Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Wuchak Released in 1955 and directed by Tim Whelan, "Rage at Dawn" stars Randolph Scott as a special agent sent to Indiana to infiltrate the notorious Reno Gang, who carried out the first three peacetime train robberies in the USA. The stolen money was largely never recovered. Forrest Tucker plays the top member of the gang, Frank, while Mala Powers plays the honest sister of the brothers, Laura, whom Scott's character decides to romance.There's only one other movie based on the exploits of the Reno Gang, which was Elvis' debut film "Love Me Tender," released the year after "Rage at Dawn." "Rage" is more faithful to the true story, although the special agent played by Scott is fictitious and Laura, while not part of the gang, wasn't squeaky clean as depicted, plus she was loyal to her brothers. But the movie's accurate in that Clint Reno (Denver Pyle) refused to be part of the gang and was called Honest Clint, not to mention the notorious ending is faithful to history, albeit no one was apprehended for the "crime" (I'm being ambiguous because I don't want to give it away).Scott is at his charismatic best here as he romances a girl that's clearly younger than half his age. Randolph was 56 during filming whereas cutie Mala was 23 (!), but this is okay once you understand that Scott's character is supposed to be around 35 (even though he looks like he's at least 50). Forrest Tucker is also great as the malevolent Frank Reno.Unfortunately, the obvious California locations ruin the movie because the story's set in the Ohio River region of Indiana, Missouri and surrounding areas, which look nothing like California. Moreover, the last act isn't very engaging despite the action; it somehow loses the interest attained in the first two acts. Still, "Rage at Dawn" is one of only two movies based on the Reno Gang and it's the more accurate of the two; not to mention the principle actors are great.The movie runs 87 minutes and was shot in Columbia, Sonora & Chico, California.GRADE: C+

Robert J. Maxwell Although this widescreen color production avoids few clichés of the 1950s Western, it's still diverting in its small way. The opening credits proclaim the film's historical accuracy. Actually, it's not that accurate -- not according to the entry on Wikipedia anyway -- but it sticks closely enough to real events. You can tell because an entirely fictional movie would have one climax, usually a shoot out. And there IS a shoot out here, after undercover agent Randolph Scott arranges for the gang to be ambushed during a trait robbery, but it's followed by still another climax, five minutes later, in which the surviving gang members are lynched.No doubt the Reno brothers were unkempt miscreants. They don't joke, laugh, or have fun. Their faces are sour masks. They murdered and thieved their way through life beginning in adolescence. But the movie gets a bonus point for giving them at least some allegiance to each other that goes beyond the merely functional. They're like the Clanton gang in John Ford's "My Darling Clementine". They're unquestionably bad but they're rather more than incarnate evil.And they lynching scene gives them some additional dignity. They take it the way Saddam Hussein took it. Scott tries to stop the lynching but fails. In actual fact, there were not three but ten gang members lynched, in three independent groups, at different times. There was a national uproar over the mob violence, as there should have been.I don't mean to suggest that any of this is handled particularly well by the director. Neat photography and nice location shooting -- nowhere near Indiana -- but director Tim Whelan just rolls everything along on its formulaic track. The shoot out, for instance, is confusingly staged and fecklessly done. The characters shoot without aiming -- sometimes without even LOOKING in the direction they're shooting. Laura Reno, a real figure, falls improbably in love with Scott after the exchange of a few pleasantries. But what originality there is, is in the script, which defines the characters in ways that sometimes, very gently, nudges our conscience. Longfellow was wrong but he had a point when he wrote, "If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."I wish some thought had gone into the title. "Rage At Dawn." I mean, really, couldn't they do any better than that? It's one of those generic titles. One size fits all. "Guns of Darkness," "Another Dawn," "Trapped." They should have let me have a crack at it. I'd have given them something that would SELL. "Agape and Malevolence in the Western Eidos." God, they'd come from hundreds of miles around to see a 1950 movie with a title like that. And they'd crawl all the way if they had to -- through the snow.

