Rage at Dawn

Rage at Dawn is a 1955 American Western film by RKO Pictures starring Randolph Scott and Forrest Tucker, and featuring Denver Pyle, Edgar Buchanan, Mala Powers and J. Carrol Naish. It purports to tell the true story of the Reno Brothers, an outlaw gang which terrorized the American Midwest, particularly Southern Indiana, in the period immediately following the American Civil War.

In this films version of the story, four of the Reno Brothers are corrupt robbers and killers while a fifth, Clint Denver Pyle is a respected Indiana farmer. A sister, Laura Mala Powers, who has inherited the family home, serves as a housekeeper and cook to the brothers. Some of them served in the Civil War, which has given them a hardened attitude toward violence. One brother is killed when they go after a bank in a nearby town, leading them to draw the conclusion that someone that they know is an informant, as the men of the town appeared to have been waiting for them. They soon learn that it was Murphy, a local bartender, whom they then murder by knocking him out, and tying him up in his barn, which they then set ablaze. The bartender was in fact an agent employed by the Peterson in real life, Pinkerton Detective Agency sent to investigate and provide information about the Reno Brothers crimes.His replacement is Scotts character, James Barlow, a former secret agent for the Confederacy, who determines to join the gang by posing as a train robber, a ploy which is aided by his being allowed to pull off a staged train robbery with the full cooperation of the train crew in the area. He also begins courting the sister. Grudgingly accepted by the brothers led by Tuckers character, Frank Reno, he soon learns that they have corrupted local officials, including a judge played by veteran character actor Edgar Buchanan, allowing them to operate in that part of the state with nearimpunity. The brothers plan a train robbery with Barlow, but this proves to be a setup in which they are captured following a shootout and taken to an area jail outside the jurisdiction of the corrupted officials. In the shootout, Barlows fellow Peterson agent, Monk Claxton, is killed. Townspeople are incited to mob violence and break into the jail and lynch the brothers before they can be brought to trial despite Barlows best efforts to stop this. Apparently the sister accepts his efforts as genuin

Source: Wikipedia