Rage At Dawn

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

A Revenge Western with Professional Western overtones, The Reno Brothers are on the loose in Tim Whelan’s Rage At Dawn, another odd-but-interesting release form RKO in 1955.  Randolph Scott leads the cast as an agent hunting for the family thieves, with Forest Tucker, Denver Pyle, J. Carroll Naish, Kenneth Tobey, Edgar Buchanan and Mala Powers rounding out the cast.  Despite this actor appeal and star power, the film just drags on too much, yet has interesting production values and may be worth a look for Western fans or those fascinated by RKO releases of the time.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image was originally issued in 3-strip Technicolor when they would actually shoot three black and white strips, but there is no evidence of those vibrant colors here.  Instead, the colors are usually dull and not so good, while there are detail limits and agedness in the transfer.  Occasionally, hints of the great color can be seen in the blues and purples, but otherwise, forget it.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also average and shows its age, especially being a few generations down.  The only extras are text credits and the original trailer.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo