5 Card Stud (1968)

Set in 1880 Colorado, when a stranger (Jerry Gatlin) is caught cheating in an after hours poker game, one (Roddy McDowall) of the players goads the other players into lynching the man. When two townspeople are murdered, a gambler (Dean Martin) remembers both the dead men were playing in the fatal card game. Eventually, the killer stalks the other players until there is only one left. Based on the novel by Ray Gaulden and directed by Henry Hathaway (TRUE GRIT). The mid 1960s saw a spate of "buddy" westerns with two big male stars (think Wayne & Mitchum in EL DORADO, Wayne & Douglas in THE WAR WAGON, Wayne & Hudson in THE UNDEFEATED, Martin & Peppard in ROUGH NIGHT IN JERICHO etc.). Here it's Robert Mitchum as the town's preacher opposite Martin. Most of them were routine and could easily be dismissed. 5 CARD STUD didn't deserve that fate as it's rather different. If Agatha Christie wrote a western, it might have played out like 5 CARD STUD. It's not to difficult to identify the killer after the first half hour but it's not who is the killer as to how and when will the killer be found out? Both westerns and mystery fans should enjoy this. With Inger Stevens, Yaphet Kotto, Katherine Justice, Ted De Corsia and Ruth Springfield.