Rage at Dawn (1955): watch the full film free, legally

Indiana after the Civil War

Rage at Dawn is a 1955 American Technicolor Western directed by Tim Whelan. Randolph Scott, Forrest Tucker, Mala Powers and J. Carrol Naish head the cast. The film purports to tell the true story of the Reno Brothers, an outlaw gang said to have terrorized the American Midwest, especially Southern Indiana, shortly after the American Civil War.

Its story separates Clint Reno, a respected Indiana farmer, from four Reno brothers who are robbers and killers. Their sister Laura has inherited the family home and keeps house and cooks for them. Some of the brothers served in the Civil War, an experience linked to their hardened attitude toward violence.

Barlow enters the Reno circle

During a bank raid in a nearby town, one brother is killed, and the gang concludes that an informant warned the townsmen. They identify Murphy, a local bartender employed by the Peterson Detective Agency to investigate their crimes. His replacement, James Barlow, is a former secret agent for the Confederacy. Barlow poses as a train robber, aided by a staged robbery undertaken with the train crew's cooperation, and courts Laura. Frank Reno grudgingly accepts him into the gang.

Barlow learns that the Renos have corrupted local officials, including a judge, permitting them to act with impunity in that part of Indiana. The brothers plan a train robbery with Barlow.

California towns and railroads

Rage at Dawn was shot on location in Columbia State Historic Park, California. Its buildings have a somewhat authentic period look, while the topography somewhat resembles the hilly country near Seymour in southern Indiana. Yet scenes of the gang riding into town for the bank robbery show electric lines, utility poles, more power lines, and a pole flying the California State Flag. Railroad scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railroad in Tuolumne County, California.

The following year, a more successful version of the Reno brothers' story was released as Love Me Tender, with Elvis Presley as Clint Reno.

Scott plays James Barlow, Tucker plays Frank Reno, Powers plays Laura Reno, and Naish plays Simeon 'Sim' Reno. Edgar Buchanan plays the Judge, Myron Healey plays John Reno, and Denver Pyle plays Clint Reno. Howard Petrie is Lattimore, the prosecuting attorney; Ray Teal is the Sheriff of Seymour; William Forrest is William Peterson. Trevor Bardette plays Fisher, and Kenneth Tobey plays Monk Claxton.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “Rage at Dawn”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.