Don't listen to the negative reviews

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

After Elizabeth Taylor showed her beautiful face in 1943's Lassie Come Home, MGM put her in another animal movie, but this time gave her the lead role and let her shine. Usually, when casting children's roles, Hollywood tends to cast older actors, but in National Velvet, young Elizabeth was twelve when she played a twelve-year-old character. It's truly remarkable to see young children with great acting chops.In the film, Elizabeth plays Velvet, an English girl attached to her horse. Mickey Rooney drifts into town and is hired by Donald Crisp to work in his stables. As the family gets to know the newcomer better, they learn he used to be a jockey. As he bonds with the endearing little girl, she convinces him to train her horse for the races.National Velvet is so much better than The Story of Seabiscuit, just in case you saw that 1939 flop and assumed all old horse movies were that terrible. Both young leads have an enthusiastic energy that carries the story, and the iconic footage of Elizabeth Taylor on horseback is darling. This is a must-see for fans who want to see her first leading role.

"National Velvet" was released in 1944 by MGM. Directed by Clarence Brown, it starred Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Anne Revere, Donald Crisp, Angela Lansbury, and Butch Jenkins.The film is based on the novel by Enid Bagnold, who wrote often about women's achievements. Velvet Brown (ELizabeth Taylor) is filled with dreams. She's kind and generous, and when she meets a young man (Rooney) on the street who seems homeless, she invites him for dinner.Mi is kept on to work for Mr. Brown, a butcher, at a nice salary, with the encouragement of Mrs. Brown (Revere). The boy's father, she realizes, is the son of the man who coached her in swimming, and she went on to swim the English Channel. It's obvious from the way she speaks of him to Velvet that she was in love with him.Violet loves horses, and when a chance comes up to win one in a raffle, she jumps at it. She doesn't win, and she passes out -- the townspeople give her the horse anyway, whom she calls The Pie. Her father (Crisp) has a fit - he acts like a stern father. The truth is, he's a marshmallow and accepts the advice of his wise wife about Velvet, Mi, and the love life of their eldest (Lansbury).Well, Velvet and the Pie have a big adventure at the Grand Nationals.What a beautiful film with wonderful direction by Clarence Brown. It struck me while watching it how it was so of another world, and how sad that is. Velvet is supposed to 18-19; in fact, the producers wanted Gene Tierney. Taylor is 12. You would never have a film today with a 12- year-old being a good friend of a male who is 20+ and travels with him besides. Thus was the innocence of the times, and the trust people had in one another.In this magical film, about a mother encouraging her daughter to dream dreams, no matter how crazy, the performance of Anne Revere is magic in itself. Quiet, gentle, with straightforward opinions, she keeps her family going and guides her husband. Revere so deserved her Academy Award for this film. And she did not deserve being blacklisted for refusing to testify during the Red Scare. She had just finished A Place in the Sun when she invoked the Fifth Amendment, so her part was cut down to practically nothing.Everyone does an excellent job in this film, and Elizabeth Taylor's beauty and sincerity shines through. I saw a documentary about her where a producer who hired her for something said she came in wearing a velvet cape. He said he could not take any credit for "discovering" her -- her parents were interested in getting her into the business, and it was just a matter of time before she was discovered. As Velvet, she wears some sort of dental plate, and she is incredibly young, but the face is the same.Mickey Rooney plays the tough Mi, trying to find his way, with a great deal of gusto that had anger beneath.The only person I found annoying was Butch Jenkins. It's obvious that Mrs. Brown was a saint.If for some reason you haven't seen this, please do, and watch it with your children. What a great introduction to film and what an inspiration.

National Velvet Owning a horse is basically comprised of feeding one end and cleaning up the other. However, the relationship between pony and person in this drama is much more involved than shoveling equine scat.After winning a lively colt in a raffle, the equally spirited Velvet (Elizabeth Taylor) begins breaking-in her beast for a national steeplechase.With a former jockey Mi (Mickey Rooney), Velvet and her steed, dubbed The Pi, perfect their steeple leaping performance.But when the jockey hired to ride The Pi at the Grand National backs out, it's up to Mi to put away his past and get back in the saddle - or is it?With Sussex, England serving as the pastoral setting of this girl-meets-horse tale, National Velvet is as much a visual treat as a narrative one.Unfortunately, when your horse can jump over fences and ditches, your corral has to be, like, 20-feet tall. (Green Light)vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

This movie is all charm. It is adorable, touching, incredibly sweet, and terribly precious. There is not one moment that does not touch your heart. From the Brown family - with the sisters Edwina (a young Angela Lansbury!) and Malvolia (Juanita Quigley) and the precious, freckled, innocent, and clever Donald (Jackie Jenkins). The Gibraltar of wisdom, Mrs. Brown (Anne Revere) and the Irish, folksy, can't-help-but-love-him Mr. Brown (Donald Crisp). Not to mention the stars of the program, Mi Taylor (Mickey Rooney) and Velvet (the incomparable Elizabeth Taylor). Velvet is all heart, so full of her love for horses, so innocent and pure in her selflessness for Pie. And Mi, the ne'er-do-well who finds his courage and sense of self in Velvet's pure, unadulterated trust in him. What character dwells deep in these people, what stories, what charm! And even though I knew the story, I cheered and clapped in the racing scene, and I teared up with the trust and wisdom of Mrs. Brown to Velvet. A real classic, timeless and truly beautiful, that will leave you warm and inspired.