Blu-ray Review National Velvet Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Clarence Brown’s National Velvet is a heartwarming story of family love, loyalty, and faith and is capped by an earnest and touching performance by the young Elizabeth Taylor in her star-making role.



National Velvet (1944)



Released: 26 Jan 1945
Rated: Passed
Runtime: 123 min




Director: Clarence Brown
Genre: Drama, Family, Sport



Cast: Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp
Writer(s): Enid Bagnold, Theodore Reeves, Helen Deutsch



Plot: A jaded former jockey helps a young girl prepare a wild but gifted horse for England's Grand National Sweepstakes.



IMDB rating: 7.3
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Warner Archive
Video Resolution: 1080P/AVC...

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[Andrew Budgell]

Thank you for the great review, Matt!

My order is winging (galloping? ) its way to me from Barnes & Noble now. I upgraded the shipping because this is one release that I need in my hands as soon as possible, so I should have it in the next few days. I can't wait!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have never seen this film but have heard about it all my life.

Finally decided to do something about not seeing this, and looking forward to my copy that should be here tomorrow.

 

[Matt Hough]

Thank you for the great review, Matt!

My order is winging (galloping? ) its way to me from Barnes & Noble now. I upgraded the shipping because this is one release that I need in my hands as soon as possible, so I should have it in the next few days. I can't wait!

I hope you (and Ron) will share your thoughts about the disc once it's been viewed.

 

[Will Krupp]

Well Amazon came through with this one a day earlier than it was scheduled and I'm watching it right now. I put it on just to check the video quality and, of course, I'm swept up in its charms and already half way through (I guess it's safe to say I'm watching the whole thing.)

My God but this looks phenomenal! Finally a transfer worthy of this great title. I can't find any fault with it as yet and I'm letting the gorgeous color wash over me as I type, lol.

I haven't seen this movie in a couple of years and I don't know if I'm getting tender in my (ahem) advancing years but I've teared up more than once watching it this go round. (I was an absolute mess when Anne Revere gave Velvet her prize money) It's something I don't remember doing before.

One question I have that maybe someone can answer for me. He's not credited on imdb, but I could swear that that is Bobbie Anderson (the heartbreaking young George Bailey from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) as one of the bratty schoolboys singing in the opening scene. I'm sure it's him. Anybody else think maybe so?

 

[Andrew Budgell]

One question I have that maybe someone can answer for me. He's not credited on imdb, but I could swear that that is Bobbie Anderson (the heartbreaking young George Bailey from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) as one of the bratty schoolboys singing in the opening scene. I'm sure it's him. Anybody else think maybe so?

Will, do you mean the boy in the window on the left? It's Elizabeth's older brother, Howard. He later made another cameo in another of his sister's films, in Boom! (1968).

By some minor miracle, my copy showed up just now! I thought I'd get it release week, but not release day, so the exorbitant shipping costs were well worth it! I've just sampled a few scenes and I'm still pulling my jaw off the ground. It's absolutely breathtaking and incredible what the magicians at Warners have achieved here! I'm looking forward to watching the film from beginning to end tonight. I'm one very happy camper.

 

[Will Krupp]

Will, do you mean the boy in the window on the left? It's Elizabeth's older brother, Howard. He later made another cameo in another of his sister's films, in Boom! (1968).

Yes, that's him. I had no idea that was her brother! He looks, IMO, just like Bobbie Anderson (he's even around the right age!) Thanks for letting me know.

I'm so happy the blu-ray pleases you!

 

[Mark B]

No fair. That's it. I'm going to get violently ill, as I must leave work to go and retrieve my mail.

 

[chrislong2]

There are some movies I just could not fathom why they weren't released on Blu years ago - this was one of them. Nice to see it's finally been done and apparently done well. Many of the more "family friendly" oriented movies of times past (outside of the absolute top-tier ones like Sound of Music, It's a Wonderful Life etc) it seems to me have taken a backseat for years to other types, but nice to see ones like Velvet and Yearling finally get their due!

 

[RPMay]

While at Turner, I supervised preservation work on film from the original 3-strip negatives. I don't know if the new video master was from the interpositive made then, or from the YCM negatives, but it is gratifying to see the compliments of the new video release.

