Tonight's Movie: Reno (1939) - A Warner Archive DVD Review

Richard Dix stars in RENO (1939), available on DVD from the Warner Archive.

Dix plays William Shayne, a mineral rights lawyer who turns to a divorce practice when miners leave the area, threatening to turn Reno into a ghost town.

Shayne helps put the "biggest little city in the world" on the map for the unhappily married and gamblers, but in turn his own marriage to Jessie (Gail Patrick) suffers. He and Jessie eventually separate, but he's determined to see his daughter Joanne (Anita Louise) not make the same mistake with her own marriage, and he goes to extreme lengths to keep that from happening.

Given the three leads and John Farrow as director -- the same year Farrow made the exciting FIVE CAME BACK (1939) -- RENO is surprisingly tepid.

The plot, surrounded by a flashback framework involving Shayne being tried for running a crooked gambling house, is awkwardly constructed and manages to ramble quite a bit despite a short 73-minute running time.

Individual scenes have some interest but it's a movie in search of a story. There's not much of one, other than already outlined above. With intelligent actors like Dix and Patrick starring, I suspect this could have been quite an interesting movie if only their relationship weren't so underwritten.

Likewise, the lovely Louise doesn't do much but pout and serve as the reason for the flashback story.

Louis Jean Heydt has a nice role as an attorney who in his later years is the judge in the trial scenes. There's also a good role for Hobart Cavanaugh as Dix's friend and colleague.

Selmer Jackson, who seems to turn up constantly in my recent viewing, plays an attorney. The cast also includes Laura Hope Crews, Joyce Compton, Charles Halton, Astrid Allwyn, Paul Cavanagh, and Frank Faylen.

The movie was filmed by J. Roy Hunt.

Previous reviews of Richard Dix films: LOVIN' THE LADIES (1930), THE PUBLIC DEFENDER (1931), HELL'S HIGHWAY (1932), ROAR OF THE DRAGON (1932), HIS GREATEST GAMBLE (1934), THE ARIZONIAN (1935), SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR (1936), YELLOW DUST (1936), IT HAPPENED IN HOLLYWOOD (1937), BLIND ALIBI (1938), SKY GIANT (1938), TWELVE CROWDED HOURS (1939), MEN AGAINST THE SKY (1940), THE ROUNDUP (1941), TOMBSTONE: THE TOWN TOO TOUGH TO DIE (1942), and THE KANSAN (1943).

The Warner Archive print is in good shape although the soundtrack seemed fainter than usual. There are no extras.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this DVD. Warner Archive releases are MOD (manufactured on demand) and may be ordered from Amazon and other online retailers.