Five Card Stud

  

I don't think I've talked about this movie before, other than to mention it in passing, It's a western-mystery classic that I never get tired of. I watched it this week while my wife was out of state.

First things first: The Blasters and Blades podcast with JR Handley hosted my and Jana Brown. We talked general nerdery and Accidental Pirates in particular - a great time, aside from the fact that I appear to have the charisma of a dry dish rag. The blank wall behind me in no way highlighted any good thing about me. I did get to mention that the sequel to Accidental Pirates is a go for publication as well.

 We now return to our irregularly scheduled programming:

Five Card Stud, directed by Henry Hathaway, written by Marguerite Roberts and Ray Gaulden, stars Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Inger Stevens, and Roddy McDowall. My love for this western is probably irrational, but I never miss an opportunity to watch it if I find it on television. This week I watched in on Prime Video. The film is nearly sixty years old, so I'm not hiding any spoilers. 

Several men begin a game of 5 card stud. After Van Morgan (a gambler played by Dean Martin) goes for a break, the game comes to a halt when Nick Evers (played by Roddy--without ape makeup) catches the lone stranger at the table cheating (his cheat roll came up snake eyes). They drag him out to an impromptu neck-tie party as the guest of honor with Nick as the fervent MC of the occasion. When Van tries to put a stop to the festivities, Nick invokes parliamentary procedure in the form of a pistol barrel across Van's skull. The stranger's body is discovered the next morning. Van heads out for Denver, saying goodbye to his girlfriend Nora (played by Katherine Justice) and her brother Nick at the Evers Ranch were Denver Pyle plays the father.

After Van's departure a new preacher arrives in town.

He aims to bring God's word to the boom town of Rincon. Shortly after his arrival, one of the poker-playing hangmen is found smothered in a barrel of flour. (It was obviously all-purpose flour even though I don't believe that is one of the commonly intended purposes). Another of the card players is strangled with a barbed wire fence for his bow tie.
 

George (played by Yaphet Kotto) was tending bar the night of the poker game and goes to Denver to warn Van not to come back lest he end up all breathless too. Naturally, Van notes that everybody loves somebody sometime and heads back to Rincon with George. He finds that the boom town is booming and has acquired a new business.

Lily Langford (played by Inger Stevens) runs the establishment that offers shaves, baths, and miscellaneous, Naturally, Van is intrigued.

The survivors meet to discuss the suspicious activity and come to the conclusion that one of them must be the killer. Another man dies, hanging from the ropes to the church bells. The miners go wild wanting the sheriff to do something about the killings. A deputy's attempt to disarm the miners results in his death and a shoot out in town.

Van and Reverend Rudd helps bring an end to the shoot out. Rudd is quite a pistolero We get a fire and another death. Somewhere in here there's a funeral and we find out that Nick has been feeding Rudd the names of the participants in that ill-fated game of 5 card stud, pretending all the time that he tried to stop the hanging.

At one point, Nick and Van have a tussle in the graveyard. Their struggle ends on the grave of the hanged stranger. They walk away wary but without any excess perforations.

We get to see Rudd kill George, who had no part in the hanging but Nick wants him dead. The killing goes bad and Rudd is forced to shoot and run, leaving enough time for George to provide a clue about who punched his ticket.

When Nick meets Rudd in the graveyard again to give him the final name, he admits that he led the hanging and now must put Rudd down lest the preacher kill him now that he has the name of the last man who helped in the killing of his brother, the cheating stranger in the game. Nick magnanimously allows Rudd a last request to read a scripture on this solemn occasion. He selects something from the book of Samuel Colt in .32 caliber. It's a killer.

Nick reacts badly to the chosen verse. It's really all in the delivery.

Nick's funeral will be at the Evers Ranch and Rudd volunteers to take the body and coffin out in his buckboard. First he stops by the saloon to see Van and invite him to ride out with him. Van declines, indicating that he'll be out a little later.

Van meets Rudd on the road. He figured it out with George's clue when Rudd tipped up the last chair at the card table. In the confrontation, Rudd again resorts to scripture but has his Bible upside down, and Van figures out somethings rotten in Denmark. They go for their guns. Van is wounded in the arm but sends Rudd across the threshold of mortality into the arms of his cheating brother.

Nora cleans and wraps his arm and Van tells her goodbye. 

All the other card players and George are dead. Van and Lily part ways temporarily to meet in Denver or somewhere, unless the kiss Van gave her didn't keep him on her mind. Van rides off, and the closing credits roll to the music.

That's the gist of Five Card Stud. It's not much of a movie, but I like it beyond it's worth. There are lots of familiar faces. There's at least one Star Trek connection. The romance never overshadows the real story line, although there is a question about whether Van will choose Nora or Lily. When I first watched it as a kid, I couldn't believe Roddy McDowall was a bad guy. Watching it now, I wonder how I didn't realize that he was involved. It's obvious in everything Nick does. He's about as likable as a sharp stick thrust repetitively into one's eye. Anyway, it has about the perfect mix of gun play, romance, and mystery to make it a pleasure every time I see it.