"Garden of Evil" director Henry Hathaway's western whodunit "5-Card Stud" pits a "hellfire gambler" Dean Martin against a "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 penultimate scene. If you scrutinize the stable strangling scene, the killer's headgear reveals his identity. The characters in "True Grit" scenarist Marquerite Roberts' screenplay, based loosely 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, features a believable cast, and blends 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 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 either 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 fine 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 mildly 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.
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 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 either 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 fine 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 mildly 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.