Elizabeth Montgomery is Belle Starr, a woman with a wild streak, who loves who she wants, who makes a living through the thievery of others, who is loved by some and reviled by others.
Her son, Ed, wishes she was more like other women, relishes his time alone with his mother when they’re working their farm, but despises the company she keeps.
Her daughter Pearl is being raised by a respectable townwoman and declines to go along when Belle and her son are run out of town. She wants to grow up to be a lady; she’s heard the rumors about her mother.
And Belle’s husband, Blue Duck, finally leaves her because she keeps bedding old friends. Those friends includes the Youngers — Cole (Cliff Potts) is the father of her daughter — the James and the Daltons, all of whom she can turn to in a time of need.
Or when she’s low on cash.
Review:
Interesting would be the best description for this TV movie, which finds the former Bewitched star in an offbeat role in a film that doesn’t quite work.
In one of the film’s better segments, Belle rejects a pastor’s advances. He returns with other “God-fearing” townsfolk to burn her out.
As Belle is riding off to a new home, her outlaw friends are stealing the pastor’s belongings to furnish her new house.
But considering the wild, carefree life Belle leads, the film is surprisingly tame, and mostly downbeat.
Directed by:
John A. Alonzo
Cast:
Elizabeth Montgomery … Belle Starr
Cliff Potts … Cole Younger
Michael Cavanaugh … Jesse James
Gary Combs … Frank James
Fred Ward … Ned Christie
Jesse Vint … Bob Dalton
Alan Vint … Grat Dalton
Geoffrey Lewis … The Rev. Meeks
Sandy McPeak … Sheriff Pratt
Geno Silva … Blue Duck
David Knell … Ed Reed
Michelle Stacy … Pearl Younger
Peter Hobbs … Jenkins
Morgan Paul … Latham
Sarah Cunningham … Mrs. Chandler
Stone Bower … Summerville
Runtime: 97 min.
Memorable lines:
Sheriff Pratt: “You wouldn’t by any chance have a bill of sale for those steers, would you?”
Belle Starr: “You know, on top of everything else, that man couldn’t read nor write either. Most he could do was shake hands on it. Even at that, he only had two fingers and one of them was a nub. You ever tried to shake hands, sheriff, with a one-and-a-half fingered failure.”
Sheriff: “No, I haven’t.”
Belle: “It’s pitiful. Just pitiful.”
Jesse James, knowing how his exploits are exaggerated: “Frank, next time we’re in town, you remind me to get a newspaper. I wanna see how many people was shot, killed on that train (they just robbed).”
Frank James: “Or just plain died of fright.”
Third gang member: “I wager they report will be four or five shot, ’bout 18 stabbed.”
Belle Starr, after The Reverend proposes an “arrangement” that would allow her to stay in town: “Reverend, if I was to choose between you and him with the horns, I’d take Satan cause I know where I stand with him.”
The Reverend: “I see.”
Belle: “As for your lonesome nights, a good hand of solitaire should ease your burden.”
Ed: “Why can’t you be like other women?”
Belle Starr to her son: “I ain’t never met another woman I wanted to be like.”
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