The Dude Ranger (DVD)

City slicker Ernest Selby arrives in Arizona, having just inherited the Red Rock Ranch from his uncle. He is shocked to learn that cattle are being stolen at an alarming rate. Instead of introducing himself, he poses as an ordinary cowboy to get to the bottom of the thefts. This also allows him to romance Ann Hepburn, the pretty daughter of the ranch operator. Ann's father is confined to a wheelchair, but Selby suspects that he knows more about the disappearing cattle than he's letting on. He'd better be careful, because the real culprits don't have much patience for city slickers who poke their noses where they don't belong...

Rugged star George O'Brien was working as a stuntman when he was "discovered" by John Ford and cast as the lead in The Iron Horse (1924). His most highly-regarded film is the F.W. Murnau-directed masterpiece Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), but he is best known for starring in dozens of Westerns in the talkie era. Already a hero from his World War I service, O'Brien re-enlisted during World War II and was decorated several times for bravery. Dimpled blonde beauty Irene Hervey, who appeared on loan from MGM, was in many fine films including Destry Rides Again (1939), Night Monster (1948) and Mr. Peabody And The Mermaid (1948). If The Dude Ranger deftly balances Western action with comedy, it's because director Edward F. Cline was a frequent collaborator of Buster Keaton's. He directed some of "The Great Stone Face"'s best shorts, including One Week (1920), The Boat (1921) and Cops (1922). Cline also made the classic W.C. Fields comedies My Little Chickadee and The Bank Dick (both 1940.) Filming locations for The Dude Ranger included Johnson Canyon, Zion National Park, and the Grand Canyon.

BONUS: Glimpses of National Parks (1935): Part of the "See America First" series commissioned by FDR for the Department of the Interior, this vintage one-reeler employs breathtaking cinematography to explore the stunning vistas of Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Sequoia National Park, among many others.

• western