5 Card Stud (1968)

Where's the mystery?, 15 August 2005

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.

4/10