diff --git a/gcc/cp/ChangeLog b/gcc/cp/ChangeLog
index d22d49dd15a..d93e152ab9c 100644
--- a/gcc/cp/ChangeLog
+++ b/gcc/cp/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2004-10-03  Andrew Pinski  <pinskia@physics.uc.edu>
+
+	PR c++/17797
+	* typeck.c (build_reinterpret_cast): Return if the inner type
+	is error_mark_node.
+
 2004-10-01  Jan Hubicka  <jh@suse.cz>
 
 	* semantics.c (expand_body): Update call of tree_rest_of_compilation.
diff --git a/gcc/cp/typeck.c b/gcc/cp/typeck.c
index 85337735f07..8b9bdd3c523 100644
--- a/gcc/cp/typeck.c
+++ b/gcc/cp/typeck.c
@@ -4711,6 +4711,9 @@ build_reinterpret_cast (tree type, tree expr)
 
   intype = TREE_TYPE (expr);
 
+  if (intype == error_mark_node)
+    return error_mark_node;
+
   if (TREE_CODE (type) == REFERENCE_TYPE)
     {
       if (! real_lvalue_p (expr))