National Velvet (1944): Dir: Clarence Brown / Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Angela Lansbury, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere: Wonderful film about realizing your dreams. It begins and ends with a lone traveler given an invitation by the film's heroine. He is played by Mickey Rooney and she is Velvet who has a passion for horses. Her father is a butcher who hires Rooney but as they set off to sell the product Velvet pauses to mount a wild horse named Pie. After its umpteenth rampage through town she wins it in a town lottery. Rooney is convinced to help her train a horse for the Grand National, which is the greatest racing event in England. Grand storytelling goes for a social commentary involving gender roles. Director Clarence Brown does an excellent job at blending drama and humour, but what he also does is establish the introductory of his appealing lead star. Elizabeth Taylor brings flair and energy to Velvet. Rooney learns valuable lessons regarding friendship. He begins with bad intentions but is influenced towards greater character. Siblings are underwritten particularly Angela Lansbury who is practically wasted. Of the children, the middle sister seems unnecessary, and Donald Crisp is totally annoying in every scene he mugs. However, the result is a simple yet rewarding film about gender and potential to higher levels of gain. Score: 9 / 10

Velvet so beautiful. Rest of family pretty plain. Mickey very smart. Smart father swimming coach. Mother stern, strong, loving. Father stern; heart of gold -- gruff curmudgeon. Lansbury almost overlooked. Ants got a pretty big part. 1940s movie family at dinner table. Older daughter boy-crazy. Yes! "Meet Me in St. Lewis". Copycats. Velvet movie circa late 1920s, though; St. Louis movie 1903-1904. Interesting. Fathers in both movies trying to disapprove of the children's behaviors. Butch the youngest in Velvet; ant fetish. Tootie youngest in St. Louis movie; dead dolls fetish and stupid Halloween segments. WC Fields would not like to have shared scenes with these little moppet attention-grubbers. Difference Margaret O'Brien second billing; Butch further down the list. Back to Velvet movie: The Pie so beautiful. No stereotypical English plough horse. So lithe. So daring. Jumped ever so gracefully. Or was that a stand in for the long shots? I imagine the same stand-ins for Liz and Mickey, too. Mickey loved Judy so much. I never heard him reminisce about Elizabeth Taylor. Brown's Meat Pies. Reminds one of Sweeney Todd. Father butcher for a trade...wanted Pie to be used for cat food. Horrible. Mother world class swimming champion. Looks like she hid that news forever. Elizabeth so beautiful, riding Pie alongside when Mickey was on the train. This is the scene remembered by a lot of people.Scenery looked like matte paintings, sets, etc. I know this is a way to control costs, plus the daylight. Racetrack buildings looked real.

