Fort Ti * (1953, George Montgomery, Joan Vohs, Irving Bacon, James Seay, Ben Astar) – Classic Movie Review 12,553

George Montgomery (above left).

William Castle’s 1953 Western film Fort Ti stars George Montgomery and Joan Vohs. It is the first Western released in 3D and the first 3D feature released in Technicolor by a major studio.

Director William Castle’s 1953 Western film Fort Ti stars George Montgomery and Joan Vohs, along with Irving Bacon, James Seay and Ben Astar. It is the first Western released in 3D and the first 3D feature released in Technicolor by a major studio (Columbia Pictures).

It is set in 1759 at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War. Montgomery plays scout Captain Jed Horn, who joins an Indian-fighting band called Rogers’s Rangers to attack Fort Ticonderoga, after the wicked French seize his sister and some children.

Fort Ti is a rather drab, undistinguished junior-league B-movie Western, written by Robert E Kent without any new ideas, though it is directed with some relish by Castle.

It was originally enlivened by being made in Natural Vision 3D, so everything gets chucked at you, which is just annoying seen flat. Castle said he ‘decided to throw every goddamn thing I could think of at the camera’. There is nice Technicolor cinematography, though, by Lester H White and Lothrop B Worth.

Also in the cast are Phyllis Fowler, Howard Petrie, Cicely Browne, Olaf Hytten, Lester Matthews, Louis Merrill, and George Lee.

It runs 73 minutes.

It is produced by Sam Katzman for Columbia Pictures, and shot at Columbia Studios and on location in Utah and Southern California. It was released on 29 May 1953.

The 3D is supervised by M L Gunzburg, creator of the Natural Vision 3D system, previously used on Bwana Devil (the first 3D sound feature movie in English and the first 3D film in colour) and House of Wax.

The cast are George Montgomery as Captain Jedediah ‘Jed’ Horn, Joan Vohs as Fortune Mallory, Irving Bacon as Sgt Monday Wash, James Seay as Mark Chesney, Ben Astar as François Leroy, Phyllis Fowler as Running Otter, Howard Petrie as Major Robert Rogers, Cicely Browne as Bess Chesney, Lester Matthews as Lord Jeffery Amherst, George Leigh as Captain Delecroix, Louis Merrill as Raoul de Moreau, Rusty Hamer as Jed’s nephew, Olaf Hytten, and George Lee.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,553

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com