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.