National Velvet (film)

National Velvet
215px Original film poster
Directed by	Clarence Brown
Produced by	Pandro S. Berman
Screenplay by	Helen Deutsch
Based on	National Velvet 1935 novel by Enid Bagnold
Starring	Mickey Rooney Donald Crisp Elizabeth Taylor Angela Lansbury Anne Revere Reginald Owen Terry Kilburn
Music by	Herbert Stothart
Cinematography	Leonard Smith
Edited by	Robert Kern
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates	December 14, 1944 (1944-12-14)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,770,000
Box office	$5,840,000

National Velvet is a 1944 Technicolor sports film based on the novel by Enid Bagnold, published in 1935. It stars Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp and a young Elizabeth Taylor. In 2003, National Velvet was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Plot

Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor and The Pie in National Velvet

Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet

National Velvet is the story of a 12-year-old girl, Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor), who lives in the small town of Sewels in Sussex, England, who wins a spirited gelding in a raffle and decides to train him for the Grand National steeplechase. She is aided by a penniless young drifter named Mi (or Michael) Taylor (Mickey Rooney), who found Mrs. Brown's name and address among his late father's effects, but is unaware of what it was doing there. Hoping to gain some money from the association, Mi stays at the Browns' home, but Mrs. Brown is unwilling to allow Mi to trade on his father's good name and remains vague about how she knew him. Nevertheless she convinces her husband (Donald Crisp) to hire Mi over his better judgment, and Mi is brought into the home as a hired hand. It is revealed that Mi had been a jockey in Manchester, but his career ended in a collision which resulted in the death of another jockey. Since then Mi has not held a job, and he has come to hate horses. Velvet decides to call the horse "The Pie" after his owner, Mr. Ede, calls him a pirate. The man decides to be rid of the Pie, and offers him up in a raffle. Velvet wins The Pie, and on realizing the extent of the horses natural talent, she pleads with Mi to train the horse for the Grand National. He believes it a fools errand, not because of the horse, but because they have no real way to support the effort. He makes his case to Mrs. Brown, but she consents to Velvet's desire to train the horse. Velvet and Mi train the horse and enter him into the race. An experienced jockey is hired to ride him. The night before the race Velvet senses that the jockey hired to ride The Pie has no faith in him, and doesn't believe the horse can win. Velvet convinces Mi to fire the jockey, leaving them without a rider. That night Mi determines to overcome his fears and ride The Pie himself. Instead, he discovers that Velvet has slipped on the jockey's colors, and intends to ride the horse in the race herself. Aware of the dangers of such a race, Mi pleads with Velvet but is unable to dissuade her. As the race unfolds Velvet and The Pie avoid a number of falls, clear all the hurdles and win the race. Elated by their win, Velvet faints and falls off her mount at the finish. As she is revived the race doctor realizes she is not a young man, but a young woman. As such she and The Pie are disqualified, but Velvet knows The Pie proved himself. Velvet becomes a media sensation, declining an offer of £5,000 to travel to Hollywood with The Pie to be filmed. She ran the Pie at the Grand National because he deserved to have a chance. He wasn't an oddity to be stared at. In refusing the offer she states simply: "He wouldn't like being looked at." At the close of the film Mi takes his leave, and Mrs. Brown gives Velvet permission to reveal to him the nature of her relationship with his father. Velvet rides off to catch up with Mi and tell him that his father had been Mrs. Brown's coach when she won the prize as the first woman to swim the English Channel, many years before.

The film differs from the book in a number of respects. For example, Velvet's horse is a piebald, and thus is given the name "The Piebald" or "The Pie" for short. In the movie, Pie is a chestnut, so it was necessary to come up with another explanation for his name. Velvet, in the book, is a sickly child who is given to great imagination and spirit; her father is stern and given to anger, but the mother is stronger still and will stand up to him when she has to. Since her days as a swimmer she has become a large woman, and weighs 16 stone—224 pounds (102 kg) at the time of the story, and warns Velvet never to allow herself to be weighed down with weight.

Cast

• Mickey Rooney as Mi Taylor
• Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown
• Donald Crisp as Mr. Herbert Brown
• Angela Lansbury as Edwina Brown
• Anne Revere as Mrs Araminty Brown
• Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins as Donald Brown
• Juanita Quigley as Malvolia "Mally" Brown
• Arthur Treacher as Race Patron
• Reginald Owen as Farmer Ede
• Norma Varden as Miss Sims
• Terry Kilburn as Ted
• Arthur Shields as Mr. Hallam
• Aubrey Mather as Entry official
• Alec Craig as Tim
• Eugene Loring as Ivan Taski
• Jane Isbell as Schoolgirl Jane
• Matthew Boulton as Entry official
• Barry Macollum as a townsman (uncredited)
• Gerald Oliver Smith as a cameraman (uncredited)
• King Charles as the horse, "the Pie" (the Pirate)

Lansbury, Quigley and Kilburn are the last surviving primary cast members.

Production notes

An 18-year-old Gene Tierney, who was then appearing on Broadway, was offered the role of Velvet Brown in 1939. Production was delayed, however, so Tierney returned to Broadway. Much of the film was shot in Pebble Beach, California, with the most-scenic views on the Pebble Beach Golf Links (with golf holes visible in the background). Elizabeth Taylor was given "The Pie" as a birthday gift after filming was over.

This was the first of two films casting Elizabeth Taylor and Anne Revere. The other film, A Place in the Sun, featured Revere as the mother of Taylor's love interest, played by Montgomery Clift. In that film, however, the two actresses never shared the screen with each other in any scene.

Song

• "Summertime" - Elizabeth Taylor and MGM Studio and Orchestra Chorus Girls / Teacher

Reception

National Velvet currently holds a 100% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It was very successful at the box office earning $3,678,000 in the US and Canada and $2,162,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $785,000.

Academy Awards

The film won two Oscars in 1945:

Wins

• Best Supporting Actress - Anne Revere
• Best Film Editing - Robert J. Kern

Nominations

• Best Director - Clarence Brown
• Best Art Direction (color) - (Art Direction) Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary; (Interior Decoration) Edwin B. Willis and Mildred Griffiths
• Best Cinematography - Leonard Smith

Other adaptations

• National Velvet was dramatized as a one-hour radio play on the February 3, 1947 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater, with Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp and Janice Scott.
• In 1960, the film was adapted into television series which aired on NBC.
• In 2003, a film version was made for television.

Sequel

In 1978, a sequel, International Velvet, was released. The film stars Tatum O'Neal, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Hopkins, and Nanette Newman, who plays Velvet Brown as an adult.

External links

• National Velvet at IMDb
• National Velvet at the TCM Movie Database
• National Velvet at AllMovie
• National Velvet at the American Film Institute Catalog
• National Velvet at Rotten Tomatoes