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Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

If anyone is expecting any true notes out of this film concerning Belle Starr they are in for a sad disappointment. One of the very few things that this film got right was that Belle Starr as befit a lady to the manor born rode side saddle. You wouldn't catch Calamity Jane doing that.If you saw this film you would think that Belle's career ended a few years after the Civil War was over. In fact Belle's time on earth was 1848 to 1889 and in that period Belle Shirley married several times, the last being a Cherokee Indian named Sam Starr. No hint of that background in Randolph Scott, he plays the part as the real Randolph Scott was, a courtly southern gentleman from Virginia.I don't know if Gene Tierney was in the Scarlett O'Hara sweepstakes, but in playing Belle Starr she does it in the fiddle-dee-dee tradition that Vivien Leigh did in Gone With The Wind. She's got all the men in the area ready to do and die for her and that includes Dana Andrews the Yankee major who is from Missouri also and has a real case of the hots for her. But Dana does his duty no matter how distasteful it is and Tierney's heart is only for Randolph Scott.The real Belle was quite a bit more earthy a character and had a few children as well. One of them, a daughter became the madame of a brothel later in life. This film is entertaining with Tierney acting like Scarlett O'Hara and the plot lifted from that other Twentieth Century Fox classic about a Missouri outlaw, Jesse James.Belle Starr will never make the top ten list of any of the cast members.

This film is technically very up to date even though it is from 1941. It is an expensive color production, trying to stay on the wake of Gone With The Wind. Where the film aged considerably is on the script which is either patronizing in relation to Afro Americans or downright racist like when it shows Randolph Scott scaring carpetbaggers out of Missouri. Gene Tierney with a heavy southern accent is very good as Belle and so is Randolph Scott as Sam Starr. It is very rare to see Scott in a romantic part and he comes out great. It is curious that they show the three Younger brothers with a different surname, Cole. That is quite a direct reference to Cole Younger, yet they changed the names. Dana Andrews is the Union Major Grail who is in love with Belle but places duty above everything. "Belle Starr" has aged but it is still an interesting film to see.

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.

Tierney does fine opposite an uninspired Randolph Scott as the fiery Belle Starr. Her scenes with Andrews have far more electricity and pick the film's pacing up midway through. A veteran supporting cast gives their all for the cause, or is that causes? The movie, of course, takes generous liberties with actual history, but that's part of the fun in this one.