While heavily mythologised and fictionalised, there was an element of historical fact to the Wild West. Real-life figures were often incorporated into novels, stories, and feature films, such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Calamity Jane, and others. Another example is the Reno brothers gang, who operated during and immediately after the American Civil War and who undertook the first three train robberies in recorded history. While they were most famously immortalised in Robert D. Webb’s Love Me Tender, released in 1956 and starring Elvis Presley, their first film appearance came a year earlier in Tim Whelan’s 1955 western Rage at Dawn.

The film picks up the Reno brothers post-war, where they are executing a series of bank robberies across the American Midwest. Seemingly immune from the local authorities, the brothers are investigated by the Peterson Detective Agency whose agent James Barlow (Randolph Scott) masquerades as a fellow criminal to infiltrate the gang.

There is a nice blend of genres to Rage at Dawn, which infuses the western with elements of the espionage thriller. Some of the film’s strongest sequences involve Barlow’s staging of a fake train robbery to attract the Renos’ attention and convince them of his bona-fides. This masquerade continues through most of the film, as Barlow unearths a local conspiracy to keep the criminals out of gaol and their co-conspirators rich in profits. It’s comparatively clever stuff, and is very well played by a cast that includes Forrest Tucker, Mala Powers, and western stalwart Edgar Buchanan. This is one of four westerns to feature Buchanan in 1955 alone; I have already reviewed The Silver Star and The Lonesome Trail, with Wichita still to come.

Of course Randolph Scott was no slouch when it come to westerns either. He is particularly charming here, finding time to not only ingratiate himself with the Renos but romance their sister (Powers) as well. It demonstrates a solid range for the actor, contrasting performances I have already reviewed in A Lawless Street and Ten Wanted Men. It also demonstrates just how rapidly some of this westerns were put together, given in how many an individual actor could appear each year.

While the script and cast are excellent, Rage at Dawn suffers somewhat from lacklustre direction and pedestrian camera work. Scenes inside the Renos’ kitchen, for example, are practically staged as theatre with long takes and few – if any – close-ups. It robs the film of quite a bit of dramatic potential. It was the only western directed by Tim Whelan, a British filmmaker best known for The Thief of Baghdad (1940). It was also his last film – the director died, aged 63, two years later.

The moribund direction partly masks just how brutal some of Rage at Dawn turns out to be. The film does not flinch from giving the Renos the end they suffered in real life, and an earlier scene sees the brothers tie an uncovered traitor to a post in a barn and burn him to death. Generally speaking, the violence here is notably uglier than what was typical at the time.

A good film, then, that with a little more focus could have been a great one.

1955 West is a review project to watch as many western features from 1955 as possible, in order to gain a ‘snapshot’ view of the genre at its height. According to Letterboxd, there were 72 westerns released that year; this is the 27th film reviewed. You can see all of FictionMachine’s reviews to date by clicking here.