5 Card Stud

This article is about the 1968 Western film. For the 2002 romance film, see 5 Card Stud (2002 film). For the poker game, see Five-card stud.
5 Card Stud

US Film Poster
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Produced by Joseph H. Hazen
Written by Marguerite Roberts
Starring Dean Martin
Robert Mitchum
Inger Stevens
Music by D.H. Doane
Maurice Jarre
F.C. Van Al Styne
Cinematography Daniel L. Fapp
Edited by Warren Low
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • July 31, 1968
Running time
103 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $3,500,000 (US/ Canada)[1]

5 Card Stud is a 1968 Western directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum, The script, based on a novel by Ray Gaulden, was written by Marguerite Roberts, who also wrote the screenplay of True Grit for Hathaway the following year.

Plot

In 1880, a gambler in the small town of Rincon, just outside of Denver, Colorado, is caught cheating at a five-card stud poker game. One of the players, Van Morgan, tries to prevent the others from administering frontier justice, but is unable to stop the man's lynching. Morgan leaves town, but later returns when he hears that a couple of the other players from that ill-fated game have become victims of grisly murders.

The town has a new resident, a stern and somewhat edgy Colt .45-carrying Baptist preacher named Reverend Rudd. As more members of the lynch mob are killed off one by one, it becomes clear that someone is taking revenge and it is up to Morgan to solve the mystery. Finally, only he is left. He discovers the identity of the killer just in time.

Cast

Production notes

The song lead by Rudd at his first service in Rincon is the late-19th-century Baptist hymn, "Mercy's Call," written W. H. Doane.

This film marked the last appearance of Inger Stevens. Two years after she did both this film and another Western, Hang 'Em High, Stevens committed suicide. This film also marked the second time Mitchum played an unorthodox preacher; the first being 1955's The Night of the Hunter.

References

  1. "Big Rental Films of 1968", Variety, 8 January 1969 p 15. Please note this figure is a rental accruing to distributors.

External links

5 Card Stud at the Internet Movie Database

DVD reviews