Elizabeth Taylor’s Breakout Role in This Classic Sports Drama Still Holds a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes

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May 29, 2025 - 04:00

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Elizabeth Taylor’s Breakout Role in This Classic Sports Drama Still Holds a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes

There are stars who need to battle to get to the highest, after which there are those that step onto the scene and match into stardom just like the jigsaw puzzle. Elizabeth Taylor belongs to the latter camp. London-born, her household moved to LA, and on the age of 10, she made her performing debut in Universal Pictures’ 1942 drama There’s One Born Every Minute (the one one she made with the studio). Two years later, she starred within the basic National Velvet, the sports activities drama that made her a star at simply 12 years previous. The movie demonstrates why its period is named the Golden Age of Hollywood, because it evokes nostalgia, a feel-good tackle household, and champions ambition. Nearly eight a long time later, it nonetheless boasts a near-perfect 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Being Elizabeth Taylor’s breakout position, National Velvet provides to its luminous shine as a necessary movie each in cinema historical past and as a star-making legend.

What Is ‘National Velvet’ About?

Based on Enid Bagnold’s 1935 novel, the Clarence Brown-directed adaptation follows Taylor’s Velvet Brown, a go-getter lady in rural Britain who’s head over heels in love with horses. Her dream is to be a well-known jockey who’ll win the celebrated and notoriously harmful Grand National steeplechase. Director Brown introduces us to Velvet within the opening sequence as she and her classmates go away college for lengthy holidays. On her method dwelling, she meets Mi Taylor (Mickey Rooney), a washed-up former jockey who carries the traumas of previous races and needs nothing to do with horses. Her household takes in Mi, who’s form of a drifter and who seems to have an attention-grabbing reference to Velvet’s mother (Anne Revere in an Oscar-winning efficiency). This choice pays off as Mi turns into Velvet’s fiercest supporter—and when Velvet wins a spirited horse at a raffle, she decides to pursue her dream in opposition to all odds.

National Velvet is a well-recognized underdog story, however it wins you over with heat, gentleness, and perception in dedication. The movie treats each character with reverence, as there’s no basic villain within the type of a rival racer making an attempt to sabotage Velvet’s dream. The closest we get to such a personality is her personal dad, Mr. Brown (Donald Crisp), who’s actually only a loving, pragmatic father who criticizes her optimism, maybe to rile her to show him incorrect. Substituting the basic villain is the strain that lies throughout the characters: self-doubt, grief, previous errors, and the skepticism of these, like her dad, who’ve lengthy forgotten find out how to consider within the not possible.

‘National Velvet’ Is an Inspirational Story About Family, Dreams, and Inner Obstacles

More than anything, Velvet’s journey is an inside one. But she’s in luck as a result of she has a assist system made up of her household and her pal, Mi. Her mom is a former athlete who additionally dared to dream, profitable a trophy for it, and subsequently acknowledges the spark in her daughter. When Velvet doubts herself, it’s her mom she goes to for encouragement. Although she generally differs along with her siblings over priorities, like regular siblings do, they’re there for her in moments that matter. The film gives a heartfelt sense of collective familial effort, the place everybody comes collectively to assist a seemingly not possible objective, which provides the story its emotional heft.

Director Brown provides impeccable depth to his characters—from Velvet’s calm mom, who gives her unflappable assist, to her considerably goofy and charming father, Brown actually digs into them, presenting absolutely fashioned characters with their very own small arcs. Mi, who’s haunted by previous failures (harking back to Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer), journeys with Velvet, giving an opportunity to her innocence and persistence to information him to his redemption. Velvet’s elder sister is an adolescent coming of age, coping with her first relationship expertise—stolen kisses and heartbreaks. Velvet’s youthful brother is at a stage of discovery, and even when he doesn’t perceive her desires, he’s content material together with his personal world of bottled bugs. The movie’s rural setting provides to its magnificence, with Brown, who earned an Oscar nomination for his route, making use of the picturesque environment to result in an genuine image.

The Cast’s Performances and Clarence Brown’s Gentle Direction Are the Spark of ‘National Velvet’

Image through MGM

National Velvet is a showcase of masterful performances, together with Anne Revere’s Oscar-winning portrayal in her supporting position. Elizabeth Taylor holds her personal in a task that calls for poise, subtlety, and grit. An completed equestrian already, Taylor rode most of her personal scenes. She has a real bond along with her horse, Pie (it reminds one in all Jimmy Stewart’s well-known co-star that made 17 Westerns with him). She makes use of her youthful eyes to painting surprise and willpower, two qualities that might outline a lot of her profession. Often, Taylor’s type leans into the Golden Era custom, which solely enhances the movie’s nostalgic appeal.

Brown’s route is essential to all this—he deploys restraint, trusting his characters and the viewers, in addition to makes use of comfortable lighting to offer scenes an additional spark that’s pleasing to the attention. With no huge emotional swings, his slow-burning sincerity gives an virtually pastoral rhythm, crafting Velvet’s dream right into a timeless piece of artwork. National Velvet is tender magic that awaits film lovers who take pleasure in triumphs that don’t essentially come from defeating seen enemies. It’s a film that implores us to beat ourselves, for that is step one to conquering the world. Elizabeth Taylor could have grow to be a display icon within the years that adopted, however on this quiet, stirring story, you’ll be able to already see the roots of her radiance taking maintain.