Fort Utah

Fort Utah is another A.C. Lyles western with Hollywood's senior citizen crowd. By senior citizen we mean players past their box office prime. In this case the leads are John Ireland and Virginia Mayo.

The fort itself is a deserted army post, made empty by the fact that some real deserters led by Scott Brady killed the inhabitants and now are an outlaw gang. No one knows this yet because a telegraph is miles away. In the meantime Brady and his bunch massacre an Indian village filled with women and children. So the surviving braves of the tribe want his scalp, his hide, and any other functioning body part they can lay their hands on.

Ireland is famous frontier scout Tom Horn years before he met the fate described in the Steve McQueen classic. Ireland and Robert Strauss meet up and then both of them meet up with a wagon train headed by John Russell which train sustains an Indian attack. The survivors and Ireland and Strauss take refuge in the fort where they hoped to find live troopers. In any event it's a good place to stand off an attack from whomever.

Fort Utah moves at a good western clip with Lyles packing a lot of action in his short running time. The script and story left a bit to be desired, but the action is all any redblooded western fan could want.