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The Midwest, 1866: The Reno Brothers, led by Frank (Forrest Tucker) have been terrorizing the countryside for some time now, and went unpunished because in Seymour, Indiana, their town of residence, the judge (Edgar Buchanan), the prosecutor (Howard Petrie) and the Sheriff (Ray Teal) are all on their payroll - and it's pretty good business, too, as they're usually going for the big bucks. This is frustrating enough for a special agent, Barlow (Randolph Scott), being sent to Seymour to infiltrate the gang. And to properly introduce him, a trainrobbery with him as the perpetrator is staged, then he spends some of the money from the train in Seymour - which almost immediately gets the Sheriff on his trail, and through him, the prosecutor and the judge he gets in touch with the Renos ... oh, and also through Laura Reno (Mala Powers), innocent sister of the brothers, whom he has a personal interest in, and she soon develops feelings for him as well. The Renos test Barlow in a bank robbery, and he does good - even if Laura's mighty disappointed in him when she finds out. Then he persuades the brothers to hold up a train - and of course it's a trap as he has law enforcers from all over the state sent in, and ultimately the Renos, their gang, and also their backers on the side of the law in Seymour are captured and incarcerated. A spontaneous mob forms to string up the brothers, and while Barlow now tries to save their lives he's only one against many and has to witness them hang. He still gets the girl in the end.

As of 2021, this is one of only two feature films about the notorious Reno gang (the other being the following year's Love Me Tender), and it sure takes its liberties with the material and seems to be more interested in equipping the story with a hero that never was than focussing on its more interesting details - like that the gang were the first post-Civil War trainrobbers and fell victim of not one but three separate lynchings. That said, Randolph Scott makes a good (if fictional) hero, even if his romance with Mala Powers seems a bit creepy, what with him being more than 30 years her senior, the film is solidly told, and some individual scenes (like the lynchings that are not actually shown but mirrored in the shocked face of Randolph Scott) really pack a punch. But solid as it may be, the film is hardly great, for one the whole romantic subplot does nothing to drive the main story, the judge, prosecutor and Sheriff as the brothers backers would have made for a great bit of satire but is dropped all too soon, the decisive train robbery-cum-shoot-out comes all too soon, lacking proper build-up, while the lynch mob element comes out of nowhere in the third act, the rage of the general public just lacks any base inside the film. It's still solid genre entertainment, just not especially great.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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