Product: Montana Belle [VHS] (1952)
Rating: 3.0
Jane Russell in a blonde wig just doesn't cut!
Jane Russell, in a modest performance, is cast as the West's most notorious female outlaw, a role previously played on screen by Gene Tierney in "Belle Starr" in 1941 and by Isabel Jewell in "Badman's Territory" in 1946... Director Allan Dwan could not take any interest into the unworthy storyline or the determinedly pedestrian cast... In addition, the harsh colors are no asset to the proceedings...Belle Starr (Russell), an outlaw's widow has a misunderstanding with Scott Brady and the three outlaw Dalton Brothers... She joins with Forrest Tucker and Jack Lambert in a holdup rampage, gaining an even more unpleasant reputation... Later she returns to her old favorite place of resort disguised sufficiently so that no one recognizes her...Because gambler-saloonkeeper George Brent has $50,000 in funds that Jane is longing to gain, she persuades him to take her as a partner at his saloon... As the new presiding mistress of the establishment, Jane finds time to sing "The Gilded Lily" and to understand that Brent is basically a good guy after all, even though he is determined on bringing the Dalton gang and Belle Starr to justice...