Les Rôdeurs de l'aube

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. 7/10

Footnote: 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.

"Rage of Dawn" is one of a series of excellent westerns made by Randolph Scott in the 1950s. This one has Scott posing as a train robber in order to infiltrate the Reno Brothers gang in 1866.

The brothers Frank (Forrest Tucker), Sim (J. Carroll Naish) and John (Myron Healey) among others are ambushed during a holdup attempt in which their youngest brother is killed. They suspect an informer. It turns out to be Peterson Detective Agency man Murphy (Arthur Space) who is quickly eliminated. Back at the Peterson office, Mr. Peterson (William Forrest) assigns Monk Paxton (Kenneth Tobey) to the case along with ex-southern spy James Barlow (Scott). They stage a phony train robbery in order to gain the gang's confidence. They then take refuge at Barlow's "uncle's" (Ralph Moody) ranch and await contact from the gang.

Meanwhile, Barlow has become acquainted with the Reno's sister Laura (Mala Powers) and sparks fly. Good Reno brother Clint (Denver Pyle) pleads with Barlow to take his sister "away from all of this". Barlow gets in with the gang and learns that the local Judge (Edgar Buchanan), prosecutor (Howard Petrie) and sheriff (Ray Teal) are involved with the gang.

Barlow sets them up in a train robbery and the Reno Brothers are arrested. Concerned citizens Fisher (Trevor Bardette) and Dedrick (James Lydon) form a lynch mob and go to the jail, overpower the local sheriff (George Wallace) and.......

This has got to be one of the greatest casts of veteran western performers ever to appear in one film. Western lovers will know what I'm talking about. In addition to those mentioned above you'll spot Mike Ragan (aka Holly Bane), Dennis Moore, Chubby Johnson and William Phipps in other roles.

One of Scott's better westerns of the period.

It is more than twenty minutes into the movie before its star Randolph Scott makes his appearance and his lean craggy presence gives a decided lift to proceedings .He plays an undercover agent sent to pose as a train robber and infiltrate the Reno brothers gang who -aided by corrupt local officials -are wreaking havoc in Indiana .He then persuades the gang to embark on a train robbery with a view to entrapping them . The script is by the cult pulp crime novelist Horace McCoy and is based on a story by another feted pulpster ,Frank Gruber, and it is slick and efficient with solid performance from a sturdy supporting cast which includes dependable performers like Forrest Tucker ,and J Carroll Naish as two of the Reno brothers Handsome photography and the brisk direction of Tim Whelan are distinct assets and the historically accurate finale ends proceedings on a gritty and powerful note as frontier justice takes over from the rule of law .

A good little movie which Western devotees will like

Pretty standard 50s western fare here...nothing you wouldn't expect.

However, as I grew up in Jackson County, Indiana, it was quite strange to hear the names and the communities from my childhood as the locale of the story.

By the way, whoever wrote the "trivia" for this film has no idea what they're talking about in regards to the "flat plains" of Indiana. The film notes at the beginning this is "Southern Indiana" -- and my home county has some significant hills and very rolling landscape. Central and northern Indiana IS flat. Where this movie takes place is definitely NOT.