Welcome to Saturday Night at the Movies.

I'm your host, Glenn Holland.

Tonight's film is the classic story of a girl and her horse, "National Velvet."

Directed by Clarence Brown for MGM Studios and released in 1944.

The screenplay by Helen Deutsch was based on the 1935 novel by British author and playwright, Enid Bagnold.

The film stars Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Ann Revere, Angela Lansbury, and a 12 year old Elizabeth Taylor in her first starring role.

The cast includes many members of the British contingent in Hollywood, including Reginald Owen, Aubrey Mather, Arthur Treacher, Arthur Shields and Dennis Hoey, best known as Inspector Lestrade in Universal's series of Sherlock Holmes mysterys starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.

Velvet Brown lives with her family in Sewels, a coastal village in Sussex, England.

Velvet is 12 years old and full of dreams about horses and riding.

On the last day of school before summer vacation, Velvet and her older sisters, Edwina and Malvolia bid goodbye to their teacher before going their separate ways.

On her way home, Velvet meets a young drifter, Mi Taylor, and strikes up a conversation with him.

While they're talking, they see a farmer, Mr. Ede, chasing after a beautiful high-spirited chestnut gelding.

Velvet is awestruck.

When Mr. Ede asks Mi about his plans in town Velvet tells him Mi is going home with her for dinner with her family.

At dinner with the Browns, Mi reveals that he has come to Sewels because he found the name and address of Velvet's mother in an address book among his late father's effects.

Mrs. Brown allows Mi to spend the night in the stable and after dinner persuades her husband to agree to Velvet's plan to hire Mi as a delivery boy for his butcher shop.

Later, Velvet tells her mother she has fallen in love with a chestnut gelding she calls "The Pie", and asks her about her connection with Mi's father.

Mrs. Brown reveals that Mi's father was her trainer when she swam the English channel, but she declines to tell Mi, hoping he will prove his own worth.

In fact, Mi has plans to steal Mrs. Brown's savings and leave.

But when Velvet tells him he can stay and work for her father, he relents and returns the money.

Later, on a delivery, when Velvet and Mi see The Pie jump Mr Ede's fence before galloping away, Mi declares the horse has all the makings of a Grand National champion.

When Mr. Ede decides to sell the horse in a raffle, Velvet is determined not only to win The Pie but also to train him, with Mi's help, enter him to compete in the Grand National, England's premier steeplechase, and win.

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in Heathwood, northwest of London England on February 27th, 1932.

Her father was an art dealer and her mother a retired stage actress, both of them Americans, hailing from Arkansas City, Kansas.

In early 1939, with war approaching in Europe, the Taylors returned to the United States, ultimately settling in Beverly Hills in 1940, where Elizabeth and her older brother Howard attended school.

Her parents were frequently told Elizabeth should audition for films because of her striking dark blue eyes which set her apart from child stars like Shirley Temple and Judy Garland.

Her father had connections in the film industry through his art gallery and Elizabeth received a contract with Universal in 1941, when she was nine.

She appeared in a single film, the political farce "There's One Born Every Minute", that same year, but Universal's casting director complained "The kid has nothing.

Her eyes are too old.

She doesn't have the face of a child."

So Universal canceled her contract and Elizabeth moved to MGM, where her English accent led to small roles in "Lassie Come Home" and "Jane Eyre" in 1943, and "The White Cliffs of Dover" in 1944.

"National Velvet" was her first starring role.

She received third billing, after veteran child star Mickey Rooney, who was then 24 and Donald Crisp, famous for such films as "Jezebel" in 1938, "Wuthering Heights" in 1939, "How Green was My Valley?"

in 1941 and "Lassie, Come Home" in 1943.

But if National Velvet belonged to anyone, it belonged to the young Elizabeth Taylor.

Most of what National Velvet tells us about the Grand National is true.

The steeplechase is based on the skills a horse and rider need for fox hunting.

The race was first run in 1839.

It takes place at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, covering the distance of four miles and two and a half furlongs, or just under seven kilometers.

Horses jump 30 fences over two laps and the fences include Becker's Brook and the Canal turn, just as in the movie.

Because of its difficulties, every year many contenders fail to complete the course.

Between the challenges of the fences and the distance covered, The Grand National has been called "the ultimate test of horse and rider."

Elizabeth Taylor wasn't given the role of Velvet Brown without considerable effort on her part.

Clarence Brown, who directed National Velvet, had also directed Elizabeth in a minor role in "The White Cliffs of Dover."

He knew she had both the accent and the riding experience the role of Velvet Brown called for, but he also agreed with producer Pandro Berman and studio head Louis B Meyer that Elizabeth was too small, too short and too immature for the role, especially since she had to impersonate a male jockey.

As a result, filming was postponed for a few months.

Elizabeth was determined to portray Velvet and spent the last few months of 1943 exercising, riding and following an athlete's diet, rich in proteins and carbohydrates.

Between this regimen and the passage of time, when it was time to begin production in early 1944, Elizabeth had gained three inches in height and had the proper look for a young girl on the cusp of adulthood.

And of course, she had something else.

That quality that makes an actor or actress a movie star.

"There's something behind her eyes that you can't quite fathom.

Something Greta Garbo had", director Clarence Brown said of the 12 year old Elizabeth.

"I really hate to call her an actress.

She's much too natural for that."

The critics agreed.

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote, "Her whole manner in this picture is one of refreshing grace."

The other standout star in National Velvet is King Charles, the chestnut gelding who portrayed The Pie.

King Charles came from a good bloodline.

He was a cousin to Sea Biscuit, the top money winning race horse in the United States between 1936 and 1940.

The grand sire of both horses was Man O'War, considered the greatest thoroughbred race horse of all time.

MGM Studios bought King Charles specifically to appear in National Velvet, paying $800 equivalent to about $13,800 today.

Elizabeth Taylor fell in love with King Charles the first time she saw him and she spent every day riding, caring for, and bonding with him as part of their preparation for their work in the movie.

As in the movie, King Charles was apparently aggressive and hard for his handlers to manage, but never for Elizabeth.

They shared in real life the bond that is so apparent in their scenes in National Velvet.

At the end of production, MGM gave King Charles to Elizabeth Taylor as a gift.

He died in 1950 at the age of 13.

National Velvet premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Christmas Day in 1944 and was an immediate success with both critics and audiences.

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including one for Clarence Brown, but he lost the award for Best Director to Billy Wilder for "The Lost Weekend."

Anne Revere won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role as Velvet's mother.

Angela Lansbury, who played Edwina, was a nominee as well for her other role, in "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

The man who did the film editing for National Velvet, Robert Kern, also won an Oscar, and his work on the climactic race is still considered a classic example of effective, exciting film editing.

Elizabeth Taylor reportedly came close to winning a special Oscar for Best Juvenile Performance, but Peggy Ann Garner won the award instead, for "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn."

If proof were needed that the story of National Velvet takes place a long time ago, in a spinning world, we should note that since 1977, female jockeys have ridden in 24 Grand Nationals.

Geraldine Reese was the first to actually complete the course in 1985 and in 2021, Rachel Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Grand National, almost a century after the events portrayed in National Velvet.

Please join us again next time for another Saturday Night At The Movies.

I'm Glenn Holland.

Goodnight.