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Date of Release: April 20, 1980
Running Time: 97 minutes
Director: John A. Alonzo
Screenplay: James Lee Bartlett
Cinematography: John A. Alonzo
Film Editing: David Garfield
Art Direction: Bob Kinoshita
Producer: Doug Chapin; Joseph Barbera (executive); Barry Krost (executive)
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...Gratt Dalton
Geoffrey Lewis...Revered Meeks
Sandy McPeak...Sheriff Pratt
David Nell...Ed Reed
Gino Silva...Blue Duck
Michelle Stacy...Pearl Younger
Peter Hobbs...Jenkins
Morgan Paull...Latham
Sarah Cunningham...Mrs. Chandler
Stony Bower...Summerville
Burt Edwards...Bank Manager
Dee Cooper...Morris
Gilbert B. Combs...Baggage Clerk
Kate Williams...Woman
John Edwards...Stockyard Clerk
Historians are in agreement that the notorious Belle Starr lacked many physical charms. Even without them, Belle cut a romantic swathe across the Old West which could favorably be compared with the lawlessness of which she was equally capable.
Although Elizabeth Montgomery is a far prettier "Starr" than the real Belle, the versatile actress is portraying the legendary bandit queen in "Belle Starr," the new motion picture-for-television to be broadcast on "The CBS Wednesday Night Movies," at 9 p.m.
Of all of the legends of the Old West, that of Belle Starr, Bandit Queen, was one of the most romanticized by the dime novelists of the day. To them, she was a daring and noble woman who fulfilled the role of a female Robin Hood.
Her real name was Myra Belle Shirley. She was born in a log cabin near Carthage, Mo., in 1848. Her family moved to Texas, and Belle had not yet grown out of her teens when she began hobnobbing with the infamous Jesse James gang and bore one of its members, Cole Younger, a daughter. She then married a horse thief named Jim Reed and bore him a son.
When Reed was killed, Belle took up with another gang and moved into Indian Territory, where she met and married a handsome Cherokee bandit named Sam Starr. From their hideout on the Canadian River, Belle acted as organizer, planner and fence for the rustlers, horse thieves and the bootleggers who sold illegal whiskey to the Indians. When her friends were captured by the authorities, she spent her money generously to buy their freedom. If bribery failed, she would employ her powers of seduction.
Belle was particularly exasperating to the famous "Hanging Judge" Parker, to whom she was female, flamboyant and frustrating. The press, however, was delighted with her, and disregarded inconvenient facts and invented many fictional exploits for her and made her everybody's favorite criminal.
After Starr was killed in a shootout, Belle continued her amorous pursuits. To the sorrow of romantic readers from coast to coast, she was shot in ambush in 1889. Her daughter had a monument erected on her grave with a bell, a star and a horse inscribed on it.