There's a few movies with this title - it's the second most famous city in Nevada after all, albeit for divorces rather than gambling. This one is a male melodrama - a genre that was popular in the 30s with heavyset stars like Edward Arnold and, in this case, Richard Dix. It involves his life and times as a young lawyer in a growing Reno. He represents miners and then, when that runs out, the divorce industry.
It's not very interesting. The movie starts off well, with a long tracking shot inside a casino (director John Farrow loved his tracking shots eg China) and Anita Louise gambling at the wheel, and Dix as a casino boss. Then Louise accuses him of cheating, we go to trial, then flash back.
Dix isn't very exciting (at least not to me - if you like him you'll enjoy this more). I wasn't wild about Gail Patrick as his wife either. I didn't get, if he loved her, why he didn't make it work - or try to contact his daughter. He clearly didn't care about either - and if he didn't, why should we?
The film badly needed a villain - someone to get a comeuppance. It also needed to be fun. It should be - miners, divorcees, casinos... but it's dull. Maybe Catholic John Farrow was the wrong guy to make a film about the divorce capital of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment