The greatest movie ever made..!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Tightly-wound tale of bitter revenge, with lots of shooting and a high body count. In the gold-mining town of Rincon, Colorado, a tinhorn cheating at cards is lynched by his fellow poker players, who then find themselves at the mercy of a serial killer intent on picking them off one by one. Strong adaptation of a novel by Ray Gaulden provides the perfect opportunity for Robert Mitchum to get back into preacher's garb (following "The Night of the Hunter"), though Dean Martin as a professional gambler looks a bit piqued around the gills. There's some confusion in the final third regarding an important plot-twist, and Roddy McDowall's sniveling lynch-mob leader is wearing, however the salty mood of the piece and the mercurial characters are intriguing and enjoyable. As sagebrush whodunits go, this one stands fairly tall in an uncrowded genre. Yaphet Kotto is excellent as a no-nonsense bartender, while Inger Stevens provides a smart, sophisticated love-interest for Dino playing a barbershop proprietress-cum-madame (another unusual facet). *** from ****

"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

Not a bad movie. Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin pull this one off pretty good. There are a few flaws in the plot but it all works out in the end. It's a good popcorn movie to watch when you have nothing to do. Besides the mild violence, I think your kids could watch this one with you as a family movie.Roddy McDowall plays the whinny little weasel perfect. You hate him from the start to the ending, and can't wait for him to get his. And this is what a great actor can make you feel. And Inger Stevens plays the temptress so well. How could anyone not fall for a beautiful woman like her? She could make a good man go bad, and a bad man blush.So break out the popcorn, sit backs and don't expect too much, and you might have a smile on your face after the movie.