Betsy Bell

Short Biography

Beautiful blond Betsy Bell appeared in Italian action films and spaghetti westerns of the 1960’s and early 1970’s.Who was Betsy Bell? At the net the best known Betsy Bell was a historical witch who lived in Adams, Tennessee. She was called The Bell Witch or Bell Witch Haunting, and became the subject of a poltergeist legend from Southern United States folklore. The legend is the basis of the films The Bell Witch Haunting (2004) and An American Haunting (2006) featuring Rachel Hurd-Wood as Betsy Bell. It is also said that the Bell Witch may have inspired the Blair Witch Project. However, the girl at the postcard is not a poltergeist but another, modern-day Betsy Bell. The only place we could find some information about her was the International Movie Database, but the IMDb does not mention her birth date nor her birth place. Maybe, Betsy Bell (it must have been a pseudonym from someone with a sense of humour) was one of these many North- European starlets who traveled to Rome in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Rome was the European film mecca at the time, and there she appeared in seven films as blond eye candy. Her first known film was the Italian peplum Il sepolcro dei re/Cleopatra's Daughter (1960, Fernando Cerchio) starring Debra Paget as Shila, the daughter of Cleopatra. Betsy played just a small part. Two years later she was seen in Tototruffa '62 (1963, Camillo Mastrocinque), one of Italy’s favorite Totò comedies. Again Betsy’s part was only a minor one. She then played a German student in a segment of the anthology film Gli amanti latini/Latin Lovers (1965, Mario Costa ), also with Totò. The anthology film was a popular European genre in the early 1960’s, but the attractive blonde would play her most important roles in another popular Euro film genre of the 1960’s, the Spaghetti western.Betsy Bell was the leading lady in Quanto costa morire/A Taste of Death (1968, Sergio Merolle), starring Andrea Giordana, John Ireland and Raymond Pellegrin. This western tells the tale of a retired sheriff, who is the only one to stand up against a gang of cattle thieves, which terrorizes the people of a snow swept Colorado mountain town. The result was mediocre, and at IMDb, Van Roberts writes: “A Taste of Death lacks any sense of style and director Sergio Merolle doesn't do anything that has been done before.” In his review Betsy Bell is not even mentioned. Next she appeared in the war drama Il dito nella piaga/Salt in the Wound/The Liberators (1969, Tonino Ricci). She again played the female lead and the male stars were Uruguay-born actor George Hilton and Klaus Kinski. At IMDb, a Sgt. Slaughter writes: “A highly picked-on, but nearly perfect Italian WWII drama / action piece with a first-rate cast and some fantastic action footage. The film is so good, that it was basically re-made by Enzo Castellari years later as Deadly Mission.” And again there is no mention of the female star. Bell played a smaller role as a saloon singer in Sartana nella valle degli avvoltoi/Sartana in the Valley of Death (1970, Roberto Mauri) starring William Berger. At IMDb, Mario Gauci reviews: “This is the first entry I've watched in a long-running series of Spaghetti Westerns revolving around the titular figure, played here by William Berger; as such, he displays no particular features that would make him stand out from similar anti-heroes (such as The Man With No Name or Django) and, in fact, is never even referred to by that nickname!” Guauci refers briefly to Bell: “For the record, the song playing over the opening credits ‘King For A Day’ is quite decent and is even warbled, for no good reason, by a blonde bar-room chanteuse at one point in the film.” Betsy Bell’s final film was the Spanish-Italian actioner Siete minutos para morir/7 Minutes To Die (1971, Ramón Fernández). She played the female lead and her co-stars were Paolo Gozlino (aka Paul Stevens) and again, George Hilton. But that's all, folks.