HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  National Velvet My Little Pony
Year: 1944
Director: Clarence Brown
Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere, Angela Lansbury, Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins, Juanita Quigley, Arthur Treacher, Reginald Owen, Norma Varden, Terry Kilburn, Arthur Shields, Aubrey Mather, Alec Craig, Eugene Loring
Genre: DramaBuy from Amazon
Rating:  8 (from 3 votes)
Review: A note in his late father’s journal leads opportunistic young Mi Taylor (Mickey Rooney) along the open road to the quiet English country home of the Brown family. Though Mr. Brown (Donald Crisp) questions the young man’s integrity, Mrs. Brown (Anne Revere) gives Mi a chance to earn his keep since, unbeknownst to him, his father once trained her to swim the English channel. Her spirit burns bright in the Brown’s youngest daughter, Velvet (Elizabeth Taylor), a radiant, good-hearted girl with an all-consuming passion for horses, particularly the Pirate, or Pi for short, a spirited steed whom she wins in a raffle. Velvet has her heart set on racing the Pi in competition. Her enduring self-belief beguiles Mi away from his own doubts and insecurities and encourages him to train Velvet to race at the Grand National.

What is it about little girls and horses? National Velvet sparked an obsessive love in the hearts of millions of pony-mad young ladies that endures to this day. Movie-makers have been spinning variations on novelist Enid Bagnold’s original story ever since. One of the most beloved family movies of all time, National Velvet embodies everything MGM did best: a sincerely heart-warming story coated in lush Technicolor and topped by a radiant new star, the young Elizabeth Taylor. Fresh off her adorable debut in Lassie Come Home (1943), Taylor was third-billed after the studio’s reigning youthful star, Mickey Rooney. Rooney is excellent, but it was Taylor’s Velvet Brown whom everyone fell in love with.

Like all good animal movies, this is not really about the horse but about people, including a heroine who seems less a child than a force of nature. An ardent animal lover off-screen, Taylor makes Velvet nothing less than the irrepressible, bright eyed spirit of childhood idealism and performs her dreamy speeches (“Everyday I pray to God to give me horses”) with utmost conviction. Facing the racing challenge becomes a test of character. Velvet’s quiet self-belief enables her to overcome all obstacles, from nursing the Pi back from the brink of pneumonia, dismissing a snooty Russian jockey to take the reins herself, and inspiring Mi - himself traumatised after causing a pile-up at another racetrack - to become a better man. Not that Taylor completely dominates the movie. As her parents, Donald Crisp and the Oscar winning Anne Revere are superb, while Velvet’s sisters, avian enthusiast Malvolia (Juanita Quigley) and boy-obsessed Edwina (Angela Lansbury) are vividly drawn while kid brother Donald (Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins) provides much surreal comedy with his wacky musings.

The race itself is tautly handled by Clarence Brown, exciting and wryly humorous in the aftermath when stunned official discover Velvet is (gasp!) a girl. Aside from being MGM’s go-to guy for animal movies, e.g. The Yearling (1946), Brown was a respected filmmaker, a favourite of Greta Garbo, and ties with Robert Altman and Alfred Hitchcock as the director with the most Academy Award nominations without a win. Wisely, he does not end the film with the race but shows us the real mark of maturity lies in how Velvet copes with her sudden fame. National Velvet spawned a Sixties television series followed by the belated sequel International Velvet (1978), where director Bryan Forbes substituted Taylor with his wife Nanette Newman coaching new-child-star-on-the-block Tatum O’Neal to racing victory. There was also a made-for-TV movie in 2003, but arguably the film that truly recaptured its spirit was The Black Stallion (1979) wherein Mickey Rooney played a horse trainer not unlike an older, wiser Mi Taylor.

Reviewer: Andrew Pragasam

 

This review has been viewed 5787 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
  Stuart Watmough
Paul Shrimpton
Darren Jones
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
   

 

Last Updated: