In trying to break the Samantha Stevens image, Elizabeth Montgomery stars in this television movie about Belle Starr, who made friends with outlaws such as the James brothers, the Dalton brothers and the Younger brothers. It doesn't really start at the beginning, though, explaining how she met them. We open on her living just outside a small town (in the west, but of course.) She goes into town to see her daughter, Pearl, who stays in town being taught piano and singing lessons and all the etiquette a young girl should know, her father being Cole Younger. But the churchwomen don't like Belle in their town, even though she really isn't hurting anybody and she's not wanted by the law. (She's never done anything illegal, but she does spend time with wanted criminals.) When preacher man Geoffrey Lewis proposes a union with him as a possible solution, she turns him down and he and others (with hoods on) proceed to burn down her property and run her finally out of town. Then, she and son are off to try start over somewhere else. While it may seem (to a lot of people) like Ms. Montgomery was so famous and so recognizable in her day, that all you see is Elizabeth in her TV movies, here she really is so enmeshed in character and all that's around her, you forget her and see Belle Starr, a lady who's not a real lady but who wants the respect ladies get. Written by James Lee Barrett, this was a very intelligent look at the life of one who took up with the wrong kind and payed the consequences for it. Her son doesn't like the creeps to take up residence there when they come, and he really lets her know what's what. I don't know how true to facts this TV movie is, but it really impressed me with three-dimensional characters and people you care about what happens to them, and Ms. Montgomery gives a great performance as a strong-minded woman who lives how she wants to, without caring about what others think of her. "Belle Starr" is another Elizabeth Montgomery TV movie to see, if you care about seeing her as more than just your average lovable witch.
