 The Utah Kid is a remake of two earlier Monogram westerns - 1937 s "Trouble in Texas" with Tex Ritter and 1934 s "The Man From Utah" with John Wayne - and more so the latter where John Wayne, George Hayes, Polly Ann Young, Yakima Canutt and Anita Campillo filled the roles there taken by Bob Steele, Hoot Gibson, Beatrice Grey, Ralph Lewis (II) and Evelyn Eaton in this version, with many of the character names duplicated from the original, i.e., Higgins, Marjore Carter, Cheyenne Kent and Dolores. The story is the same in all three versions (plus another remake with Whip Wilson called "Lawless Cowboys") where a lawman (Hoot Gibson) teams up with a rodeo performer (Bob Steele) to infiltrate and investigate a gang that is doping and bribing rodeo performers to throw or lose rodeo events, so the gang can make a bundle of loot and haul out of town leaving only the fixtures that are nailed down.