La Reine des rebelles

"What's a legend?" a little girl asks her grandfather at the start of Belle Starr. "A legend is the best part of the truth," he answers before explaining the legend of the famed female outlaw. I love everything about this western, including the thoughtful, touching script. The scenery is great, the story is exciting (especially for those who don't know about Belle Starr), and the acting is top-notch. How many times are you going to see Randolph Scott cry in one of his westerns? I've seen fifty of his movies and only seen tears three times.

Gene Tierney is a vision, so delightful, vivacious, and beautiful it's no wonder she was a top tier actress for the next ten years. This was only her third movie, but her screen presence feels like she's a Hollywood veteran. She's wild, tough, yet remarkably feminine. When you watch her in this movie, you realize what a crying shame it was that she wasn't discovered just one year earlier to play Scarlett O'Hara. She plays a Southern belle turned outlaw in this western, angry because her family lost everything in the Civil War. Teamed up with fellow outlaw Randolph Scott, they fall in love.

Dana Andrews is a military man on a mission to catch the bandits. But as soon as he sees how beautiful Gene is, he falls for her, too! Including Louise Beavers as the "Mammy" role (since she's a superior actress than Hattie McDaniel, she could have easily been in the 1939 classic), and Shepperd Strudwick, Elizabeth Patterson, and Chill Wills in the supporting cast. I highly recommend this classic. It's not often there's a female lead in a western, and Gene Tierney is fantastic.

The start of this film sums it up best. The free slave telling the little girl about the legend of Belle Starr. This absolute legendary cast delivers a wonderful tale. Gene Tierney and Rudolph Scott are amazing and deliver absolute award-worthy performances.

How many westerns have there been about the life of Belle Starr? For that matter who knows that much about her real life? I remember seeing this film as a youngster and fell in love with it. I have always liked civil war films and 20th Cent. Fox put together a very good cast in the 1941 version. Gene Tierney plays the bandit queen very well, despite forcing herself to use a phony southern accent throughout the film. Randolp Scott is resplendent as captain Sam Starr, a renegade who rounds up bunch of confederate soldiers near the end of the civil war to stir up trouble in post war Missouri. Scott hates carpetbaggers and yankee soldiers in equal amounts and has no problem raiding banks and railroads for booty. Along the way he meets up with Belle Starr, who finds Scott very brave. Belle Starr is a fiery southern belle and when the yankees burn down her home because she is caught harboring Captain Starr, she joins forces with the rebels in her hatred against the transplanted Yankee forces sent to Missouri to clean out the "rebel rabble". An odd love twist forms when her childhood friend, Dana Andrews, a yankee captain, fights to conceal his true feelings for her and his hatred against Sam Starr and his rebel friends. Along the way Scott and Tierney become married and continue raiding and chasing out carpetbaggers out of Missouri. The twosome become a Missouri legend, much to the anger of the yankee forces trying to capture them. Jasper Tench, a town misfit and drunk, shoots and kills Belle Starr near the end of the film, sending Scott into surrendering to the yankee forces. Good scene at end when Scott surrenders to Andrews and both men nearly lose their composure in sadness over Belle's death. Belle's "mammy", played by Louise Beavers in a good supporting role adds a touch of warmth and comfort to Belle throughout the film.

Good performances by Chill Wills as a redneck southern soldier, and John Shepard who plays Belle's brother, Ed. You might get teary eyed at the end of this film. Excellent western.

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.

