''The Belle Starr Story''/''Il mio corpo per un poker'' is a 1968 Italian made episodic '' Bonnie and Clyde'' type Spaghetti Western co-written and co-directed by

Lina Wertmüller Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich (14 August 1928 – 9 December 2021), known as Lina Wertmüller (), was an Italian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her 1970s art house films '' Seven Beauti ...

and starring

Elsa Martinelli Elsa Martinelli (born Elisa Tia; 30 January 1935 – 8 July 2017) was an Italian actress and fashion model. Life and career Born Elisa Tia in Grosseto, Tuscany, she moved to Rome with her family. In 1953, she was discovered by Roberto Capu ...

who also sings the title song. It is the only Spaghetti Western directed by a woman and one of the few which stars a woman in the title role. Wertmüller replaced after a few days Piero Cristofani, who was at his directorial debut.

Cast

Belle Starr Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr (February 5, 1848 – February 3, 1889), better known as Belle Starr, was an American outlaw who gained national notoriety after her violent death. She associated with the James–Younger Gang and other outlaw ...

* Robert Woods - Cole Harvey *

George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. He was a major philanthropist, establishing the Eastman ...

- Larry Blackie * Francesca Righini - Jessica *Bruno Piergentili/Dan Harrison - Pedro *

Bruno Corazzari Bruno Corazzari (born 30 December 1940) is an Italian film, television and stage actor. Life and career Born in Castellarano, Reggio Emilia, Corazzari started his career in the second half of the sixties, playing minor roles in a number of S ...

- Pinkerton Man * Vladimir Medar - John Shelley *

Eugene Walter Eugene Ferdinand Walter, Jr. (November 30, 1921 – March 29, 1998) was an American screenwriter, poet, short-story author, actor, puppeteer, gourmet chef, cryptographer, translator, editor, costume designer and well-known raconteur. During his y ...

- Velvet Fingers *

Remo De Angelis Remo De Angelis (30 July 1926 - 9 October 2014) was an Italian film actor, stunt man and painter. He appeared in ''Nel Segno di Roma'' (1959), by Guido Brignone, and he played Prometheus in '' Maciste all'inferno'' (1962), by Riccardo Freda. He wa ...

- Gang Member

Plot

A successful gambling woman named Belle Starr (

with red hair, freckles, and chain smoking

Tiparillos A Tiparillo is a shorter, thinner, and milder cigar with a plastic tip. It is manufactured by the General Cigar Company. The name Tiparillo, a portmanteau of ''tip'' and ''cigarillo'', was trademarked on July 3, 1961 by the Pinkerton Tobacco Compa ...

) attracts the interest of fellow gambler Larry Blackie (

) who proceeds to win all her money, and her ring. Larry suggests that they play for one night with her against the pot. She throws three queens of four – and loses. At the hotel room he asks why she has thrown the queens and tells that he has seen her cards. He ducks for her shot and draws the rug under her. They hit each other and fight in bed, and then kiss. Afterwards she tells him that no one has touched her before – now they introduce themselves. He says that she is just a one-night whore to him and warns her to gamble in his territory again. She replies that he has not heard the last. Belle looks for him in a saloon and kills four of his men in a duel. Later we see her sing a ballad of love in a saloon. He confronts her for another game. She shoots off his hat and the bells on his boots. He walks towards her and kiss her, and she lowers her gun. She tells him her story which is shown in flash-backs, with a sadistic whip-toting uncle who has killed her parents and wants to subdue her. It also involves her relationship with the outlaw Cole Harvey, whom she loved: – She steals his gun to fight her uncle. – He rescues her, kills her uncle and takes back the gun. – She tries to steal his gun when he sleeps. They fight; he attempts to rape her and is killed by her Indian friend – whom Belle earlier rescued from her uncle's whip. Larry offers her to join in a jewel robbery. She declines and instead gathers a gang to beat him to it, but he lets his men infiltrate the gang to take the loot. He is caught and tortured by Pinkerton agents to reveal the hiding place of the missing jewels, but he does not know. Belle appears and shoots one man, getting the drop on the others. She leaves with Larry, revealing the hiding place, in a crystal chandelier. The two separate after she has slapped him, kissed him and he has shot off her hat. ”See you the next poker game!” she shouts.

Reception

In his investigation of narrative structures in Spaghetti Western films, Fridlund describes the relationship between Belle Starr and Blackie as a variation on the unstable partnership between two protagonists that became frequent in Spaghetti Westerns in the wake of For a Few Dollars More. In this partnership of mixed gender the plot functions are played out on a code of sexual attraction (expressed mainly by kisses, love-making and slapping), alternating with another code of money-motivated pursuits and gunplay.Fridlund, Bert: ''The Spaghetti Western. A Thematic Analysis''. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company Inc., 2006 pp. 160.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belle Starr Story, The 1968 films Spaghetti Western films Films directed by Lina Wertmüller 1968 Western (genre) films Girls with guns films Cultural depictions of Belle Starr 1960s Italian films 1960s Italian-language films