Night Life in Reno
Night Life in Reno
| 01 November 1931 (USA)
Night Life in Reno Trailers

A story of love, humor and drama against the background of America's "Biggest Little City." An (interrupted) indiscretion by John Wyatt with a floozy prompts his wife, June, to make a trip to Reno, Nevada in order to get a quickie six-week-waiting-period divorce. John, penitent over his past actions (since he got caught), follows his wife to Reno and manages a reconciliation after a murder gives him a chance to prove his true devotion.

Reviews
SunnyHello Nice effects though.
SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.
Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
MartinHafer This film was made by the low-budget Weiss Brothers Studio and this surprised me. I knew that the Weiss' had made some silent comedy shorts with Ben Turpin and Snub Pollard, but I didn't know that their tiny production company made any sound films. Apparently this is among their later productions and it stars Virginia Valli—a name virtually forgotten today.The story is about a seemingly perfect marriage. When the wife catches her husband with another, she runs to Reno for a divorce. Once there, the husband seeks her out, as he wants a reconciliation. Near the end, however, the story gets really weird as a murder appears in the plot from completely out in left field—leading to an interesting conclusion.While the story in this B-movie wasn't bad, the acting sometimes was. The worst of the bad actors was probably the maid near the beginning of the film—she could barely recite her lines better than a drunk robot! But, Clarence Wilson as Mr. Garrett was a bright spot in the film. The skeletal actor was a common bit actor in various films (including playing 'Mr. Geezer' in the Little Rascals films) but here he has a larger than usual and more comical role than you'd expect from him—and he makes the most of it—making at least his scenes very entertaining as a shifty divorce attorney. Sadly, though, this isn't enough to make this film anything more than just passable entertainment.
JohnHowardReid Actually both the crime and mystery angles in this so-named "Crime Classic" are slight. While there is a murder in the story, it occurs very late in the piece. The movie's best moments all happen in the first ten minutes or so, when the lovely Dixie Lee makes her spectacular entrance—although what potential she sees in dull-as-a-doormat Jameson Thomas is open to question. The rest of the movie revolves around a lot of ho-hum footage in which that perennial movie drunk, Arthur Housman, performs his funny-as-watching-ice-melt inebriated act to such wearisome length, it comes as something of a relief when he's suddenly removed from the plot by an unrecognizable, overly face-painted Carmelita Geraghty. Not unexpectedly, director Raymond Cannon handles the bulk of this largely boring, marking-time script with competence but little inspiration. But surprisingly for a Poverty Row effort, production values look quite smart and feature well-dressed studio interiors, peopled with lots of good-looking extras and bit-players.
kidboots I found this film in a box set of 50 and wondered what night life in Reno would have been like in 1931. What a wonderful surprise to see Dixie Lee's name playing "the other woman". She didn't make many films after this being too busy as Mrs. Bing Crosby. She is completely ravishing as Dorothy and it is very believable that she could charm away Virginia Valli's husband (although he seems a bit of a stuffed shirt).Unfortunately within 15 minutes she is out of the film and Virginia Valli is on her way to Reno to get a divorce. Her husband, John, quickly follows, hoping to bring about a reconciliation. She has other ideas.He finds a chum (Roy) who wants to set him up with a date for the night. Roy's date turns out to be John's wife. She also turns out to be a big flirt.Virginia Valli is pretty insipid in the main female lead as are the two men (they both looked very similar to each other). Carmelita Geraghty has a small part as Roy's estranged wife Rita and she adds a bit of colour to the film's drabness.Night Life in Reno was a big yawn.
cobram-1 For an early talkie this movie is actually pretty good. The story is told quickly, the movie only bogs in a few places, but it's entertaining and great to see the details of the clothing, cars and norms of the times. The basic storyline is that a husband picks up a hussy at a party, the wife catches them (almost) in the act, and she goes off to Reno to get a divorce (only a 6 week wait in Nevada). Evidently Reno in 1931 was frequented only by sleazy lawyers, heavy drinking, smoking, gambling and sexing people living it up while they waited for their 6 weeks to roll by. I liked the movie, especially since it gets straight to the point on a few of the subplots, instead of drawing them out like many other films do. This is now a public domain movie, and is available for free download from several sites on the internet. I downloaded a 3 gig Mpeg and the quality of the images were excellent, the sound could use some work, but as with many of these pre-Dolby films, nobody is going to go to the expense and trouble of cleaning up the soundtrack for free. On a scale of 1 to 10, judged against all movies, I'd give it a 6. Judged against other movies of it's era, I'd give it an 8.