"Rage" is Columbia's extraordinary drama made by a primarily Mexican crew was written of in one of the better movie magazines on the news stands back in 1966, "Screen Stories." And then it took me almost 50 years to finally see it. It had a major star or two, Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens. The rest of the cast is Mexican, but they are all very good, especially David Reynoso as "Pancho" and Dacia Gonzalez as "Maria" his wife to mention a few. Cinematografica Jalisco and Joseph L. Schenck Enterprises brought to us under the direction of Gilberto Gazcon, who shared in the screenplay with Fernando Mendez and Teddi Sherman, from a story by Gazcon, Guillermano Hernandez and Jesus Velasquez. A doctor in a construction camp is bitten by a rabid dog and must get medical treatment in less than 48 hours once detected, and then the race against adversity manages to try to stop him. Filmed in Pathecolor, the film was produced by Gazcon and executive produced by Richard Goldstone. Everything else by the Mexican crew is solid, and I mention the music specifically because it is a true highlight. Gustavo Cesar Carrion composed the music and it heightens the plot aside from delivering some solid renditions of its theme, heard on the radio, and accompanying Nature as she yields to the story as well. Film Editing by Carlos Savage and Walter Thompson and Cinematography by Rosalio Solano are also outstanding. The acting is all top drawer, and I like Mr. Ford and Ms. Stevens even better than I always have because they made this film. They deserve much applause. It is just the kind of human drama that is sadly in lack of today. Some reviewers have noted it has not much of a plot. On the contrary, it is a most believable picture because it knows what to do with it. Needs to be seen to show how films should be made today. Exceptional.

Hard-drinking medico, mourning the death of his family in a small Mexican village inhabited by construction workers and visiting prostitutes, is bitten by a dog he later learns was rabid; his journey to get proper medical help from the next town over is fraught with obstacles and calamities. Though low-budget, "Rage" is one of Glenn Ford's best movies from the mid-'60s, a rugged adventure filmed in Durango by a mostly-Hispanic crew. Ford, together with burnt-out prostie Stella Stevens and faithful amigo David Reynoso, digs deep to give us a full-blooded character, and the insanity surrounding him is aptly filmed by cinematographer Rosalío Solano (who does go all-out with the animated camera angles, yet which provides some needed relief). Stevens, as usual, is catty, sarcastic, but with a heart of gold--she's wonderful--and Reynoso is terrific standing by the doctor through the thickest of troubles. Unusual and gripping, this race-against-time is well-written, with peculiar but effective music from Gustavo César Carrión. **1/2 from ****

Mr. Ford never got the recognition he deserved for the consistent quality of his acting. 'Rage' also seems to have been forgotten in the shuffle, but is actually a very enjoyable film. The story is simple: a lush doctor is bitten by a rabid dog and has only a limited time to find the antidote before the diseases manifests itself. Doesn't sound like much of a story, but with a little help from Stella Stevens, who puts in a good performance as 'fallen woman', the plot moves along nicely. Some local flavor of the Mexican countryside is thrown in and all in all, a very enjoyable flic.

I enjoyed this movie a great deal; it has an interesting development of characters set within a construction camp for a major highway in rural New Mexico. Early in the film a local herder is brought in dying of rabies; the veterinarian becomes involved in a search for the source of the disease and whether it is part of an epidemic. A major side plot in the movie is the relationship between the veterinarian and a construction camp prostitute. There is a great deal of character development, and the lady's occupation is so subtly portrayed that it is an acceptable moview for older children. There is a great deal of empathy for the hard lives lived in a construction camp and its surrounding rural poverty.Unlike most movies set in a rural atmosphere, the country people and blue collar workers are not cartoon buffoons or evil, violent troglodytes. This sensitive portrayal contrasts markedly with the brutal louts recently portrayed in a certain movie about commercial fishermen lost at sea, the Perfect Storm.