diff --git a/src/frontend/inp.c b/src/frontend/inp.c
index 23b3b3b3b..f9adf3fde 100644
--- a/src/frontend/inp.c
+++ b/src/frontend/inp.c
@@ -668,11 +668,10 @@ inp_spsource(FILE *fp, bool comfile, char *filename)
         }
 
         /* Now that the deck is loaded, do the commands, if there are any */
-        if (controls) {
-            for (end = wl = wl_reverse(controls); wl; wl = wl->wl_next)
-                cp_evloop(wl->wl_word);
-            wl_free(end);
-        }
+        controls = wl_reverse(controls);
+        for (wl = controls; wl; wl = wl->wl_next)
+            cp_evloop(wl->wl_word);
+        wl_free(controls);
     }
 
     /* linked list dbs is used to store the "save" or .save data (defined in breakp2.c),
diff --git a/src/frontend/nutinp.c b/src/frontend/nutinp.c
index 4f58f0d31..98b8dfcd6 100644
--- a/src/frontend/nutinp.c
+++ b/src/frontend/nutinp.c
@@ -166,12 +166,10 @@ inp_nutsource(FILE *fp, bool comfile, char *filename)
         }
 
         /* Now that the deck is loaded, do the commands... */
-        if (controls) {
-            for (end = wl = wl_reverse(controls); wl;
-                    wl = wl->wl_next)
-                (void) cp_evloop(wl->wl_word);
-            wl_free(end);
-        }
+        controls = wl_reverse(controls);
+        for (wl = controls; wl; wl = wl->wl_next)
+            (void) cp_evloop(wl->wl_word);
+        wl_free(controls);
     }
 
     /* Now reset everything.  Pop the control stack, and fix up the IO
diff --git a/src/misc/wlist.c b/src/misc/wlist.c
index 32c31ec86..df90efe79 100644
--- a/src/misc/wlist.c
+++ b/src/misc/wlist.c
@@ -155,16 +155,14 @@ wl_append(wordlist *wlist, wordlist *nwl)
 wordlist *
 wl_reverse(wordlist *wl)
 {
-    wordlist *w, *t;
-
-    for (w = wl; ; w = t) {
-         t = w->wl_next;
-         w->wl_next = w->wl_prev;
-         w->wl_prev = t;
-         if (t == NULL)
-            break;
+    while (wl) {
+         wordlist *t = wl->wl_next;
+         wl->wl_next = wl->wl_prev;
+         wl->wl_prev = t;
+         wl = t;
     }
-    return (w);
+
+    return wl;
 }