It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Well this one was a bit anti-climactic when all was said and done, wasn't it? After all, the first four of the five guys The Domino Kid set out to kill to avenge the murder of his father were dispatched within the first twenty minutes. That left almost a whole hour to get to the final showdown with bad guy Lafe Prentiss (Peter Whitney). But say, weren't you sidetracked by that ending just a bit? After all, in your typical oater, the fifth man should have been well dressed town boss Wade Harrington (Andrew Duggan), who had an eye on Domino's old girlfriend (Kristine Miller). All signs pointed to him and then, nothing. And I thought I knew every Western convention there was to know.Anyway, if I didn't know better, this looked like Rory Calhoun's warm-up for his TV Western series that came out the following year - "The Texan". In fact, he didn't even have to change his outfit. His character Bill Longley rode into town wearing the same vest and intimidating potential outlaws with the same fast gun reputation. It comes as no surprise then that Calhoun and his partner Victor Orsatti produced that series just as they did the movie here. The series had cooler music over the end credits though.Well if you're a Rory Calhoun fan, this one is OK, but the gunfights are somewhat awkward. He takes an unnecessary bullet to the shoulder against Number #4 Sam Beal, and the gunfight finale against Lafe defies all semblance of credibility, as this villain couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if he walked into it. A couple other reviewers on this board question the accuracy of Domino getting his fifth man, so a quick recap goes like this: #1 Haines in the opening scene; #2 Trancas in a showdown; #3 Ed Sandlin who sent Dragger (Denver Pyle) to bring him in; #4 Sam Beal; and #5 Lafe Prentiss. I thought Harrington would be a bonus.

The Domino Kid is directed by Ray Nazarro and written by Kenneth Gammet and Hal Biller. It stars Rory Calhoun, Kristine Miller, Andrew Duggan, Yvette Dugay, Peter Whitney and Eugene Iglesias. Music is by Mischa Bakaleinikoff and cinematography by Irving Lipman.Rory Calhoun is The Domino Kid (AKA: Cort Garand), who upon returning from his service in the Civil War sets out for vengeance against the five renegades who murdered his father. He quickly locates four of them, but the fifth man is proving illusive. The script is a bit hoary, the formula unchallenging, and the very grand final shoot-out is as full of implausibilities as can be, but there's a good suspense quotient to this Oater that is most engaging. It also looks gorgeous, with the crisp black and white photography putting a tonally correct moody vibe on the story. Calhoun is a bastion of cool and hardness, quick on the draw and lobbing dominoes around to announce to his prey that they are up against a bad mutha. The requisite entanglements with cattle baron villain Wade Harrington (Duggan) and affairs of the heart are driven straight and simple, and the "twist" isn't really all that, yet this is well worth a look for Calhoun and B Western supporters. 7/10

As an equivalent to the "noir" films in the mystery/suspense genre this film like "High Noon", "The Gunfighter", "Winchester 73", "Jack Slade" and many others uses the black and white to create a somber mood. The Domino Kid wants to kill the five men who murdered his father, four of which were known to him. Rory Calhoun is at his best here, specially at the beginning of the movie. There are enough showdowns and shootouts to satisfy any western fan and if the film lacks a better script, it compensates with a lot of style. The revelation of the mysterious fifth man is deceiving, I was waiting for something more spectacular. The final shootout is theoretically well conceived but it is hard to believe. There is a good moment when one of the killers ask Calhoun who he is and he answers by throwing a piece of domino on the floor.

If you're a die-hard Westerns fan (which I am), you'll manage to get through this one -- but you'll hate yourself in the morning.Rory Calhoun spends a few weeks tracking down his father's killers, taking a bullet in the shoulder during one shoot out, until he finally goes back to his old homestead to settle down with his gorgeous former sweetheart.And he never changes clothes once through the whole film. The bullet hole in his favorite shirt heals up as fast as his chest wound. Nice trick, huh?Hokey dialog flies thicker than the bullets, and Calhoun is as wooden as a hitching post. If you make it to the final shoot out, you'll get to watch the worst shots in the West manage to miss each other so often they run out of bullets.Calhoun finally takes a few slugs, but he still manages to crawl -- yes, crawl -- across an open street, straight toward the bad guy, who misses him repeatedly with a RIFLE from twenty feet away!When Calhoun's sweetheart and the town doc (sci-fi veteran Thomas Brown Henry in his smallest role), examines the wounded Calhoun, he says, "He'll be alright as soon as I get all those holes plugged up."What a man! What a movie . . .