AllMovie

In his first in a series of well-mounted Westerns and action melodramas for independent producer Sol Lesser, George O'Brien plays Ernest Selby, a young Easterner who cannot get rid of his inheritance -- an Arizona ranch -- soon enough. But when Sam Hepburn (Henry Hall), the wheelchair-bound operator of his ranch, mistakenly assumes that the youngster is seeking a job to get better acquainted with his haughty daughter Ann (Irene Hervey), Selby decides to stick around and look into the mysterious disappearance of 10,000 heads of cattle. With the help of cowhand Nebrasky Kemp (Syd Saylor), our hero quickly learns that nothing at the Red Rock Ranch is quite as it first appears: Old man Hepburn is only faking an injury, and the foreman, Hyslip (LeRoy Mason), knows more about the missing cattle than he cares to admit. Released by the Fox company, The Dude Ranger was filmed on location at Utah's Zion National Park.