MONTANA BELLE

There's only one reason to watch MONTANA BELLE (1952), an utterly routine RKO western. And if you think the reason is either George Brent, Scott Brady or Forrest Tucker, you're really not paying attention.

The lovely Jane Russell, who is one of my all-time favorite Golden Age movie stars, headlines as notorious lady outlaw Belle Starr. She crosses paths with the infamous Dalton Gang, led by Bob Dalton (Brady), before forming her own outlaw band with Mac (Tucker) and Ringo (Jack Lambert). Belle gets in good with Tom Bradfield (Brent), the owner of the Birdcage saloon and casino. Belle becomes part owner with an eye towards eventually cleaning out the joint. But true love interferes and complicates Belle's plans.

There are a couple of unintentionally hilarious musical numbers in which Belle sings and struts through songs like she's in a 1950s nightclub rather than an Old West saloon. Her dresses are slit up to here, showing an awful lot of Miss Russell's lovely legs, her hand gestures are odd, the orchestration too full to be supplied by the bar room band and the lyrics distinctly modern. These two scenes are the highlights of the film.

MONTANA BELLE was shot in "Trucolor", RKO's color photography process. It's a faded, washed out color process which gives everything a pastel tint rather than the rich, super saturated color of Technicolor. The process reminds me of those ghastly colorized black and white films of the 1980s. I would have rather seen this film in black and white than this tepid color photography.

The supporting cast is full of players who appeared in dozens of films and television shows. Among them are Andy Devine as a peddler playing both ends against the middle, Ray (BONANZA) Teal as Emmett Dalton and Dick (Mayor Pike on the ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW) Elliott as Jeptha Rideout.

MONTANA BELLE was directed by veteran director Allan Dwan, whose career began in the silent era. The screenplay by Horace McCoy and Norman S. Hall, pays absolutely no attention to the history of the real Belle Starr. As a western, MONTANA BELLE is strictly average. But for Russell fans like myself, it's a gold mine.