vitaleralphlouis Although the true story of Belle Starr is fictionalized, the history of Yankee abuse in post-Civel War history is right on target. Missouri was NOT a Confederate state but they were still cursed with uppity and self serving Yankee officers, carpetbaggers, and other scum whose actions would assure the unofficial Civil War would continue to flow blood well into 1882 and beyond.Belle Starr begins by making the point of how Yankee actions impoverished the black population, as the legend of Miss Belle is told by an aged black man, trying to eek a living out of the ruins of Belle's burnt plantation, told to his granddaughter.When Belle is found to have helped a wounded Southerner, Union hothead (Dana Andrews is stuck with this role) takes out her sexual rejection of him by burning her home to the ground. Belle soon vows to spill Yankee blood for the remainder of her life, and with he aid of Sam Starr (Randolph Scott) she does just that.Gene Tierney was said by Daryll F Zanuck to be the most beautiful woman to ever appear in the movies, and who would disagree. Filmed in the glorious and now long-gone 3 strip Technicolor, Miss Tierney as well as the countryside are just gorgeous.Incidentally, Technicolor cameras of this era weighted hundreds of pounds and were half the size of an automobile; thus we're spared the hyper and jump-around camera work that are the curse of 2000 to 2010's awful movies.Hollywood today is completely confused as to what to do about showing black people in movies about the 19th century. By PC standards, slaves, if any, must be like those in Spielberg's false Amasted. Filmmakers in the early 1940's had no idea they were supposed to comply with the empty-headed prejudices of 2010. Courage is not Hollywood's strong point, so Belle Starr is supposedly confined to the Fox vault -- but you can find it if you try hard enough.

rooster_davis This movie really left me cold. Usually I can enjoy nearly anything that Randolph Scott is in, but in this case I just can't. Maybe the reason his performance in this film is so uninspired is that he realizes how far from reality this story has strayed. The real Belle Starr was hardly an 'outlaw queen' - she was as ugly as a pig's rear end and about as charming. According to something in the plot, some guy - a military guy or a marshal, I forget which - was so smitten with her that he followed after her. He must have been blind. The problem as I see it is that the woman had a pretty name and a questionable history, so they made her into an 'outlaw queen'. However, if her name had been a reflection on this 'queen's' beauty, she would have been named 'Selma Klagshultz' or maybe 'Ethel Gumpox'. Would they have made this same movie with an 'outlaw queen' who didn't sound like one? They made a movie out of a pretty name, and modified the ugly wearer to suit.I don't know why they insist on making these stories so romanticized but this was so far from reality it was a joke. If the real story isn't good enough then write something else altogether. The real Belle Starr's story was maybe, just MAYBE good enough to make into a movie, in my opinion, but this movie is just a waste of time and film. If the makers wanted a movie like this, they should have invented a whole character, name and all, and created a story, rather than taking a historical character and turning her into something she was not. Blech.

counterrevolutionary OK, this film wants us to sympathize with southerners who took to banditry after the Civil War. So what evil and disgusting Yankee devilry do they show us? A check-suited carpetbagger telling black people they can--gasp!--walk on the sidewalk and sit on the front porch, and a lot of happy black folks celebrating their new freedom.Oh, well, you can understand, then. Blacks on the sidewalks?! God help us! Keep your powder dry, boys! I normally deprecate the simple-minded practice of holding the art of other eras responsible to our standards of political correctness, but I don't care--that's just plain foul.Of course, it's not completely racist; there are decent black folks in evidence, too: they are the ones who sympathize with their oppressors and help them fight those lousy carpetbaggers who want to let them sit right on the front porch where anybody can see them! It's been a few years since I saw *Gone With the Wind*: was it this hamhandedly bigoted in its treatment of blacks? It's s shame, because one you get past the overt racism, this is actually a pretty good movie, with one of Randolph Scott's better performances.

Neil Doyle BELLE STAR should have a disclaimer at the start. Any resemblance between the people portrayed here and the real life characters is strictly coincidental. Furthermore, someone should have told LOUISE BEAVERS that she is no substitute for HATTIE McDANIEL.The film reeks with what it portrays as Southern charm, including the heavily accented Miss Tierney who struggles with what was supposed to be a star-making role. Fortunately, she's surrounded by a couple of pros: RANDOLPH SCOTT as her husband Sam Starr and DANA ANDREWS as a Yankee who finds himself enamored of her while chasing the outlaw woman in a series of melodramatic skirmishes that seem like throwaways from GONE WITH THE WIND.Gene Tierney never did receive good reviews for her early films and BELLE STAR is no exception. Furthermore, the Technicolor needs restoration if this ever goes to DVD.Summing up: A slow paced account of Belle Star's criminal career with a miscast and sophisticated Gene Tierney playing the outlaw in a below par performance that never strikes the necessary spark.