silverscreen888 This is a very-much copied western which belongs technically to the category of Randolph Scott westerns; this large and interesting body of work itself should be divided I suggest into the 1940s B/W series, and the 1950s color series; this is one of the earlier color efforts, an expensive-looking production but with somewhat inconsistent color. In several of his better efforts, Scott's role was that of a law officer or detective infiltrating some group of schemers. The story-line here is a fictionalized biography by veteran Frank Gruber, with screenplay by Horace McCoy, detailing the events of the Reno Brothers' gang and their train robberies performed in rural Indiana c. 1866. Scott's character is Barlow, a veteran Southern spy with impressive credentials. When their agent operating with the gang is murdered (after the gang is set up for capture), the Peterson Detective Agemcy sends for Scott to work with agents Kenneth Tobey and Ralph Moody to infiltrate the gang himself. Their device is a staged train robbery faked by the team, and the promise of a $100,000 payoff in the future. The ruse works; Scott is accepted by the gang, including Frank Reno, its leader, played strongly by Forrest Tucker. But immediately Scott finds he has problems. One of the Reno family, Denver Pyle, has nothing to do with the crimes and Scott falls in love with Mala Powers, his sister, who is bitter and unhappy; of course when he turns out to be just another bank robber, she turns against him, despite their obvious attraction and his courtly manners. From this point on, Scott helps the others pull an unremunerative robbery and becomes Tucker's rival to be the head of the gang. Between runs to town to report to his partners, he also is introduced to the three inside men in the town from which the gang operates--played by fine actor Howard Petrie, Edgar Buchanan and "Bonanza's" TV sheriff talented Ray Teal. Despite setbacks, the entrapment of the gang works. In a long and well-done shootout, several of the gang are killed, along with Scott's partner. He is then free to reveal his the role he has been playing all along. Powers tries to shoot him at night, but she comes nowhere close and ends up in his arms. Then Pyle comes to warn the detectives that a mob has been formed, led by smooth-talking Trevow Bardette and Jimmy Lydon. Scott tries has to ride off to try to save the gang from being lynched. The film's ending is downbeat but historically accurate, bringing to the end a memorable adventure tale that might have been made differently but is very lively and well-made exactly as it is. The other members of the gang are Myron Healey and powerful J. Carroll Naish, plus others, with George Wallace as the sheriff of Seymour and William Phipps, Chubby Johnson and Holly Bane in smaller roles. Director Tim Whelna did a solid if unspectacular job of directing a very difficult film, with day, night, action, dialogue, interior, exterior and battle scenes. The cinematography by Ray Rennahan and the music by Paul Sawtell are very fine, and Walter E. Keller's art direction is above average also. I enjoy this Scott western as a transitional work and for its attempts to make a true-to-life historical fictionalized biography, for the mostly-implied-level idea on which characters interact in this swift-moving adventure, and for the authentic look and feel of the work. A very entertaining film by anyone's standards.

oldsenior First a bit of trivia: In the opening segment as the Reno Boys are riding into the Indiana Territory township for the robbery you can see an American Flag (with 48 stars I imagine) in the background with a California state flag underneath it, with it's bear in the center. The movie was shot in part in California's Columbian Historic Park in 1955..................... Anyway, I thought the movie was excellent and realistic, well told, the writing was excellent and well acted by everyone involved. What a superlative cast: Tucker was excellent, as evil as I ever saw him in any movie, Buchanan, a wonderful actor, was his sly self to perfection, as usual, Mala Powers as beautiful as usual in what I consider an unnecessary part (I wonder if this was a true part of the story), in 1955 you had to have a love interest to sell movie tickets or they supposed it to be. You also had Jimmy Lydon (Henry Aldrich), Arthur Space, Myron Healey, Kenneth Tobey, Denver Pyle, all familiar faces even today, doing what they did best; act, under the fine direction of Tim Whelan, creating what I would think 1866 was like. Also with great music by Paul Sawtell and photographed beautifully by Ray Rennahan. A Fine film that held my interest.