"SHOWDOWN AT SUNUP!"
In this film's version of the story, four of the Reno Brothers are corrupt robbers and killers while a fifth, Clint is a respected Indiana farmer. A sister, Laura, who has inherited the family home, serves the outlaw brothers as a housekeeper and cook. One brother is killed when they go after a bank, the men of the town appear to have been waiting for them…
Randolph Scott
James Barlow
Forrest Tucker
Frank Reno
Mala Powers
Laura Reno
J. Carrol Naish
Simeon 'Sim' Reno
Edgar Buchanan
Judge
Myron Healey
John Reno
Denver Pyle
Clint Reno
Kenneth Tobey
Monk Claxton
Howard Petrie
Lattimore
In this film's version of the story, four of the Reno Brothers are corrupt robbers and killers while a fifth, Clint is a respected Indiana farmer. A sister, Laura, who has inherited the family home, serves the outlaw brothers as a housekeeper and cook. One brother is killed when they go after a bank, the men of the town appear to have been waiting for them…
Would it have made a difference knowing what I really am? 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.
Karl Westover, an inexperienced farm boy, runs away after unintentionally killing a neighbor, whose family pursues him for vengeance. He meets Barbarosa, a gunman of near-mythical proportions, who is himself in danger from his father-in-law Don Braulio, a wealthy Mexican rancher. Don Braulio wants Barbarosa dead for marrying his daughter against the father's will. Barbarosa reluctantly takes the clumsy Karl on as a partner, as both of them look to survive the forces lining up against them.
When a ruthless robber baron takes away everything they cherish, a rough-and-tumble, idealistic peasant and a sophisticated heiress embark on a quest for justice, vengeance…and a few good heists.
Two black bounty hunters ride into a small town out West in pursuit of an outlaw. They discover that the town has no sheriff, and soon take over that position, much against the will of the mostly white townsfolk.
After bandits steal his poker winnings this American legend makes his way to the next town in search of them. Seeking out his revenge during a poker game gone bad Doc West finds himself in the local town jail. When his past is exposed and a battle amongst the town breaks out in gunfire he will have to choose sides, between the outlaws or the law-abiding citizens.
On the way to pick up the bounty on a wanted murderer, a bounty hunter stops at a staging post where he is forced to continue his journey with two outlaws who want the murderer for their own reasons and a recently-widowed woman, with the murderer's brother and his men in hot pursuit.
When a Midwest town learns that a corrupt railroad baron has captured the deeds to their homesteads without their knowledge, a group of young ranchers join forces to take back what is rightfully theirs. They will become the object of the biggest manhunt in the history of the Old West and, as their fame grows, so will the legend of their leader, a young outlaw by the name of Jesse James.
A somewhat daffy book editor on a rail trip from Los Angeles to Chicago thinks that he sees a murdered man thrown from the train. When he can find no one who will believe him, he starts doing some investigating of his own. But all that accomplishes is to get the killer after him.
Ross Bodine and Frank Post are cowhands on Walt Buckman's R-Bar-R ranch. Bodine is older and broods a bit about how he will get along when he's too old to cowboy. Post is young and rambunctious and ambitious for a better life than wrangling cows. When one of their fellow cowboys is killed in a corral accident, Post suggests a way into a better life for himself and his friend: robbing a bank. Bodine reluctantly joins in the plan and the two contrive to rob the local bank. They make good their escape initially, but Walt Buckman and his two sons, John and Paul, are incensed at this betrayal by their own trusted employees. John and Paul set out to bring Bodine and Post to justice.
In Bolivia, Butch Cassidy (now calling himself James Blackthorn) pines for one last sight of home, an adventure that aligns him with a young robber and makes the duo a target for gangs and lawmen alike.
In the mid-19th century, Senator William J. Tadlock leads a group of settlers overland in a quest to start a new settlement in the Western US. Tadlock is a highly principled and demanding taskmaster who is as hard on himself as he is on those who have joined his wagon train. He clashes with one of the new settlers, Lije Evans, who doesn't quite appreciate Tadlock's ways. Along the way, the families must face death and heartbreak and a sampling of frontier justice when one of them accidentally kills a young Indian boy.