Few names embody classic American cinema the way Hollywood legends Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum do. Both had long winding roads to stardom. Before portraying the charming drunk, Dude, in Rio Bravo and becoming a comedic icon, a renowned crooner, and a Hollywood leading man, Martin worked various unconventional jobs, including bootlegging and gambling.
Mitchum, on his part, persisted through a string of B-movies in which he portrayed nondescript characters that sometimes he wasn’t credited for, served jail time, and faced insurmountable personal turmoil. He got his breakthrough roles in films like Out of the Past and The Night of the Hunter, that sped up his journey toward having his star embedded on the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard. Despite their similar not-so-rosy beginnings, they climbed to the uppermost echelon as leading men of the small and big screens.
The two legends would team up in Henry Hathaway’s 1968 underrated Western mystery film 5 Card Stud. The film is based on a novel by Ray Gaulden and a screenplay by Marguerite Roberts, who also collaborated with the director for True Grit, which earned John Wayne his only Oscar. Roberts’ writing is nothing short of genius. She combines witty dialogue and incorporates clever situations that effortlessly move the plot forward.
Together, Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum bring to 5 Card Stud a dynamic that offers a movie ripe with suspense, shootouts, and a slow-burn tension that hooks you from the start. It is a cowboy movie that mashes-up genres, with romance and whodunit psychological intrigue elements fusing with classic Western themes like revenge and frontier justice.
5 Card Stud kicks off with a poker game that goes south fast. Martin plays Van Morgan, a gambler with more than his fair share of grit. Morgan’s group of seven gamblers sets the film in motion when one of them is caught cheating, and the group, despite Morgan’s protests, resorts to vigilante justice by stringing him up. The situation shifts when, one by one, the gamblers start turning up dead in near similar circumstances.
With death seemingly closer and closer to Morgan, as he figures out their relationship to the initial lynching, he decides to investigate. From playing poker, the film morphs into a psychological game with growing mistrust among the gamblers. 5 Card Stud wouldn’t be complete without paying homage to “The King of Cool”. It adorns Martin’s charming personality with romantic sub-plots for his womanising character, making the film a perfect cocktail of action, romance, psychological tension, and a twist.
Meanwhile, Mitchum’s Reverend Rudd has just joined the town. He is an unconventional gun-toting preacher with impeccable shooting abilities and a penchant for saloons. Reverend Rudd’s introductory speech to a group of revelers at a saloon states how his church, like the Lord it represents, welcomes all kinds of people, to which one patron replies that he would join because he perfectly fits Rudd’s criteria, stating, “I am the dirtiest, drunkest, most sinful fellow the Lord ever saw.”
Apart from the comical relief it brings, is it an ironical line with a deeper meaning? In the action scenes, Roberts’ memorable dark humor includes Rudd hiding his gun in a hole made between bible pages. With the puzzle of the murders that are piling up, even Rudd, with his strict moral compass, is not off the hook of Morgan’s suspicion. Staying true to his strong on-screen partnerships, Martin’s collaboration with Mitchum creates a dynamic and engaging viewer experience.