Instant Favorite.

A Brilliant Conflict

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Bill Carter (John Lund) is an agent working for a rich guy, Mr. Del Monte. His job is to either give a sleazy gambler a payoff NOT to marry Del Monte's foolish daughter or, preferably, convince this daughter not to marry the guy. Unfortunately, the gambler IS a sleaze-bag and has a couple heavies on hand to relieve Carter of the money ($100,000)...deal or no deal. Fortunately, a female detective, Nora (Doris Singleton), is also working for Del Monte and informs Carter she's there to protect him. Unfortunately, Carter is a sexist jerk and wants nothing to do with her...at least at first.This is a fair enough movie to watch BUT also is irritating by modern standards. Carter is a bit of a dummy and Nora is so smart and capable...yet, inexplicably, she falls for the dope by the end of the picture...an obvious and expected cliché...but one that spoils the film a bit. After all, WHY would she like Carter? And, wouldn't this somehow not be consistent with her character?

Well, I was not so surprised with this one. Republic Studios were used to make those sort of mixed up of thriller, westerns, comedies...I would say it was their trade mark; for instance features with cars and phones...Such as Roy Rogers B westerns...Back to AFFAIR IN RENO, we can see a normal guy - John Lund - who arrives in the Biggest Little City in the world - Reno - with one hundred grands in his coat. A little bullion in bank notes given by a wealthy man to a casino owner so that he marries his daughter...And our hero discovers that he has a bodyguard, designed by the rich guy to protect him against people with bad purposes, a bodyguard in petticoat. Nothing less... You can guess the following. I will tell no more about it.A good time waster. And a RG Springsteen film is always worth for anyone who loves B movies.