David Sharpe | Through the Shattered Lens

When his innocent son, Ted (David Sharpe), is accused of committing a murder, Lex Crane (Walter Long) turns him over to Texas Ranger Jack Haile (Jack Randall) because he knows that Jack will make sure that Ted gets a fair trial. Lex says that he and his men are accused of every crime that happens in the area, even though they’re always innocent. Jack understand and respects Lex as a man and a father. But when someone shoots and kills Ted, Lex and his men set out for revenge. The twist? Lex has a twin brother named Buck (also played by Walter Long) and the two brothers hate each other.

Most poverty row westerns blend into each other but Man’s Country stands out as an intelligent and well-acted western. Even though the twin twist is undoubtedly an overdone one, Man’s Country does a good job with it and Walter Long gives such a good performance that both Lex and Buck emerge as individual, identifiable characters. Jack Randall may not have been the greatest of the old western actors but he’s believable as the tough but fair Texas Ranger. There’s enough western action for fans of the genre but, for once, the plot is interesting enough that it might hold the attention of other watchers as well.

Of course, this is a Poverty Row western so Charles King does appear as one of the bad guys. He gets into a fist fight, like he almost always did. I wonder how many onscreen punches Charles King actually threw over the course of his career in the westerns. It had to have been a lot.

When the wife of rancher Clint Hollister (Earl Dwire) died in childbirth, Clint was so distraught that he rejected his son, Todd. Todd was raised by a rival rancher, John Endicott (Lafe McKee). Hollister resented Endicott for taking his son and a feud developed between the two families. Hoping the end the feud, 15 year-old Todd ran away from home and made a new life for himself as a frontier scout named Idaho.

15 years later, Idaho (Rex Bell) returns home with his sidekick, a reformed outlaw known as The Kid (David Sharpe). Neither Hollister nor Endicott recognize Idaho and, without revealing his identity, Idaho tries to stop their feud. Hollister’s men want to keep the feud going and they manipulate Hollister into challenging his own son to a duel.

Idaho Kid is one of the better B-westerns that Rex Bell made between 1928 and 1936. Though the film has its share of action scenes, Idaho Kid‘s intelligent script puts more emphasis on character development than most B-westerns, with Hollister especially being portrayed as a complex character as opposed to just a stock western villain. Rex Bell always seemed authentic whenever he was riding a horse or shooting a gun. Idaho Kid shows that he could also play more than just a standard western hero.

Though he was being pushed for stardom by Fox Film, Rex Bell voluntarily retired from the film industry in 1936 and instead pursued a career in politics. He was the Lieutenant Governor of Nevada when he died of a heart attack in 1962.