Fort Ti is a 1953 American 3-D Western film directed by William Castle, and starring George Montgomery and Joan Vohs. Written by Robert E. Kent, the film is the first Western to be released in 3-D and the first 3-D feature to be released in Technicolor by a major studio.[1][2] Fort Ti was distributed by Columbia Pictures in the United States.[3]
The film is set in 1759 at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War.[4]
As war is raging across 18th-century colonial America, a band of famed native fighters join British forces for an assault on a French stronghold.
William Castle says Sam Katzman was inspired to make the film by the success of Bwana Devil. Castle says he "decided to throw every goddamn thing I could think of at the camera" in the movie.[5]
3-D supervision was by M.L. Gunzburg, creator of the Natural Vision 3-D system that had initiated the 3-D boom, previously used on Bwana Devil and House of Wax.[6] The film was shot at Columbia Studios and on location in Utah and Southern California.[7]
Fort Ti earned an estimated $2.6 million domestically during its first year of release.[8]
In 1982, Fort Ti became the first 3-D film to be broadcast on television in the United Kingdom. The following year, it became the first 3-D film to be broadcast on television in the United States and Australia along with the Three Stooges 3-D short Pardon My Backfire.[1]