A deputy sets out to prove that a respected judge, who had once been a criminal, is being framed for crimes committed by a crooked saloon owner. Ex-outlaw Grey is now a respected judge out to close down Belle's saloon. Duke and Spike, who knew Grey when he was a criminal, arrive and team up with Belle. When Belle's threat to reveal Grey's past fails, Duke and Spike hold up the bank and frame Grey. Roy now sets a trap for the outlaws. The song "Idaho" reportedly was written for this movie. The composer was the late Jesse Stone, who later wrote "Shake, Rattle and Roll." Stone also wrote using the name Charles Calhoun. According to Stone's obituary (AP, 1999), "'Idaho' was a big hit for Guy Lombardo, selling three million copies in the mid-1940's. Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey also had hit recordings of the tune." It was also recorded by Gene Autry, June Christy and Bud Powell, among others – and most recently by Denver saxophonist Keith Oxman. Idaho is your typical Roy Rogers western with the interesting exception that the chief villain is a woman, not normal for one of Roy's vehicles or in fact for B westerns at the time which were aimed at the kiddie trade. And what a villain we have here, none other than Ona Munson who was Belle Watling in Gone With The Wind.<br/><br/>The citizens of the Idaho town where Munson has an establishment probably not unlike the one she had in Atlanta in Gone With The Wind are being aroused by Judge Harry Shannon to clean out her place as a breeder of vice and corruption. The judge is a moral sort, he even runs a boys ranch for wayward youth and the residents are played by the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir.<br/><br/>But the judge also has a past as a notorious western bank robber from years ago. A couple of his old cronies look him up to gain a hideout and Shannon tells Arthur Hohl and Dick Purcell where to go. But Shannon has not told his daughter Virginia Grey about her father's past. Therein lies his weakness.<br/><br/>And pretty soon Munson is joining forces with Hohl and Purcell to bring the judge into disrepute and ruin. It will be up to state ranger Roy Rogers to set everything right and of course win Virginia Grey for himself.<br/><br/>Idaho is a good western for Roy Rogers containing all the things his young fans would have liked back in the day including a couple of good songs. But the presence of Ona Munson who made all too few films in her short life really makes this one of Roy's better western features. B movie cowboy heroes don't often come up against bad women and Ona lends a little something not usually seen in these kinds of films, sex.
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