Bash file to variable string problem -- must be simple. What am I missing?

[deb <deb@rangingthoughts.org>]

This has to be simple and I'm just missing it.

If I pull a filename from a temp file into a variable, I can ls it fine.

If I cut off the extension, and tack on my own SAME EXT, ls no longer works.

(The actual script is more elaborate, loading vlc , etc -- but this summarizes & shows my issue)

# mp4file.txt holds just 'long file with spaces.mp4'

fname=$(<mp4file.txt)

# echo $fname shows the right filename.mp4 string

# works
ls -al "$fname"

# Cut off the extension.
fname=`echo $fname | rev | cut -d. -f2 | rev`

# echo $fname shows the filename sans '.mp4'

# THIS LS FAILS, WITH FILE NOT FOUND (but actually reports the exact string that worked above, but not being found here).

ls -al "$fname".mp4

ls: cannot access 'long file with spaces.mp4': No such file or directory

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It is not:

* a special character thing,

* a carriage return thing,

* a character case thing,

* not helped with './' or '~/' added in front of the filename.

* It's the same string in both spots.

Any thoughts folks?

Thanks