be killed one by one by somebody who is obviously seeking vengeance for the mob action. My chief complaints about the movie are that it drags in too many places and it lacks the proper amount of tension.

Henry Hathaway will always be remembered as the director of some great westerns such as THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER and TRUE GRIT. I am afraid that FIVE CARD STUD will be recalled instead as one of his missed opportunities.

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Enjoyable thriller western
Five Card Stud is a very good mystery western that seems like a thriller or horror movie at times. The movie starts with a lynching of a stranger in the town of Rincon who was cheating at a card game. Soon after, all the men in the mob start turning up dead. No one knows who is responsible for all the grisly murders that keep going on. The story is well told throughout even though the viewer knows who the murderer is almost from the beginning. The mood and musical score contribute to the overall feeling of the movie more as a horror or thriller movie than as a western, but there are still plenty of gunfighters, gun battles, and barroom smoke everywhere.

Dean Martin stars as Van Morgan, the gambler who attempts to stop the lynching but ultimately fails. As the hero, he plays his usual cool self which works in this role. Robert Mitchum plays the preacher who appears in town soon after the lynching. This role is very similar to that of The Night of the Hunter. Yaphet Kotto is very good as George, the bartender and friend of Van Morgan. Roddy McDowall is also excellent as Nick Evers, the leader of the lynch mob. Also starring are Inger Stevens, Denver Pyle, Thelma Ritter and several other familiar western faces. The DVD offers a widescreen presentation which is very good after seeing it mangled on full screen. Very enjoyable murder mystery western with an excellent cast!