Elizabeth Taylor Rides the Course to Stardom in National Velvet

 

                Blessed with peak MGM production values and direction by Clarence Brown that assures the central story unfolds with taste, skill and humor, National Velvet provides one of the most indelible and appealing family films to come out of Hollywood. Based on the 1935 novel by Enid Bagnold (beautifully adapted by Helen Deutsch) the movie focuses on the adventures of Velvet Brown, a young Sussex girl with a passion for horses that informs her purpose in life, to the extent she finds herself training her prized steed, “Pie,” for the Grand National. The fanciful-yet-heartwarming story unfolds with uncommon charm and potency, while a top cast inhabits each character with individuality and truth. Herbert Stothart’s lovely score, Robert J. Kern’s fine editing and Leonard Smith’s lush Technicolor cinematography are other contributing factors making Velvet a memorable, moving watch throughout its 123 minutes.

                For Clarence Brown, Velvet mark yet another banner MGM title in an imposing list of credits, after first starting his directorial career during the Silent Era. Although not as well known today as some of his esteemed contemporaries, Brown regularly created high-profile films featuring top stars (Garbo and Joan Crawford, both of whose films Brown frequently helmed, chief among them), such as Garbo’s sound debut in Anna Christie, A Free Soul, The Rains Came and, just before Velvet, 1943’s involving The Human Comedy, amassing six Best Director Academy Award nominations in the process. It’s clear watching Velvet the adept Brown is in full control of his craft, ensuring his fine players’ rich portrayals are properly showcased while moving the tale along from scene-to-scene with class and distinction. After his work on Velvet, Brown would score as solidly with his follow-up family (and animal) oriented film, The Yearling, then closing out the decade with one of his finest accomplishments, 1949’s Intruder in the Dust, a stark, thought-provoking adaptation of the William Faulkner novel exploring themes of racial tension in a small southern community, before retiring from helming MGM films after 1952’s Plymouth Adventure.

                At the tender age of 12, Elizabeth Taylor rose to the top ranks of Hollywood’s most gifted young stars with her enchanting work in Velvet. Starting in films at nine, Taylor had previously made a “Who is that!” impact in 1943’s Lassie Come Home and as the title character’s gentle, caring friend in Jane Eyre, during one of the best opening sequences found in a classic movie, wherein as orphan Helen Burns Taylor and the equally gifted child star Peggy Ann Garner (in the title role) create a convincing, touching relationship in scant screentime. The beautiful young star brings an ethereal conviction to Velvet, perhaps the role she desired more than any other in her career (when first told she was too short for the part, Taylor reportedly replied “I’ll grow, I’ll grow!!,” which she did). With sensitive, skillful playing, Taylor interacts beautifully with her costars, in the process fully involving the viewer with Velvet’s desires and exploits, climaxing in one of the most exciting racing sequences in film. Velvet would be the auspicious breakthrough of a legendary screen career, with Taylor reaching peak success as one of Filmdom’s most beautiful and accomplished players during the 1950s and 1960s, wherein she starred such major films as A Place in the Sun, Giant and Cleopatra, and won her two Best Actress Oscars (out of five nominations) for Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Taylor’s fortunes on the screen would become more hit-and-miss after her glory years, until she capped her career with an amusing cameo in The Flintstones, while she simultaneously dabbed in other ventures such as a highly successful perfume line, and heroically became one of the strongest voices and advocates in the fight against AIDS.

                Top-billed Mickey Rooney does some of his finest dramatic work as Michael Taylor, the wayward former jockey who enters the Brown household and helps Velvet with her of dreams of Pie running in the Grand National. One of the most imposing talents to ever hit a screen and already a veteran at 24 after debuting on the vaudeville stage before the age of two, Rooney does an admirable job in downplaying his theatricality that had served him so well in musicals and comedies, lending a depth and honesty to his playing, specifically in his best moment, wherein Mike recounts to Velvet why he doesn’t ride anymore. Rooney was nearing the end of his phenomenal run as one of MGM’s biggest stars, with three years atop the Quigley poll of the biggest box-office draws as his stint as Andy Hardy and ace teaming with Judy Garland in a series of hit musicals doing much to place Rooney at the apex of the Hollywood heap. Velvet represents possibly his last great MGM role, just after gaining his second Best Actor Oscar nod for earnest work in The Human Comedy. Post-Velvet, Rooney would witness abundant highs and lows onscreen and off, with two more Oscar nods (in the Supporting Actor category, as Rooney became a character actor with plenty of elan) and a 1979 triumph on Broadway opposite fellow MGM pro Ann Miller in Sugar Babies among his notable later-career accomplishments.

