La rage de survivre

With the making of Rage, the Mexican film industry decided to do what the British have done for years. Get a Hollywood name for the lead and set the film in London with a British cast. That extra bounce of a name from the movie capital is good for box office.

In this case they got two. Glenn Ford as a dissolute doctor and Stella Stevens as a working girl are in Mexico at a construction site, each practicing their own trade when Ford is bitten by a rabid dog.

It's a simple story, they are out in the wilds and Ford has to reach civilization and fast before the case becomes incurable. With Stevens's help he sets out on the journey always as a medical professional looking out for the telltale signs of his condition going beyond the point of medical help.

I saw Rage in theater back when it was released and after some showings on television it seems to have disappeared. Peter Ford's biography of his dad tells little about it.

Ford and Stevens turn in some fine performances. Maybe this will be unearthed and put out on DVD soon.

A most overlooked film which may have played better as a TV feature. Ford is an alcoholic doctor, but still the idol of many in this poverty stricken construction town in Mexico. When rabies hits the camp, Ford is called into action, when it strikes him personally, he finds a reason to live, and attempts a trek to a big city hospital before the disease spreads within his blood stream. Ford looks considerably older and sloppier in this film, his third with Stella Stevens. He's brooding and ill-kempt, not at all the light leading man of the previous decade. The last half hour carries some real tension, and an effective music score by Gustavo César Carrión adds immeasurably.

Glenn Ford was VERY underrated as an actor as one other post has said. He was VERY GOOD in this movie and the story was equally enjoyable. The title says it all. If you've ever lived through the horror of MAYBE contracting rabies, this performance is VERY understandable. I saw this movie many years ago and still remember the performance that Glenn Ford gave. Now that he's gone MAYBE the Academy of Arts and Sciences will see fit to honor a great actor who should have been honored many many years ago. This man had a 4 or 5 decades worth of performances and everyone of them was top-notch. Good bye, Mr. Ford. I know that you're in Heaven and watching us at this very moment!

"Rage" is a highly unusual film for Glenn Ford. Heck, it's a highly unusual film...period. The story is set in rural Mexico and finds Dr. Reuben (Ford) working with the local villagers...and drinking himself half to death. Through the course of the film you realize why he's there and why he's drinking. Years before, his actions resulted in his wife's death...and he seems to be doing pennance for this by working so far from the States. But he's also angry, sullen and altogether unpleasant in many ways.

Into this town comes a truck load of prostitutes bound for someplace nicer and less grubby. One of those women, Perla (Stella Stevens) takes a liking for the doctor...but eventually she moves on to another town.

Dr. Reuben is bitten by his dog...and the dog has rabies. Earlier in the film you see a man going mad with the illness...and the Doc knows he must get treatment soon or he'll die the same way. But there's a dying woman about to give birth to attend to first. And then, it's a long, long way to the nearest large city where he can get treatment. Can he get there in time?

The prostitute plot in the film seemed like filler...though Stevens' character actually became important late in the story when she helps the Doctor get to town. Still, her rowdy friends seemed more like a distraction than anything and a bit of a re-write would have helped. Without that unnecessary plot, I would have given the film a 7.





FYI--I noticed one review says that the movie was set in rural New Mexico, but when I looked at IMDB to see where the movie was filmed it was set in Mexico...not in the United States.

Hard-drinking medico, mourning the death of his family in a small Mexican village inhabited by construction workers and visiting prostitutes, is bitten by a dog he later learns was rabid; his journey to get proper medical help from the next town over is fraught with obstacles and calamities. Though low-budget, "Rage" is one of Glenn Ford's best movies from the mid-'60s, a rugged adventure filmed in Durango by a mostly-Hispanic crew. Ford, together with burnt-out prostie Stella Stevens and faithful amigo David Reynoso, digs deep to give us a full-blooded character, and the insanity surrounding him is aptly filmed by cinematographer Rosalío Solano (who does go all-out with the animated camera angles, yet which provides some needed relief). Stevens, as usual, is catty, sarcastic, but with a heart of gold--she's wonderful--and Reynoso is terrific standing by the doctor through the thickest of troubles. Unusual and gripping, this race-against-time is well-written, with peculiar but effective music from Gustavo César Carrión. **1/2 from ****