Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

classicsoncall I've seen a handful of Hopalong Cassidy Westerns in which Robert Mitchum appeared as a heavy (he went by Bob back then), so it was cool to see him in a villainous role at the top of the bill here with Dean Martin. He doesn't come on the scene until a good while into the story but he makes his presence felt forcefully as the newly arrived preacher in Rincon. If you think about it, it didn't take much to establish his character as the killer of the poker game participants that hung a player for cheating. How that all came about is what makes the story interesting.I had to question Mama Malone's (Ruth Springford) response to the new saloon competitor in town when she described her marketing plan as 'good liquor, a few card games and no girls'. Two out of three ain't bad, but Van Morgan (Dean Martin) would have had a problem with that last one even if he was a long time friend of Mama. Maybe if Lily Langford (Inger Stevens) offered the first two she could have owned the whole town. Speaking of which, her prices for a shave ($1.00), a haircut ($2.50) and a shampoo ($3.00) seemed kind of steep for the 1880's compared to other era Westerns I've seen. The $20.00 Miscellaneous fee sounded about right.I guess I'd have to question the casting of Roddy McDowall in the picture as the guy pulling strings with Preacher Rudd (Mitchum). Setting aside his British background, he just didn't seem to be the right choice to portray a Western bad guy. Be that as it may, I thought it was rather generous of Van Morgan to cover for Nick Evers' (McDowall) complicity in the murders by chalking up his death to getting 'on to the Preacher'. Heading on to Denver, he'd be the only one to know better.

Scott LeBrun This really isn't such a bad movie. A solid cast makes it more entertaining than it might have been otherwise. It just has a "throw away" sort of quality because, for a movie that's supposed to a mystery-Western, it's quite easy to predict. Also, it can't overcome the hilarious miscasting of Roddy McDowall, who can't quite suppress his English accent.It's essentially an Agatha Christie sort of deal: during a card game, a man is caught cheating, and the players impulsively decide not just to punish the cheat, but to hang him. Soon after, these same men die mysteriously. A gambler named Van Morgan (Dean Martin) who'd tried to prevent the hanging knows that he could still be on the hit list. Soon, a gun toting stranger, Jonathan Rudd (Robert Mitchum), comes to town to preach.This is worth sticking with for some things. First of all, both Martin and Mitchum exude their trademark cool. Mitchum, doing a variation on his role in "The Night of the Hunter", is especially amusing. Second, a young Yaphet Kotto gets a rather good role as the bartender in one of two competing saloons. Third, there are some very lovely ladies in the cast, Inger Stevens as Lily Langford, and Katherine Justice as Nora Evers. Finally, there's a first rate assortment of character actors on display: John Anderson, Denver Pyle, Whit Bissell, Ted de Corsia, and Roy Jenson.McDowall, cast as Pyles' son, manages to be pretty good at playing a worthless weasel sort of man, but he simply looks too out of place here.The theme song crooned by Dino may not be one of his best, but it *is* kind of catchy.Six out of 10.

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).

bkoganbing 5 Card Stud is a re-make of Dark City which was released in 1950 and was Charlton Heston's feature film debut. Dean Martin is now playing the Heston part and in many ways he's reprising the role he did in Some Came Running. The role of gambler comes natural to him, it was one of many professions Dino tried in his youth before discovering show business. In the original the part Robert Mitchum plays originated with Mike Mazurki. Mazurki had a limited role in Dark City so Mitchum's part has been built up considerably. As always Robert Mitchum is interesting.The original Dark City involved a high stakes poker game in which Don DeFore got trimmed of the rent money and just about everything else. Rather than go home, he kills himself. Soon afterward his psychotic brother goes on a rampage against everyone in that game.It's no suicide here, but a lynching as the victim is caught cheating. If you've seen Dark City than you already know who the murderer is and it's not too hard to figure it out here. In the supporting cast, standing out are Roddy McDowell as the spoiled son of a local rancher who leads the lynch party and Yaphett Kotto who is the bartender in the saloon where the fatal poker game took place.Martin and Mitchum work well together, this is good entertainment.