Reno (1939 film)

Plot

After a woman gambling in his Reno casino loses money and sues him trying to get it back, Bill Shear suddenly recognizes her as his own daughter, Joanne, someone he has not seen since a long-ago divorce.

Shear remembers what brought him to Nevada in the first place. As a young attorney, then known as William Shayne, he represented silver miners. He met and married Jessie Gibbs and became a father, but when the silver went bust, leaving Reno on the brink of becoming a ghost town, it was he who created a new identity for Reno as a place where unhappily married individuals could get a quick, painless divorce.

Neglecting his own family due to his work, Bill ironically is left alone when Jessie obtains one of those easy divorces, taking their child and leaving him. He is also disbarred and must find another line of work, which is how he came to be in the casino business now. Joanne, moved by her father's story, abandons her lawsuit against him.

Cast