SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

JohnHowardReid A Clarence Brown Production. Copyright 19 December 1944 by Loew's Inc. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 14 December 1944. U.S. release: April 1945. U.K. release: 6 August 1945. Australian release: 4 October 1945. 11,110 feet. 123½ minutes.SYNOPSIS: Young girl who loves horses dreams of her gelding winning the Grand National.NOTES: Ann Revere won the Best Supporting Actress award, and Robert J. Kern's was voted Best Film Editing. Other Academy Award nominations were Clarence Brown for Directing (lost to Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend); Leonard Smith for Color Cinematography (lost to Leon Shamroy's Leave Her To Heaven); and Art Direction (Color) for which the voters preferred Frenchman's Creek.Bosley Crowther allowed National Velvet edged out Home In Indiana for a place in his Ten Best Films of 1944. On the Film Daily poll, Velvet was voted 9th - nine votes ahead of Anchors Aweigh.Australian jockey Snowy Baker trained Elizabeth in horse-riding and doubled for her in the steeplechase climax.In real life, Howard Taylor is Elizabeth's elder brother; Moyna MacGill is Angela Lansbury's mother.Initial domestic rental gross: $4,050,000 - one of the top money-makers of the year.COMMENT: A story that never happened - and never could happen - set in an impossible Hollywood-land of smiling villagers and rolling greens; where the only villains are a reluctant jockey and a couple of half-determined touts - and a mildly cranky confectioner. The butcher of this Technicolored paradise is as kindly and gentle a philosopher as you could meet any side of a rainbow, and his second child a hopelessly endearing dream-girl whose persistent fancies and moony ambitions come impossibly true.Never mind all that. Like most fairy tales of legendary adventure, National Velvet is a gripping, heart-tugging drama that carries all before it. Ambition succeeding against all odds, the loner against the system, the romantic idealist versus the scoffers and the pragmatic.An extremely difficult role - one that needs to be spun with such winning conviction to set all audience doubts aside - and Elizabeth Taylor plays it perfectly. It was the role that made her a star (she had appeared in four films previously), and quite a few critics still consider it her finest performance.Most of the other players are equally adept. (I'm not so sure about Anne Revere, though the Academy gave her a surprise Oscar when she defeated the odds-on favorite Ann Blyth whose daughter of Mildred Pierce was regarded as a certainty. Well, who am I to argue with the Academy?) Mickey Rooney is ingratiatingly restrained in a not wholly sympathetic part that calls for real acting as Elizabeth's mentor. And Donald Crisp is nicely paternal as usual (love the scene in which he hauls Shields over the counter) and Butch Jenkins amusingly obnoxious as the insect-crazy Donald. If Angela Lansbury seems a mite mature for Edwina (this role is sandwiched between Gaslight and The Picture of Dorian Gray), it doesn't matter a great deal for despite the promise of her introductory scenes she has actually little to do. Other small parts are felicitously played by Reginald Owen, Arthur Shields, Billy Bevan and Arthur Treacher (who seems to have been cast as an afterthought - his sole function is to act as a foil for spectator Rooney during the climactic race).The race itself is not the finish of the film - there's quite a bit of plot tidying afterwards (plus an hilarious episode with Butch outsmarting Gerald Oliver Smith's prissy photographer) - but undoubtedly its high point. All staged for the picture, with no stock or library material, this was the sequence that won film editor Kern his Academy Award. Breathtakingly cut and paced, its excitingly orchestrated thrills and spills look remarkably authentic. My only criticism is that the camera tends to pull away a little too much from the action. Brown obviously wanted to get in as much of the crowd as possible, but I feel some of the stunts would seem even more daring closer up.Be this as it may, Brown has filmed the race with high imagination: charging running inserts are effectively intercut with stationary camera angles, process screen and undercranking effects are kept to a barely detectable minimum, suspense is cleverly riveted by both the speed and length of the race, and tension skillfully enhanced by attention to all the details of crowd and betting, weighing in and start.Brown's vivid directorial inventiveness is evident from the very beginning of the picture, with its credits super¬imposed on a continuous traveling shot following Mi (gamely walked by Rooney himself) to the signposts; and there are a couple of other outstandingly deft touches - the long track with Velvet and Edwina through the village, a sequence which effectively ends when Ted cuts in front of the lens with his bike; and the subjective view through Smith's camera as he focuses on Jenkins' gap-toothed face.Despite the intrusion of a few patently phony backdrops, this is a pleasingly expensive production with bright photography and generous sets and some extraordinarily attractive locations. Herbert Stothart's romantic music score with its jaunty use of "Greensleeves" underpins the visuals entrancingly. And of course for horse and Bagnold lovers (not to mention Taylor and Rooney fans), National Velvet is a dream.

ravenwork-57621 Careful, make contain a SPOILER.This is one of those rare classic Hollywood films that never pretends to be anything than what it is. It has a glorious host of grand character actors at the very top of their game. Along with some young folks who would go on to become AMAZING performers, like Elizabeth Taylor and Angela Lansbury. I love this film. It is genuine, honest, and beautiful. I am ready for it every time, but regardless, when Velvet falls from the Pie, my eyes fill with tears, and my heart leaps into my throat. The description of this film is somewhat accurate based upon the quite excellent book it is based on. However, Mickey Rooney, played his part with much greater aplomb. He wasn't "jaded," not at all. He was a young man who life had tested too early, and he was fortunate enough, brave enough, and creative enough, to recognize an opportunity to find his redemption, and to find it by helping others to achieve their dreams. Mickey Rooney's performance is singular, nuanced, and glorious. Finally, I am a fan of film, and this one contains, without a doubt, the most amazing film rendition of a horse race EVER.

onehandhailingataxicab Elizabeth Taylor is one of my favorites, and this is her breakthrough performance, worth checking out simply for the chemistry between her and Mickey Rooney. Even in their youth, both stars had remarkable timing and charisma. Hard to believe that in just a few years innocent little Liz would be burning up the screen as Maggie the Cat!The racing sequences are both remarkably dated, and breathtaking for the danger they depict. Apparently 70 years ago horse racing was extremely dangerous- and from the looks of it, stuntmen and horses alike had some rough tumbles on the set of this movie. (Hopefully, nobody was seriously injured, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn otherwise.)

Fuzzy Wuzzy Starring an exuberant, fresh-faced Elizabeth Taylor (only 12 years old at the time), National Velvet (which is now 70 years old) is certainly one of the less dated family pictures from that particular era of Hollywood movie-making.In a small, English, coastal town (in the 1920s) it's summer holidays for the Brown children. And when a beautiful, chestnut-coloured horse (who Velvet christens "The Pie") enters into the story, the scenario immediately transforms into a "dream-come-true" when Mi Taylor convinces the wide-eyed Velvet to enter this magnificent steed into the Grand National race being held at Aintree.This first-rate production was expertly directed by Clarence Brown.Here's a film where the rapport and chemistry between the actors was right on the mark. Here's a story where all of the characters were quite likable and the viewer finds themselves cheering Velvet on to victory, as if it were the most natural reaction of all.So, whether you happen to be a enthusiastic horse-hugger, or not, National Velvet is a vintage, Hollywood gem that you're bound to enjoy, time and again.