classicsoncall A decade after Jane Russell made her film debut in Howard Hughes' "The Outlaw", she's back in a Western as an outlaw herself. The real Belle Starr was a horse thief and all around bad girl, but teaming her up in this picture with the Dalton Gang was a figment of Hollywood's imagination like so many other Western movie treatments. Even the composition of the Dalton Brothers was botched in this one, there was no Ben Dalton, as the brothers who rode together as outlaws were Emmett, Bob and Gratham, Grat for short.This is a curious story, as Belle Starr's allegiance to the Daltons, and particularly Bob (Scott Brady), is tested along the way through misunderstanding and duplicity. As the owner of the Bird Cage Saloon in Guthrie, Oklahoma, Tom Bradfield (George Brent) is enlisted by authorities to set up the Dalton Gang for arrest, but those plans go awry when the Dalton Brothers are beaten to the punch by Belle and the non-family members of the gang. Belle winds up half owner in The Bird Cage, and Bradfield begins courting the outlaw in what seemed like an ill fated romance, but as odd as it seems, Belle winds up siding with the saloon guy.As for Belle Starr's turn as a singer at the Bird Cage, well I don't know, it seemed like she stepped right out of character and frankly, Russell's performance seemed a little embarrassing to me. Don't get me wrong, she looked great in the outfits she wore but her body tempo seemed more suited for the 1950's than the 1880's. She did a much better job in another film that came out the same year, "Son of Paleface" opposite Bob Hope in a comedy Western. She cut quite the impressive sight in her all black outfit, adding significant nuance to the name of the Dirty Shame Saloon.In the final analysis, this picture either on purpose or inadvertently managed to portray the Daltons as the kind of bank robbers they were in real life, because as outlaws, they just weren't very good. They failed in their robbery attempt that closes out this story, which had some of the earmarks of the infamous Coffeyville, Oklahoma raid that ended their careers in 1892, leaving both Grat and Bob Dalton dead. What was kind of cool though was the closing subliminal tribute paid to Jane Russell's character from her very first picture. As the story ends she recreates her classic reclining pose from "The Outlaw" that's familiar to anyone who's seen that film. It's even used as the photo image for that movie right here on IMDb; check it out.

gordonl56 Montana Belle - 1952Considering the cast and crew involved, I was very surprised just how bad this film was. We have Jane Russell, Forrest Tucker, Scott Brady, Ray Teal, George Brent, Andy Devine, John Litel and Jack Lambert in front of the camera. With the normally competent Alan Dwan and Jack Marta behind the camera, I was expecting a much better product.It is a real mishmash about Belle Starr running with the Dalton gang. It starts out silly and just gets worse as it goes. The cast just looks downright embarrassed. The actors do their best but the very silly story leaves them little room to shine. Jack Lambert as a Indian at least gave me a few chuckles.The film was shot in 1948 by Republic Pictures and shelved by them. That should have warned me right there. Four years later RKO bought it and gave it a release. They should of burned it.There are a few nice outdoor shots by veteran cinematographer, Marta. Marta did much better work on, FLYING TIGERS, THE PLUNDERERS, RIDE THE MAN DOWN, DUEL AT APACHE WELLS and CAT BALLOU.

bkoganbing Montana Belle which probably at best started out to be an average B western product from RKO got to Howard Hughes's attention because it starred his protégé Jane Russell. This make believe account of the famous female outlaw Belle Starr got cut and recut and edited down to a mess of a story if you're looking for coherency. The film was made in 1948 and released in 1952 and that's always bad news.Like Jane's first feature, The Outlaw, certain western legends who never in real life met up with each other, have dealings in the Hollywood west. In The Outlaw, it's the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid story rewritten to have Doc Holiday's participation. In Montana Belle, Jane as Belle Starr is rescued by Bob Dalton played by Scott Brady. But later when she mistakes a doublecross she forms her own gang with Forrest Tucker and Jack Lambert as a most stereotypical Indian.In the meantime another guy with his hormones in a tizzy over Jane's titanic weaponry is George Brent, gentleman gambler and owner of the largest liquor&gaming establishment in Guthrie, Oklahoma. He's going to reform Jane and separate her from her disreputable outlaw companions. Nice work if you can get it.You can't say too much about the story, Howard Hughes muddled this one, the same as he muddled, The Outlaw, Jet Pilot, and My Forbidden Past. One thing he didn't do for which we can thank the Deity is that he didn't cut Jane's number, The Gilded Lily from the film. It's definitely the best thing about Montana Belle.But over at Republic they were shooting westerns with all their B stars that had more coherent plots than you see here.

Cajun-4 Jane Russell plays a (very) fictionalized Belle Starr. (Going off contemporary photographs the real Belle Starr looked closer to Ernest Borgnine), also Jane gets away with being disguised as a man during a holdup!! You can see we are not talking reality here.Originally filmed in color, most prints now available are black and white. Jane does a couple of not bad (and rather racy) musical numbers that are a little out of place and appeared to have filmed at a different time. It seems as though cuts may have been as the plot gets a little muddled sometimes and now and again we get the impression we are entering scenes in progress.After completion this movie was held up for a few years before distribution, which is usually a bad sign. In this case though it seems no worse than many of the second string westerns produced in the forties.Okay with popcorn and if you're in the right mood.