Passion - all of us have it for something in our lives whether we know it or not. Everybody is different and will have to walk down separate paths. But I guarantee that throughout the duration of each and every life, there's always going to be something about life that each of us will have an undying love for. Take the main character of director Clarence Brown's charming 1944 family drama "National Velvet" for example. An English girl named Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor) absolutely adores horses. One day, she comes across a wild horse named Pi who is gifted at clearing obstacles. She instantly adores Pi and eventually wins the horse at a raffle. She also meets a former jockey named Mi Taylor (Mickey Rooney) who detests horses because he caused the death of another jockey in a past race. Mi reluctantly agrees with Velvet's parents (Donald Crisp, Anne Revere) to help Velvet train Pi for the Grand National steeplechase, one of the most strenuous horse races in all the land. This picture basically follows Velvet and Mi's progress at training Pi for the big race. There's also time set aside in the story where we spend time with the rest of Velvet's family including her older sister Edwina (Angela Lansbury, in one of her earliest roles) and learn more about Mi's connection to Velvet's family. I feel that I should tell you a little bit more about me and my family before I keep going. My sister was really into horses when we were both younger. There was a barn near where we lived about 10-15 years ago where she could ride on horses and even do some work at the barn after school. Because I was fairly young and no one else was at home, my mom had to constantly drag me to the barn as well even though I didn't have much interest in doing so. The reason for my disinterest is that I didn't like how it interfered with my ability to play with my toys and friends at home during that time. The reason I bring this up is that when me and my sister watched "National Velvet" as young kids, guess which one of us seemed to like it more based on the fact that the DVD for this film is in their possession? That's right, none other than yours truly. Oh, how ironic. Helen Deutsch's script is probably the key ingredient that contributes to my high endorsement of "National Velvet". It manages to find a nice balance between respecting the intelligence of horse experts and welcoming those who know next to nothing about horses. Deutsch knew to keep the real fancy horse talk to a minimum and allow the audience to stay attached with the personalities and passion that these characters have. Because of this writing strategy, we can clearly see and identify with Velvet's passion and enjoyment of riding horses. We can also delve into how Mi's past is mentally distracting him in the present, and even make observations about the traits that all the Brown family members have in general. I'm particularly fond of Velvet's parents as played by Donald Crisp and Anne Revere. I like how the father strives to install discipline in the household and yet he does things that he specifically told his children not to do. He tells his children not to feed the dog at the table and yet within a few minutes he secretly feeds the dog and gets caught. There are other fun scenes with the father that show off his conflict with establishing continuity while unintentionally providing anything but that. The connection between Velvet and her mother is very strong. There's a sweet scene between them that reveals something about the mother and what she did in the past in which you truly feel as inspired as Velvet after seeing it. The way Velvet's mother tells her to continue following her dreams and live life to the fullest really feels sincere. In fact, sincere is really the only word I can use to describe Revere's dedicated performance as the mother. She won an Oscar for this role and it's completely warranted in my mind. Though this isn't the first role for either Elizabeth Taylor or Mickey Rooney, this was the film that really jumpstarted both careers and deservedly so. It's been reported that once filming for "National Velvet" wrapped up, MGM gave Ms. Taylor the horse as a birthday present. Considering the passion and dedication that Ms. Taylor puts into her role, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Mickey Rooney also does a stellar job at expressing his inner conflict between wanting to redeem himself and trying not to make the same mistake twice. Musical composer Herbert Stothart, who did the terrific musical score for "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), tops himself here with the picture's beautiful main theme. In the tradition of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) and "Gone with the Wind" (1939), here's another example of a film that proves just how visually breathtaking and bright the Technicolor process was during the late 1930s and early 1940s. There is truly beautiful cinematography present throughout this film. If in the unlikely chance that you should somehow end up not liking "National Velvet", all I can say is for you to consider this. In a time when high quality children's films are in short supply and finding classic films from video stores proves to be more strenuous, isn't it nice to revisit a film like this and be reminded of an era that was truly magical? Unlike most films today, "National Velvet" only needed some minimal things like a high quality script and great actors to make it great. And the effort that was put into it was enough to make it an undisputed family classic. Go see this film even if you don't have kids.

Sewels butcher Herbert Brown wants daughter Velvet's one-shilling "pirate horse" to be rendered for cat food, but Velvet has other ideas. Her head is full of fantasy, and why not? Most of her household sport Faerie names. Mom Araminty keeps heaps of gold she won as the first woman to swim the English Channel in the attic. Eldest sister 'Dwina is trying to find a MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. Middle sis Malvolia brings origami birds to life. All the while stable boy Mi is lurking in the background, looking for a vector into the Brown family fortune, like some disinherited leprechaun. Fearing tins for Kitty will be her pet's fate, Velvet shortens pirate to The Pie to better fit his finale. But this girl is psychic, as well. When her Pie's fortune seems likely to soar from becoming cat litter to catnip, with a fortune to be earned by her and Pie in American movies, Velvet blurts out that the Pie cannot do comedy, and nixes the whole idea when this jingle from a few decades hence gets stuck in her brain: "A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one can talk to a horse, of course, . . . "