''Reunion in Reno'' is a 1951 American

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Kurt Neumann and starring Mark Stevens, Peggy Dow and Gigi Perreau.Quinlan p.143 The screenplay concerns a girl who hires an attorney to get her a

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

from her parents. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

s Bernard Herzbrun and

Nathan Juran Naftuli Hertz "Nathan" Juran (September 1, 1907 – October 23, 2002) was an Austro-Hungarian-born film art director, and later film and television director. As an art director, he won the Oscar for Best Art Direction in 1942 for '' How Green Wa ...

Plot

A nine-year-old girl, Maggie Linaker, gets off a bus in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

and goes to find Norman Drake, a divorce lawyer there. Norman has just wrapped up a divorce case, after which Laura Carson, a stenographer in Judge Kneeland's court, scolds the lawyer for accepting payments over couples' breakups, rather than trying to steer them toward reconciliation. Maggie explains that she'd like to divorce her parents. She offers the lawyer all the money she has, $3.27. Norman accepts. Neither he nor Laura, however, can persuade the little girl to give them her parents' names or how they can be found. She just wants to divorce them. A clothing label mentioning a California town results in Norman finding the parents, Doris and Frederick Linaker, who are shocked to hear what their daughter has done. Maggie was supposed to be on a bus trip to a Nevada summer camp. It turns out Doris is pregnant and that she is not the birth mother of Maggie, who had been an abandoned child. A mock trial is held in Judge Kneeland's court, at which Maggie explains that she overheard her parents say they won't be able to afford to raise two children. Doris reassures her that it was merely a worry, not a reason to leave. They return home, whereupon Norman and Laura begin to think they might like to have a try at this parenthood thing.

Cast

* Mark Stevens as Norman Drake * Peggy Dow as Laura Carson * Gigi Perreau as Margaret 'Maggie' Angeline Linaker *

Frances Dee Frances Marion Dee (November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004) was an American actress. Her first film was the musical ''Playboy of Paris'' (1930). She starred in the film ''An American Tragedy (film), An American Tragedy'' (1931). She is also known ...

as Mrs. Doris Linaker * Leif Erickson as B. Frederick Linaker * Ray Collins as Judge Thomas Kneeland * Fay Baker as Miss Pearson *

Myrna Dell Myrna Dell (born Marilyn Adele Dunlap; March 5, 1924 – February 11, 2011) was an American actress, model, and writer who appeared in numerous motion pictures and television programs over four decades. A Hollywood glamour girl in the early par ...

as Mrs. Virginia Mason *

Dick Wessel Richard Michael Wessel (April 20, 1913 – April 20, 1965) was an American film actor who appeared in more than 270 films between 1935 and 1966. He is best remembered for his only leading role, a chilling portrayal of strangler Harry "Cue ...

as Taxi Driver * Sid Tomack as Serge Field * Stuart Morgan Dancers as Dancing Ensemble

References

Bibliography

* Quinlan, David. ''The Film Lover's Companion: An A to Z Guide to 2,000 Stars and the Movies They Made''. Carol Publishing Group, 1997.

External links

* 1951 films 1951 comedy films American comedy films Films directed by Kurt Neumann Films set in Nevada Universal Pictures films American black-and-white films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films {{1950s-US-comedy-film-stub