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Utah Blaine

1957 film by Fred F. Sears

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ10921322
Source-derived summary

Utah Blaine is a 1957 American Western film directed by Fred F. Sears and starring Rory Calhoun. It was based on a novel by Louis L'Amour.

Plot

After saving a rancher from hanging, cowboy Mike "Utah" Blaine learns that his enemy Rink Witter is now a hired gun working for wealthy Russ Nevers, who is out to own every piece of land in the territory.

Utah teams up with Angie Kinyon, another murdered landowner's daughter, and rancher Mary Blake to maintain lawful ownership of their properties. He has a fistfight with Gus Ortmann, a large and popular fellow in town who misunderstands Utah's purpose. Witter then pulls a gun on Blaine, but Utah's old pal Rip Coker arrives to protect Blaine.

Witter threatens Angie while trying to find Utah. When Gus tries to defend her while hiding in the cellar, Witter shoots him. Utah and Rip shoot some of the vigilantes but Witter and the rest escape. The townspeople rally to Utah's side so that when Nevers and Witter confront him, dozens of guns end up aimed at them.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Utah Blaine” as 1957 film by Fred F. Sears. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1957—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1957-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Utah, Blaine and film can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1957 film by Fred F. Sears. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q10921322. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Utah Blaine”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Utah Blaine primary sources, Utah Blaine archive and Utah research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Utah Blaine”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Utah Blaine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.