SteinMo
What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.
Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Jenna Walter
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
BartSamson
Thank God it has a great opening song!Frankly, as a Western aficionado and a big fan of Dean, this movie is a tough one to get through. And yet, it's a stellar cast! Dino, Mitchum, McDowall, Yaphet Kotto! You know the problem doesn't come from there! The pacing is all wrong, the staging is all wrong, I'm guessing the shooting script was all wrong... Even Maurice Jarre score is all wrong (for this movie)!This is a big, full fledged train-wreck of a movie! So awful you can't look away but yet, you cringe all the way through. Hard to believe this was directed by Henri Hathaway (who directed the original "True Grit" a year later) and produced by the great Hal Wallis (who had produced all the Martin & Lewis movies, back in the 50's)!...It's a shame... I'd like to be able to enjoy this movie more, but seeing it could have been done so much better in a variety of ways just takes all the fun out of it. That is one movie that would benefit being remade... Except for the cast... Those legends are all gone now (except for Kotto).
gridoon2018
I'm more of a Mystery than a Western fan myself; "Five Card Stud" is a rather unique genre crossover - a bit like "Ten Little Indians" with gunfights thrown in. Leisurely paced but never boring, occasionally humorous without losing its seriousness, it is particularly recommended to those looking for the offbeat. It may be a little disappointing that the most obvious suspect turns out to be the person responsible for the killings, but the ironies and the morally grey areas of the story remain strong. The film also benefits from a great cast: Robert Mitchum is both amusing and larger-than-life as a preacher who's also an ace shooter ("By day he sweats for a pinch of yellow dust, and at night he squanders it on LUST!"), but extra-sweet Katherine Justice and extra-slimy Roddy McDowall stand out as well; and in 1968 it was still fairly uncommon even for an excellent black actor like Yaphet Kotto to be allowed, like he is in "Five Card Stud", to hold his own against an otherwise entirely white cast. Score and photography are top-notch. *** out of 4.
shortbread226
Probably wouldn't have stuck with this one if I didn't know Robert Mitchum was showing up eventually but it ended up getting a lot better as it went on. The plot was interesting and I liked the way they didn't reveal the killer in a sensational twist seeing as most people would have worked it out by then. A good example of suspense being better than surprise.That being said the structure of the film was a bit loose, It spent a lot of time on things that didn't really have any importance to the story when I thought it could have spent more time establishing certain characters motivations and relationships and I thought sometimes the snappy style dialog was a bit stilted. Some of the acting was also a bit awkward. It was only about a third to about a half way through the movie that I decided I liked it but in the end it was quite enjoyable and once again Mitchum was awesome
bensonmum2
During a game of cards, one of the players is found the be a cheat. The others decide that running him out of town isn't good enough and lynch the cheater. Soon afterward, however, the men in the lynching party begin dying violent deaths. In the Old West, a showdown between two armed men was one thing, but murder is murder.Considering the cast assembled for Five Card Stud (Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Roddy McDowall, Yaphet Kotto, Denver Pyle, and Inger Stevens) I expected a solid and enjoyable Western. And while each of these actors does their best to prop-up the movie, they are let down at almost every opportunity by uninspired directing and a weak plot. The movie is billed as a Western/Mystery. But, there's no mystery. It is so painfully obvious who the killer is that I'm shocked it took Dean so long to figure it out. Hathaway does nothing to add any suspense or drama. I was expecting, and hoping, for a big twist ending to save Five Card Stud, but it never came.But the worst part of the movie has to be the editing. Five Card Stud is over-long and needlessly bloated with scenes that go nowhere and do nothing to advance the storyline. Better editing to create a tighter, leaner movie could have done wonders and might have made it really enjoyable.
