Rage at Dawn

1955 ActionWestern 87 minutes Directed by Tim Whelan

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About Rage at Dawn

After the Civil War, four of the Reno brothers rob and kill around Seymour, Indiana, with local officials paid to look away. A fifth brother, Clint, farms. Their sister Laura keeps the family house, which she inherited, and cooks for the outlaws. Murphy, a Peterson Detective Agency man planted as a bartender, is found out, knocked down, and burned in his barn. James Barlow, a former Confederate agent, replaces him. He poses as a train robber and is allowed to stage a holdup with the crew's help. He courts Laura and is let into Frank Reno's gang. The next robbery is a trap. After a shootout the brothers are jailed outside the bought jurisdiction. Townspeople break in and lynch them. Barlow tries to stop it. Laura arrives and takes his effort as genuine.

Cast & crew

More about Rage at Dawn

Tim Whelan directed. Horace McCoy wrote the screenplay from a story by Frank Gruber. Nat Holt produced it for Nat Holt Productions. Ray Rennahan photographed it in Technicolor. Paul Sawtell wrote the music. Harry Marker edited. RKO Radio Pictures released it in Los Angeles on 26 March 1955 and in the United States on 2 June 1955. It runs 87 minutes. Randolph Scott plays James Barlow. Forrest Tucker plays Frank Reno. Mala Powers plays Laura. J. Carrol Naish plays Simeon Reno. Denver Pyle plays Clint. Edgar Buchanan plays the judge. Myron Healey plays John Reno. Ray Teal plays the sheriff of Seymour.

Themes

  • A gang that has bought the local judge
  • A detective who stages a robbery to join them
  • A lynching the undercover man cannot stop
  • Reno brothers
  • James Barlow
  • Seymour
  • train robbery
  • lynching
  • Randolph Scott
  • Technicolor

Background

The film uses the Reno brothers, who robbed in the Midwest just after the Civil War, and moves the capture to a jail the local judge cannot protect.

Making

Holt shot a southern Indiana story at Columbia State Historic Park, whose buildings read as period even where the California flag does not.

Look

Ray Rennahan shot the Technicolor picture at Columbia State Historic Park, standing in for the hills near Seymour, and on the Sierra Railroad.

Music

Paul Sawtell wrote the score.

Preservation

Wikipedia files the picture with American films in the public domain in the United States.

Notes

  • As the gang rides into town, power lines and a pole flying the California state flag are visible.
  • The railroad scenes were shot on the Sierra Railroad in Tuolumne County.
  • The Reno story was filmed again the next year as Love Me Tender, with Elvis Presley as Clint Reno.
  • William Forrest plays William Peterson, head of the agency that sends Barlow in after Murphy.

Scenes

  • The brothers knock Murphy out, tie him in his barn, and set it on fire.
  • Barlow is allowed to rob a train whose crew is in on the act.
  • A mob takes the brothers out of the jail and lynches them while Barlow tries to intervene.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (RageatDawn)