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. Shekhar Kapur made a movie Bandit Queen (1994) about Phoolan Devis life up to her 1983 surrender, based on Mala Sens 1993 book Indias Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi. Furthermore, the Technicolor needs restoration if this ever goes to DVD. Gene Tierney never did receive good reviews for her early films and BELLE STAR is no exception. 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. 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. The movie was naturally surrounded by all kinds of controversy on its release - Its abusive language, nudity, brutality of its scenes were just the tip of the iceberg.
Furthermore, someone should have told LOUISE BEAVERS that she is no substitute for HATTIE McDANIEL. Phoolan eventually surrendered to the government and underwent a trial for 11 years before she was finally released in 1994, the year of release of the 'Bandit Queen' movie.
Any resemblance between the people portrayed here and the real life characters is strictly coincidental. BELLE STAR should have a disclaimer at the start.
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