When professional gambler Van Morgan (Dean Martin) comes back from the latrine to discover that Nick Evers (Roddy McDowall) has caught a tin horn cheating at cards, he knows the protocol: You run the tin horn out of town. Apparently, no one told Nick Evers that. He’s stoked his drunken comrades into lynching the poor bastard. Try as he might, Van cannot stop the hanging. In fact, he gets pistol whipped for his troubles and ends up leaving town afterward. No one’s talking, no ones arrested. Nick Evers gets off scot-free. His girl Nora Evers (Katherine Justice) is left behind, unaware of the kind of man her brother really is—of course, she’s related to Nick.
However, word comes to Van from bartender Little George (Yaphet Kotto) that someone is murdering the gamblers, one by one. One man is found stuffed inside a barrel of flour, and another is found strangled to death with barbed wire. Who could be doing such a thing? Is Nick Evers cleaning up the people who could implicate him in a crime or is Nick’s assertion that it’s the work of a third party the true story? There are a lot of strangers around town now that gold’s been discovered in the countryside around it. The rush has brought in everyone from Lily Langford (Inger Stevens) and her barbershop/brothel (!) to Reverend Jonathan Rudd (Robert Mitchum), a fire-and-brimstone preacher who packs a Navy Colt pistol. There are all kinds of new faces around town, all kinds of suspects.
Will Van get to the bottom of the crime before all his former gambling buddies are killed and the killer then turns their attention his way? Henry Hathaway helms a terrific little western-mystery story with 5 Card Stud (1968).
In July of 2021, I ran a series looking at weird westerns. There, I mentioned a soft spot for samples of the western genre that are not merely shoot ’em ups or simplistic, wide-eyed looks at the westward expansion. Horror, dark fantasy, and suspense genres are terrific modes to explore challenging topics through a less outright challenging lens, and heaven knows there are plenty of challenging topics to consider in that period of history when American interests expanded into western territories. So, westerns crammed together with other genres broaden the scope and more often than not grab my interests by the ears, hanging on tight.
With 5 Card Stud we get a picture where the western elements are more of a backdrop for a compelling mystery yarn. Don’t read that and assume a brilliant Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes are skulking about, using little gray cells to determine the culprit. Instead, we get a gambler who’s not quite heroic (he sleeps with the local barbershop owner at one point, though he’s got a steady girl in town: questionable behavior, at best); however, he’s got a good head on his shoulders. Of course, this being a western, we get the occasional exchange of gunfire to remind us of the Raymond Chandler gag about bringing in a man with a gun when things get too boring. The shadows are deep, the murders are surprisingly ghastly, and the film has a strong noir sensibility. However, it came along well after noir’s initial popularity, so we likely won’t hear it described in that fashion. Still, it’s got a nice dose of cynicism to the proceedings.
5 Card Stud is based off a novel by Ray Gaulden, and the literary qualities shine through Marguerite Roberts’ script. While watching it, I was put in mind of some of the westerns by Ed Gorman. That author’s historicals also include strong mystery elements and one of his stories, “Moonchasers” is nothing less than a love letter to Robert Mitchum, who appears here. I have to wonder if the author had seen this film or read the book that inspired it—undoubtedly, he did since every interview, essay, and introduction I’ve read from Gorman suggests the man had an encyclopedic knowledge of suspense, pulp, horror, and western fiction and a strong knowledge of film as well. Still, I got real Gorman vibes off this movie, all right.
The real standout actor for me has to be Robert Mitchum. He doesn’t show up on screen for a good twenty minutes. Dean Martin is the star, here, and he’s the protagonist but when Mitchum finally does appear, he makes one hell of an entrance. First, he’s hammering up the sign for God’s House, and then he wanders into the saloon, fires two shots into the floor, and announces service times. He draws his gun during the first, blistering sermon—damning the town for its sinful ways—and then he gets truly hot when someone dares to profane the house of God with a murder. He’s a crack shot, he’s a smart guy, and he’s a tough man carrying lots of unspoken baggage and layers. He’s a Robert Mitchum character, and that mean’s he’s memorable as hell. Maybe there’s not a lot on the surface, but plenty of deep stuff gets communicated through physicality. A glance, a walk across a street, a tip of the hat, the stance—these all speak volumes of backstory. Mitchum is a champion of evoking mystery through a strong presence, and we are never quite sure of his intentions here. Is he a heroic character, a suspect, some kind of conscience, or some kind of judge? Well, he’s definitely the latter, but what is his motivation? He just about owns every scene he’s in, stealing all the thunder away from Martin.
The only one who comes close to Mitchum in terms of performance is Roddy McDowall as the sleazy little man who would not cry at his own mother’s funeral. His character is an asshole, through and through. A bigoted jackass, a whiny little coward who takes power when he can and who snivels and whines when he’s bested. The actor has great charm, and none of it is on display here. This is a villain through and through, but not the “cool” kind. It takes real guts to play an unsympathetic son of a bitch like this, and McDowall does the job with gusto.
We looked at another Henry Hathaway picture last year, during NOIRvember. He was the director responsible for the honeymooners in hell story, Niagara (1953), which cast Marilyn Monroe in the role of femme fatale. That was a picture with a great look, one magnificent scene, several good ones, and (unfortunately) a couple of duds. Hathaway’s got a solid level of craftsmanship as a director. His films are good looking examples of their genres and entertaining as hell to watch. Here, we get that same mix of good scenes and one standout terrific scene that we saw in Niagara, but 5 Card Stud trumps that by including no duds at all. Hathaway has a penchant for doing mystery and suspense. No one will confuse his style with the meticulousness found in Hitchcock, but he knows how to shoot quickly and well, and to deliver a lot of information and emotional resonance with the setups. Also, he knows how to reap solid performances from his cast. Here, the action is brisk, the mystery is well done, and the pacing is good. This is a movie that manages to juggle quite a few balls, and it does so skillfully. That is a tribute to Hathaway’s craft since this flick could have easily gone off the rails with all it was attempting.
Cinematographer Daniel L. Fapp (with uncredited assistance from James V. King) does his best work with interiors. The exterior day scenes are a little too bright, perhaps, but that’s a matter of personal taste. Nights are rich with shadows but never murky.
5 Card Stud is a fascinating picture, well shot, well written, and well-acted. Sadly, it seems to be overlooked and I’d say it’s about due for a reconsideration. It might not aim to be the end all or be all of film or even western films. However, it is nevertheless a quality piece of genre entertainment, engaging and mysterious and often more than a little funny. Then again, Mitchum elevates just about anything he appears in, as does McDowall. The two of them here add little touches of brilliance to Hathaway’s already capable skill at delivering a quality picture.
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5 Card Stud is available in DVD and VOD editions. I caught it on the Criterion Channel last year as a part of their celebration of Robert Mitchum.
Ed Gorman’s fiction is sometimes a challenge to find in artifact editions. A good amount of his backlist is available in eBook format, however. I recommend chasing down the Graves Retreat and Night of Shadows omnibus paperback from Stark House Press as a sampler of his westerns. It is available in paperback editions. Likewise, the The Autumn Dead and The Night Remembers paperback from Stark House Press is a terrific introduction to his mysteries/suspense yarns. It too is available in paperback. And The Dark Fantastic is a fine collection that spans all the genres Gorman wrote in, though focused in on darker tales. It can be found in eBook and paperback.
Writing for “If That’s A Bible Read It; If It’s Not, Drop It: 5 Card Stud” is copyright © 2021 by Daniel R. Robichaud.
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