Ticonderoga

I first saw Fort Ti as a kid at the local movie house during the 3D fad years. I thought it was great and memories of the movie stayed with me over the years. Some great action sequences that worked well with the 3D process, but did not seemed forced. I give director William Castle credit for weaving in the the action scenes better than some of the other directors handling the 3D process at the time. I disagree with other commentators, that there are no major stars in the film. George Montgomery was at the time a major actor in westerns and action films and would later star in his own television western series. Seeing the film in recent years on the Encore Western channel, I see a lot lacking in terms of the story and the acting I that missed as a youngster caught up in the 3D action, diving in my seat when a thrown tomahawk appeared to be flying off the screen

This film fails to mention one thing; there were as many Indians on the British side as there were on the French, so many that after the war George III issued all the friendly tribes with brass medallions identifying the tribe as British subjects and giving them the protection of the British Crown; indeed, the Sioux tribe obtained one and used it to claim asylum in Canada after the massacre at Little Big Horn.

There have hardly been any films made in the United States about the French and Indian war period. This one is in my judgment not-overly-well-directed but it is very-well-acted indeed. It boasts attractive and laid back George Montgomery as a Jed Horn, frontier ranger, the fine classical actor Howard Petrie as Robert Rogers, the Rangers' Chief, Irving Bacon as Montgomery's capable and comical sidekick, very good actor Lester Matthews as General Amherst, Phyllis Fowler as Running Otter, in love with Montgomery, James Seay as Montgomery's brother-in-law, gorgeous and able Joan Vohs as Fortune Mallory, Ben Astar as his friend Francois, Louis Miller as a French spy and Cicely Browne as Montgomery's sister. The plot and screenplay by Robert E. Kent I find to be complex and filled with good characters. Horn and his partner take reports to General Amherst from Rogers, and soon pick up new recruits and march north, to help stop a French-lead Indian attack. An added problem is the capture of Horn's sister, a coercion by a French spy aimed at forcing his brother-in-law to betray secrets of the Rangers' and the British army's movements. Horn and his partner rescue lovely Fortune Mallory from a lecherous brave and take her to be left with Francois, his trapper friend and with his wife, who's in love with Montgomery. She says she escaped from the fort; but he does not believe her. The brother-in-law takes a false report to the Fort as planned, to French General Montcalm and his spy master, then accuses Horn when he is noticed sneaking back of being inhuman, only caring about killing. Rogers tells Horn that after the war, he will be fine again. The spy master had also offered the brother-in-law $5000 to kill Rogers. Next day, the Rangers attack new but misplaced French cannon and outworks; and Horn saves his brother's life. Horn and his friend Wash escort Fortune to stay with Francois, and we learn the man is a patriot running a supply operation vital to Rogers' men. Horn finds himself falling in love with Fortune. Running Otter begs him to let her be part of his life; he refuses. In anger, she goes to the Fort and betrays their operation, then accuses Fortune of having been the traitor. She of course later swears she did not tell. Horn and Rogers come back and note that the house dog has not barked at all. They get seven or eight men to play drunken Frenchmen and approach Francois's house. Once inside, they overcome the French soldiers there and free their people. Francois tells Running Otter he forgives her, and says they can start new somewhere else; but she kills herself and he is grief-stricken. Horn and Rogers find the information supplied to the French has misled the enemy, but they are now trying run a cable across the river to prevent Amherst's boats from approaching Fort Ti, their prime target. They attack the party and stop the French operation cold. Then Rogers lets Fortune lead the partner and a still-doubting Horn to the Fort. They are able to sneak in, free his sister and the children captured earlier, and engineer a mass escape of English prisoners. Chased to an Indian burial ground, they hide by night. The climax comes as French soldiers attack them. Will Rogers arrive in time to save them? Will he be able to take Fort Ticonderoga? You will have to watch to find out. The music is mostly stock, but the cinematography by Lester H. White is above-average. The art direction by Paul Palmentola is also worthy of mention and the period set decorations by Sidney Clifford are outstanding and believable. Visual effects by Julian Gunzburg included some telegraphed and some more-subtle three-d achievements. But this film also led to a spate of colonial films in the 1950s, and the great series "Northwest Passage", on TV. shortly afterward; so it has been very influential, and incidentally helped the careers of Vohs and Montgomery for several years thereafter. A personal favorite.

Fort Ticonderoga or as it was originally known Fort Carillon when the French built was the focal point of a lot of military action in both the Seven Years War and the American Revolution. In fact this film is factually wrong on the face because it was Fort Carillon and became Ticonderoga only after Lord Jeffrey Amherst took it with the help of Roger's Rangers.

A film about the military action would have been far more interesting than what we got here in Fort Ti. The action scenes are fine, but the writers stuck in a rather stupid love story involving George Montgomery and two women.

Montgomery has other worries though. His sister and her two children have been taken by the French to insure that her husband James Seay does a good job spying for the French. While Amherst and Rogers are taking the strategic fort, Montgomery has to affect a rescue of captives including his sister and nephews.

This film could have used A treatment and a kind of colonial Longest Day plot. For a B film it was nicely photographed and the battle scenes are good.

But it could have been so much better.

As a French, I have always been amazed, amused, to see the French as the bad ones in an American movie. Far before MASTER AND COMMANDER, there were some westerns as this one, taking place during the Independance war, where the Indians were not the only villains. The most terrific will of course be Sam Peckinpah's MAJOR DUNDEE, but that doesn't concern the independance war, rather the Mexican one. Anyway, from this Sam Katzman's production, do not expect anything great. Only the 3D aspect can be worth for a common viewer. For the rest, really nothing to expect very exciting. Some lousy, lame action scenes, even if you don't watch too closely.