Phil Dunham | Through the Shattered Lens

When the population of a small frontier town all sign a petition asking that the governor name their town the new county seat, the petition is stolen by outlaw Cherokee (George “Gabby” Hayes). Cherokee substitutes a different petition requesting a pardon for a member of his gang, The Nevada Kid (Bob Steele).

The Nevada Kid gets his pardon, is released from prison, and returns to the town. No one is happy to see him, even though he says that he has changed his ways. Even if the pardon was gotten through illicit means (which the Nevada Kid himself knew nothing about), the Kid still says that he’s going to take advantage of his second chance. When Chereokee and the gang start to demand that the Nevada Kid once again work with them, Nevada gets his chance to show whether or not he’s really left being an outlaw behind.

I never expect much from these Poverty Row westerns but The Nevada Buckaroo, despite having not a great title, is actually pretty good. A very young-looking Bob Steele gives a good performance as the Nevada Kid and George Hayes show that, before he became everyone’s favorite sidekick, he was capable of being a very intimidating actor. The movie actually has something to say about trust, community, and second chances.

I don’t know much about director John P. McCarthy and I think this is the first of his films that I’ve seen. He and cinematographer Faxon M. Dean put together a film that looks infinitely better than the average B-western. That was obvious with even the grainy print that I watched. The final shot, of the Nevada Kid riding into the sunset, is a perfect western image.

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.