Western freely based on a real heroine including noisy action , go riding , assaults, and crossfire . This is the legend of outlaw Belle Starr and how she became the West's most wanted - and desired woman . The career of Wild West outlaw Belle Star is chronicled in this vintage western about lawlessness and war . At the end of the Civil War, an embittered Southern belle joins forces with a Confederate guerrilla leader to raid Union towns.¨Belle Star¨1941 by Irving Cummings boasts a good cast with Gene Tierney , Randolph Scott , Dana Andrews ; this is the best rendition about Belle Starr's character in which the setting is the Civil War and its aftermath . Belle's family has lost their house and land to Yankees, then she marries Confederate guerilla leader Sam Starr and they continue activities against exploiters until she is shot riding to alert Sam to a trap , while Confederate guerrilla leader to raid an Union town . Belle Star is a female bandit with an itch to ride with other Western legends . She makes her way around the Old West , usually wearing male garb . This Southern belle joins forces with Southern captain commencing a long and troubled relation . Bandit Queen & Desperadoes Who Killed For Her!. Her Name Was A Proud, Fierce Challenge Flung Defiantly At The West! Into the Cimarron Badlands came a new west queen! The exciting loves and battles of America's first "Two-Gun" Woman!.First of the West's Flaming "Gun-Molls"! The Petticoat Terror of the Ozarks!.She Was a Wonderful Sweetheart...But a Terrible Enemy! Miss Gene Tierney flames to stardom as The Bandit Queen !. No woman was ever a more tender sweetheart...or a more relentless champion of right! A great new screen personality !..Bandit Queen of a Lawless era !

This classy film concerns this known heroine and her romance with Confederate Sam Starr/Randolph Scott . This is a highly romanticized retelling with thrills , feats , shootouts and little connection with history . Here Belle Star is decently played by Gene Tierney as a vulnerable and embittered woman who is on the receiving end of society's injustices . Trio starring : Randolph Scott as Sam Starr , Gene Tierney a Shirley/Belle Starr and Dana Andrews as Major Thomas Crail give acceptable interpretations , being well accompanied by regular Westerns secondaries as Chill Wills , Shepperd Strudwick as John Shepperd , Elizabeth Patterson and Louise Beavers. Being filmed in brilliant Technicolor in the "Jesse James" Country .The motion picture was well directed by Irving Cummings .

There are various adaptations based on this historical character : ¨Belle Starr's Daughter¨ (1948) by Lesley Selander with George Montgomery , Rod Cameron , Ruth Roman . ¨Belle Starr¨ (1980 TV Movie) by John A. Alonzo with Elizabeth Montgomery , Cliff Potts as Cole Younger , Michael Cavanaugh . And ¨Belle Star¨ 1968 with Elsa Martinelli, Robert Woods, George Eastman , the only Spaghetti Western ever shot by a woman, Lina Wertmüller , who directed competently and under pseudonym, Nathan Wich .

The film is freely based on Belle Star , the actual events are the following ones : Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr (February 5, 1848- February 3, 1889), better known as Belle Starr, was an American outlaw who gained national notoriety after her violent death. She was a known bandit who joined other outlaw legends, the James gang, the Youngers and the Dalton boys . She associated with the James-Younger Gang and other outlaws. She was convicted of horse theft in 1883. She was fatally shot in 1889 in a case that is still officially unsolved. Her story was popularized by Richard K. Fox - editor and publisher of the National Police Gazette - and she later became a popular character in television and films. Allegedly, Belle was briefly married for three weeks to Charles Younger, uncle of Cole Younger in 1878, but this is not substantiated by any evidence. There are numerous claims that Belle's daughter Pearl Reed was actually Pearl Younger, but in Cole Younger's autobiography (quoted in Glen Shirley's "Belle Starr and her times"), he discounted that as rubbish and stated what he knew truly of Belle. In 1880, she married a Cherokee man named Sam Starr and settled with the Starr family in the Indian Territory. There, she learned ways of organizing, planning and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as harboring them from the law. Belle's illegal enterprises proved lucrative enough for her to employ bribery to free her colleagues from the law whenever they were caught .On February 3, 1889, two days before her 41st birthday, she was killed. She was riding home from a neighbor's house in Eufaula, Oklahoma when she was ambushed. After she fell off her horse, she was shot again to make sure she was dead. Her death resulted from shotgun wounds to the back and neck and in the shoulder and face. Legend says she was shot with her own double barrel shotgun, tohugh murder goes on unsolved. Although an obscure figure outside Texas throughout most of her life, Belle's story was picked up by the dime novel and National Police Gazette publisher Richard K. Fox, who made her name famous with his novel Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James, published in 1889 . This novel still is cited as a historical reference. It was the first of many popular stories that used her name.