AllMovie

Elsa Martinelli plays the title outlaw in the made-for-Italian-TV Belle Starr. Though ostensibly based on historical fact, the film's chronology and character relationships are somewhat juggled with by director Lina Wertmuller. What emerges is a typically Wertmullerian "battle of the sexes" endeavor, with anachronistic emphasis on the story's political ramifications. Also, the American West is depicted in near-surrealistic fashion, not quite as zany as in a Mel Brooks picture, but not very far from it. For reasons of her own, Wertmuller used the psedonym Nathan Wich in the film's credits.