Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

After burning an undercover agent alive, outlaw brothers Forrest Tucker, J. Carroll Naish, and Myron Healey are infiltrated again, this time by former Confederate super-spy Randolph Scott, sent by the Peterson (Pinkerton?) Detective Agency. He ends up falling in love with the brother's pretty, law-abiding sister.A slight cut above some of Scott's usual 1950's B-westerns (the ones not directed by Budd Boetticher), this has really good production values, entertaining heavies, as well as a script with some great hard-boiled moments and bits of nasty (for the 50's) violence. Also, you can't go wrong with Edger Buchanan as a crooked judge!Scott gives one of his typically tough, yet upright performances, while Tucker and Naish work well together and almost steal the show as the meanest of the Reno brothers.

This is the true story of the Reno brothers....Clint, a respected farmer, and Frank, Simeon, John, and Bill...who were the first train robbers in American history. Looting, burning and killing, this infamous clan rode through the middle border states setting the pattern for the great outlaw bands which were to follow: the James boys, the Daltons and the Youngers.The Year 1866, the place is Southern Indiana.Well not quite Indiana exactly as the film was shot on location at Columbia State Historic Park, and apparently some Western purists see this as a blip on the movies Western worth! (hmm) I don't conspire to that at all since what I want from a B Western such as this is a lush Western feel, with identifiable good and bad guys. I feel that director Tim Whelan achieves the latter and his cinematographer Ray Rennahan achieves the former. Rage At Dawn does have a sense of seen it all before about it, but that's not in detriment to it because it's possibly a picture that has been copied more than it has copied from others before it. It's nice to have a real solid Western using a proper and reliable story to work from. While using top professional actors like Forrest Tucker and J. Carrol Naish to be bad fellas obviously helps the piece; as does having the genre legend that is Randolph Scott as your ebullient good guy. Scott fans who haven't seen the picture should be advised, tho, that he isn't actually in the film for the first third. But as always he's worth the wait and it's clever of Whelan to keep us waiting whilst fully forming the Reno legend.With some nicely staged set pieces (the train scenes are well worth our time) and a fabulously dark turn of events in the finale that goes against the grain (shadow play supreme at work), this becomes a genre film well worth taking a peek at. 7/10Footnote: DVD/Public Domain prints of the film are low on quality and do not do justice to the location and costuming. The best print I have seen of this film was on Commercial British TV. Caution is advised on where you source the film from.

Though Randolph Scott is the nominal star, Rage At Dawn really isn't about him. It's about the gang he's sent to capture, the infamous Reno brothers who operated out of Indiana right after the Civil War. Scott in fact does not make an appearance until a quarter of the film is over.After one Reno brother is killed in a failed bank robbery, the three remaining outlaw Renos, Forrest Tucker, J. Carrol Naish, and Myron Healey, are still very much in business. They kill an informant who was working for the Peterson(Pinkerton) Detective Agency and plan future robberies at the home of their sister Laura who is played by Mala Powers.William Peterson assigns two new men to the job, Kenneth Tobey and a former Confederate spy Randolph Scott. The rest of the story is about their capture and the aftermath.With a little research I found the story hardly sticks to the facts. Scott for instance is a totally fictional character though the Pinkertons were very much involved in the apprehension. Mala Powers is portrayed as deploring their crimes, but still loyal to her brothers, in fact she was quite the wild child in her day and aided and abetted the male Renos in every way. Only two of the Renos were in fact lynched in the end by a mob, the character of John Reno who Myron Healey plays died in prison.One thing is true, by intimidation and bribery the Renos did have a safe haven in their home county in Indiana. The three county officials who were on the Reno tab are Edgar Buchanan-judge, Ray Teal-sheriff, and Howard Petrie-county prosecutor. The three of them are the best thing in Rage At Dawn. I don't blame Randolph Scott for saying that he'd rather go after them than the Reno brothers. Scott is a cynical hero in this one, part of his job in the Civil War as a spy was romancing the wives of high placed union officials, so he's got no problem courting Mala Powers to get the job done. I doubt the real Laura Reno would have fallen for it. Still Scott turns in a good performance.As does the rest of the cast in this film, though I will say Indiana is not the usual setting for a western. Maybe this one should be called a Midwestern.

Set in 1866 in Southern Indiana, "Rage at Dawn" is based on the true story of the Reno Brothers, purportedly America's first band of train robbers. In the opening sequence, the citizens of North Vernon lie in silent wait for the Brothers, tipped off to a bank job they intend to foil. Though one brother is killed and left behind, the Reno's return to exact revenge on the Peterson Detective Agency contact who placed them at the bank with unique precision.Enter Randolph Scott as Peterson Agent James Barlow; his mission, along with fellow agent Monk Claxton (Kenneth Tobey), is to infiltrate the Reno Gang, gain their confidence, and put an end to the operation. Faking a thirty thousand dollar train holdup, Barlow attracts the Reno's attention, and gradually gets around to whetting their appetite for a hundred thousand dollar payday.The film boasts a top notch cast of TV and big screen Western veterans, including Forrest Tucker, J. Carroll Naish, and Myron Healey as the Reno Brothers, Denver Pyle as the honest Reno, and Mala Powers as sister Laura providing a romantic interest for Scott's character. Fans will also recognize Ray Teal as a dishonest sheriff in league with the Reno's, and Edgar Buchanan as what else, but a greedily smarmy judge who coordinates Barlow's entry in the Reno circle.The story itself proceeds rather smoothly for the Peterson agents; for his part, Barlow's plan moves along virtually without a hitch. There are no cliffhanger scrapes for him to get out of, unless you count the relationship with Laura he uses to get close to her brothers. The shootout with the Reno's does leave his partner Claxton dead, chalked up to one of those hazards of the trade. Scott's character gets a chance to exhibit some heroism in the face of a lynch mob, but fails to stop the town of Seymour's citizens from hanging the Reno's.I would stop short of hailing this film as a great Western as some other posters have noted. It's a passable film, though not as good as some of Randolph Scott's other Westerns, including "Ride the High Country", "The Tall T" or "The Bounty Hunter". Filmed in Technicolor, the print I viewed was rather garish at times, offering orange colored gunshot bursts and blue hued night time scenes. As a chronicle of the actual story of the Reno Brothers I would have to reserve judgment, as I don't know enough of the historical facts to have an opinion.