                Anne Revere makes a strong impact as Mrs. Brown, Velvet’s loving, calm, practical and supportive mother, who also assists Velvet in attaining her goals, while recalling her former glory as a swimmer in one of the film’s most moving passages. After a 1934 debut in films, the same year she gained a major Broadway success starring Lillian Hellman’s controversial hit The Children’s Hour, Revere would witness a stellar 1940s in movies, particularly at 20^th Century Fox, wherein she stood out in such high profile movies as The Song of Bernadette, Fallen Angel, Forever Amber and 1947’s Best Picture  Oscar winner Gentlemen’s Agreement, with Revere gaining three Academy Award nominations and a win by the close of the decade, before her esteemed career was shattered by blacklisting via the ignoble HUAC, causing a two-decade gap in her film work after a brief but telling appearance in 1951’s A Place in the Sun. Donald Crisp, one of the most reliable character actors in film with an imposing list of credits dating from the early years of cinema, including Intolerance, Broken Blossoms, Red Dust, Mutiny on the Bounty and his Oscar for How Green Was My Valley, adds a welcome comic touch to his work as Velvet’s stern but caring father, while Angela Lansbury, in the second film of her illustrious career after debuting with style and a maturity beyond her years with Oscar nominated work in Gaslight, also scores in a lighter mode as Velvet’s romantic, slightly pretentious sister.

Jackie ‘Butch’ Jenkins, who had made a major impression opposite Rooney the previous year in Comedy film debut, is equally amazing as Velvet small brother, Donald. Jenkins has a completely natural, highly individual style for a child performer, and is beguiling every time the precocious tyke is onscreen. In one sequence, Donald has an outburst that is so riveting one wonders how much of the scene is real or acted, concerning the emotive aspects involved therein, as Jenkins depicts Donald’s tormented state with a spontaneity and emotional resolve that leaves a viewer gaping in admirable wonder at the tyke’s innate, highly developed thespian gifts. As with many child stars before him, Jenkins’ career would be aborted with the advent of adolescence, but not before gaining a few more choice MGM assignments, including following up his superior Velvet work with 1945’s moving Our Vines Have Tender Grapes opposite Margret O’Brien and Edward G. Robinson, working with director Fred Zinnemann in the offbeat My Brother Talks to Horses, then ending his filmography in 1948 after reteaming with Rooney for Summer Holiday  and working with O’Brien again in his final film, Big City. Others making their presences felt include Juanita Quigley as Velvet’s other sister, Malvolia, Reginald Owen, as Pie’s disgruntled initial owner, and Norma Varden as the warm teacher seen at the movie’s outset.

                With a December 1944 New York premiere and an early 1945 release in Los Angeles, National Velvet became a major hit, providing Taylor with her foray into top stardom, wherein she would remain for the rest of her fruitful MGM years, and far beyond. Critical praise matched audiences’ enthusiasm for the movie, with the New York Times placing Velvet on the 1944 Top Ten list, while at the Oscars for 1945, Velvet scored with nominations for Best Director, Best Color Cinematography, Best Art Direction and wins for Kern’s editing and Best Supporting Actress for Revere. Enduring in the public’s affections over the years through re-releases, frequent televisions showings and via physical media, the film gained inclusion on the National Film Registry’s 2003 list of films chosen for preservation. A recent Blu-ray presentation from Warner Archives allows those who want to experience one of the loveliest films concerning the hopes and dreams of childhood, featuring Elizabeth Taylor and the rest of an outstanding cast at their most sublime, to see this classic in a pristine print, whether viewing National Velvet for the first time or for an equally satisfying rewatch.