Fort Utah

1967's "Fort Utah" was the tenth of 13 B Westerns courtesy Paramount producer A.C. Lyles, populated by a large number of familiar faces who had seen better days. John Ireland takes the top slot as infamous gunfighter Tom Horn, finding himself in the middle of an insurrection by Indians and unable to find help at the nearby fort because it's deserted. Meanwhile, John Russell's wagon master suffers a number of casualties from a redskin attack, leading what's left of his settlers to that same fort, where they learn that villainous Scott Brady's marauders butchered every soldier in a fruitless search for gold bullion that had been secretly moved elsewhere months earlier; Brady is the real target after his evil band led a massacre on a helpless Indian village, making haste for the safety of the fort before vengeance catches up with them. The cast is smaller this time around, with Richard Arlen, James Craig, Jim Davis, and Donald Barry, plus Virginia Mayo a very fetching heroine. The only true spark is provided by Robert Strauss, a very witty government agent who makes a good team with Ireland's Tom Horn.

FORT UTAH (1967) is another A.C. Lyles western with faded Hollywood stars who were put through their paces for a week of shooting, supplemented by a ton of stock footage. This one's about a wagon train of settlers heading for California, an Indian attack, a band of army deserters committing murder and mayhem, and a gunslinger and an Indian agent trying to protect the settlers. That's pretty much all you need to know. Every shot containing more than one wagon came from another, more expensive western. Every shot containing more than ten Indians came from another western. A location shot featuring smoke signals came from another western. At one point, a cavalry troop joins the wagon train but we only see one cavalry officer in this film's actual footage and no troopers at all, until stock footage of an Indian battle from another movie is inserted to give us a quick glimpse of other troopers. I kept thinking I'd rather be watching that other, bigger-budgeted western. Every time the hero, Tom Horn, gets into a fist fight, the actor who plays him, then-53-year-old John Ireland, is doubled by a stuntman with little resemblance to Ireland. And he has fights with at least four of his co-stars, some of whom have stuntmen with at least a mild resemblance to the actor they're doubling.

For the record, this one has fewer name actors in it than most other Lyles westerns. (TOWN TAMER, for instance, is packed with former stars.) John Ireland seems a bit slower and less proactive here than his character ought to be. After this and his next Lyles production, ARIZONA BUSHWHACKERS, he went off to Italy for a lucrative career in spaghetti westerns and war thrillers, usually in supporting roles. Virginia Mayo plays a wagon train passenger who claims to be an opera singer headed for a performing gig in San Francisco. The truth turns out to be much more sordid, which doesn't bother Ireland at all. Her backstory takes up way too much screen time, although I can't imagine that Mayo would have taken the part with any fewer scenes. I'm a huge fan of Mayo, but she's much more subdued here than the shameless brassy blonde she was during her Warner Bros. heyday in the 1940s and '50s (WHITE HEAT, THE IRON MISTRESS). Some of her contemporaries were a much better fit for the Lyles westerns, e.g. Jane Russell, who made two, and Yvonne De Carlo, who made four. Robert Strauss, who made a career out of playing comical gangsters, is quite good here as the grizzled Indian scout, Ben Stokes, who is out to find the army deserter, Dajin (Scott Brady), who caused all the trouble. I wonder why Strauss didn't make more westerns. Brady is billed third but doesn't appear until the last 25 minutes. His henchmen include Jim Davis, Harry Lauter and Donald "Red" Barry, all old hands at this kind of thing. John Russell, James Craig and Richard Arlen are also on hand lending dependable support. The character of Horn is no doubt based on the actual gunslinger of that name and he is treated here as someone whose fame precedes him. (The real Horn was hanged in 1903 for a murder committed during a range war.)

Having said all this, I must add that the action at the title fort, which takes up the second half of the movie, is quite suspenseful. Once the heroes arrive and find it mysteriously abandoned, except for a trio of Dajin's deserters who are quickly dispatched or driven off, they welcome the wagon train survivors and decide that their only chance against either Dajin's band or the rampaging Indians (angered by a massacre committed by the deserters) is to hole up in the fort with the repeating rifles stocked up by the wagon master (John Russell) and defend it when the attackers appear. There's a far-fetched but very clever resolution. Despite its seams showing, I found this film quite enjoyable and better than average for a Lyles western. I saw it on the Encore Western Channel in a pan-and-scan print. Which is how some of the other Lyles westerns are shown on Amazon Prime. I wish Paramount would spring for some widescreen prints.

AC Lyles productions, also known as Second Chance westerns - because the casts were composed mostly of Hollywood vets - are mostly acceptable, entertaining, but where clichés are unfortunately not always absent. Here, you have a tremendous Scott Brady as the lead villain, the bad guy in chief.... Nothing exceptional but quite good, better than a lead good guy played by a wooden John Ireland. It is action packed, with a bodycount that will help you wasting time without any boredom. So that's not the worst of AC Lyles productions, and maybe among the three or four best. I have always had tenderness for those features hiring forgotten Hollywood glories, giving them a second chance.

John Ireland is Tom Horn, a famous gunfighter. Robert Strauss is Ben Stokes, a government agent for the Indians. Virginia Mayo is Linda Lee, an "Opera singer". And Scott Brady is Dajin, an army deserter who's wanted by the Indians. Oh, and then there's Jim Davis as Scarecrow, one of Dajin's men among others in the cast. I'm not a big fan of heroes attacking Indians since that usually means those Natives are being portrayed as savages but here, there's at least a reason they're not always friendly to the white men who are simply trying to survive. The fights between Horn and various of the villains attacking him are, however, quite entertaining the way they're choreographed. I also liked Ireland's dialogue with Ms. Mayo and his friendship with Strauss. Oh, and knowing about Davis' previous western roles as both bad and good guys and his later iconic role as Jock Ewing in the original "Dallas", he was the highlight of the picture for me. So on that note, I highly recommend this obscure oater, Fort Utah.

This is one of those Westerns that has very stock characters and relies on the "fluff" of scenery and action.

The "fluff" is good. The fights look more like reality than the goofy choreographed ones for the bubble boys. People wrestle clumsily. The only comical fight is between the hero and wagon master, which has the look of a goofy choreographed fight of taking punches.

They seemed to want to make several characters work, but they are poorly written. The wagon master, played by John Russell, and the Strauss Indian agent were obviously meant to be the two "deep" characters, but they are written so horribly, that even clever acting and directing can only lure in the most brain dead.

A lot doesn't work here. The most perplexing plot hole is how a wagon train full of people is wiped out by Indians with legitimate anger, in such a fashion. They have trained cavalry men helping, and new repeating rifles. When it is over, there are only corpses and about ten healthy survivors, none with any serious wounds. Why they are left, one can't explain, unless they found a really good hiding place, but most of them were plainly in the middle of the melee. I can only surmise that at the end, the Indians kicked up horse dust to finish them off, and somehow the survivors found an air pocket. Best explanation I can give. However, this should have been explained.

What does work is the "normal" look of the leading characters. Even the heroine is no "model". She looks like any one else. These are ordinary looking people, and that gives an interesting look to a film that relies on the "interesting look".