Johnny Reno ** (1966, Dana Andrews, Jane Russell, Lon Chaney Jr) – Classic Movie Review 9686

Director R G Springsteen’s humble 1966 American Western film Johnny Reno stars Dana Andrews, Jane Russell and Lon Chaney Jr. Made by A C Lyles Productions and released by Paramount Pictures, it is produced by A C Lyles, with a screenplay by Steve Fisher from a story by Steve Fisher, Andrew Craddock and A C Lyles.

Andrews plays the frontier marshal Johnny Reno, who tries to stop the accused killer Joe Conners (Tom Drake) he has brought to Sheriff Hodges (Lon Chaney Jr)’s town jail from being lynched by the angry townspeople. Jane Russell also stars as Johnny’s one-time sweetheart Nona Williams. It is simple, straightforward, familiar Western business as usual, but it is not badly done, and has a welcome old-timer cast to help to keep it involving.

Also in the cast are Lon Chaney Jr as Sheriff Hodges, John Agar as Ed Tomkins, Lyle Bettger as Jess Yates, Tom Drake as Joe Conners, Richard Arlen as Ned Duggan, Robert Lowery as Jake Reed, Tracy Olsen as Marie Yates, Reg Parton as Bartender, Rodd Redwing as Indian Brave, Charles Horvath as Wooster, Dale Van Sickel as Ab Conners, Paul Daniel as Indian Chief, Chuck Hicks as Bellows, and Edmund Cobb Townsman.

Johnny Reno is one of the series of 13 low-budget Westerns produced by A C Lyles in the Sixties.

To save money, it is shot in Techniscope rather than the costlier CinemaScope.

Jane Russell also stars in R G Springsteen’s and A C Lyles’s Waco (1966).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9686

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Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921.