Customer Reviews
Strongly cast well-scripted Scott western, sadly let down by poor DVD transfer. - By: Robert J. Evered, 04 Mar 2007 
In 1866 Indiana the Reno brothers gang are ambushed during an attempted bank robbery in the town of North Vernon, Bill Reno is killed as the rest of the gang escape over the Jackson County border. On return to their gangster friendly hometown of Seymour, Southern Indiana where they are in cahoots with the local sheriff (Ray Teal) the Judge (Edgar Buchanan) & Prosecuting Attorney (Howard Petrie). The brothers set a trap to find out who betrayed them Sim Reno (J. Carrol Naish) pretends to be drunk in the local saloon letting out false information to the bartender Murphy (Arthur Space) They discover that he is a Peterson agent, they captured tied him up in a stable, Frank Reno (Forrest Tucker) then proceeds to set the barn alight the Peterson man with it!
At the head office of The Peterson National Detective Agency in Chicago agent Monk Claxton (Kenneth Tobey) & told of the death of the Peterson man at Seymour he is then told he is to work with a new man special agent Jim Barlow (Randolph Scott) Petersons arrange for Barlow to rob a train so as to alllow to infiltrate the Reno gang while Claxton stays on the outside as the contact man. On arrival in Seymour, Barlow makes a play for Laura Reno (Mala Powers) Later he also meets Clint Reno (Denver Pyle) who is a law-abiding citizen. Later, with difficulty he works his way in with the rest of the Reno brothers. A bank hold-up is carried out to establish Barlow's credentials followed by a set up train robbery - A violent shoot-out at the robbery followed by Barlow, Laura & Clint trying to thwart a lynch mob in North Vernon as we head towards "rage at dawn" (which refers to the films conclusion).
This RKO 87 minute western was director Tim Wheelan's penultimate film taken from a fact-based Frank Gruber story with screenplay by Horace McCoy. It has an excellent supporting cast which is necessary as Scott doesn't even appear until the film is some twenty minutes or so old. Now in the public domain (out of copyright) RAGE AT DAWN has been around for a few years on DVD & it can be found just about anywhere in various guises (packaging) & in Box Western Sets. I now see that a widescreen format is also available. I can only comment on my copy, which shows the same picture on the DVD case as the one on the Amazon site, sadly the transfer is poor which may just be due to the source movie, whatever it spoils a pretty good Scott western. Hence only three stars!
Rage at Dawn - By: , 16 Jun 2005 
Although starring Randolph Scott this a bland Western. It is also the worst quality DVD picture I have seen & appears to be copied from a video.