 

[dpippel]

I watched National Velvet for the first time this afternoon and WOW, what a beautiful release of a truly wonderful film. Loved it!

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched National Velvet for the first time this afternoon and WOW, what a beautiful release of a truly wonderful film. Loved it!

A funny story. Back in the 1960s, Elizabeth Taylor was in the entertainment news all the time so you would see pictures of her in many magazines. Anyhow, my older teenage sisters were watching "National Velvet" on TV. I came in from outside midway into the movie and started watching it with them. After several minutes, I finally said to my sisters that the young actress playing Velvet looks like Elizabeth Taylor in that movie magazine that was in our magazine rack. They started laughing and called me a dope like older siblings usually do to their kid brother. My mother then informed me that was Elizabeth Taylor as a child actress. Anyhow, that was my first exposure to "National Velvet" and knowledge that Elizabeth Taylor was an actress from childhood. To this day, my sisters still kid me about that day as they know movies have been my passion for most of my life.

Thanks for the fine review as I'm still waiting on my Target Blu-ray. I might have it tomorrow as it's in Michigan now.

 

[dpippel]

What a great story, Robert!

 

[benbess]

Matt H. wrote in his perceptive review: "Anne Revere earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her sagely wise and wonderful mother knowing when to push her children and when to let things be, and Donald Crisp is equally effective as the more confused father who always means well but doesn’t always follow through on his initial instincts."

Although it might seem foolish, one of the reasons I watch movies is to find shreds of wisdom, or life lessons, here and there. In National Velvet Mrs. Brown provides a few of those....

Spoiler

Mrs. Brown : Win or lose, it's all the same. It's how you take it that counts, and knowing when to let go; knowing when it's over and time to go on to the next thing.
Velvet Brown : The next thing?
Mrs. Brown : Things come suitable to the time, Velvet. Enjoy each thing, then forget it and go on to the next. There's a time for everything. There's a time for having a horse in the Grand National, being in love, having children; yes, even for dying. All in proper order at the proper time.

• Mrs. Brown : That'll be a dispute to the end of time, Mr. Brown: whether it's better to do the right thing for the wrong reason or the wrong thing for the right reason.
• 
  
• Mrs. Brown : What's the meaning of goodness if there isn't a little badness to overcome?
• 
  
• [Mrs. Brown is talking with Velvet in the attic]
  Mrs. Brown : We're alike. I, too, believe that everyone should have a chance at a breathtaking piece of folly once in their life. I was twenty when they said a woman couldn't swim the Channel. You're twelve; you think this horse of yours can win the Grand National. Your dream has come early.

 

[ponset]

Gorgeous looking film by WB.
First time watching this, well Done. B+.
Disappointed that they didn't include the LUX RADIO THEATER radio play with Taylor and Rooney.
Here it is in case someone want to listens to it.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched National Velvet for the first time this afternoon and WOW, what a beautiful release of a truly wonderful film. Loved it!

Finally, my Blu-ray arrives today! I will be watching it today as this 12 year old actress in this fine film looks just like a grown up Elizabeth Taylor circa 1964.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Finally, my Blu-ray arrives today! I will be watching it today as this 12 year old actress in this fine film looks just like a grown up Elizabeth Taylor circa 1964.

The video presentation on this Blu-ray is outstanding. I briefly popped in the 1997 DVD and then watching this Blu-ray is like watching a new movie in comparison. The DVD with the snapper case was released in September, 1997. It's not the oldest DVD in my collection as I've got some DVDs from March-August, 1997 still in my collection. With that said, I can finally delete it from my collection.

As I was watching the movie yesterday, it occurred to me that the story I told earlier in this thread, occurred during the scene in the attic between Velvet and her mother in which her mother retrieved her prize money for swimming the English Channel. That's when I said out loud to my family that young actress looked like Elizabeth Taylor. When child actors grow up, some times they look different as adults. Not Liz! She looked older and even more beautiful, but you can tell that was her about 20 years earlier.

The closing scene always left me a little misty eye. Damn, Anne Revere and Donald Crisp were excellent as her parents. Rooney was terrific too.

 

[Robert Crawford]

For those interested, Amazon in the States has this title on sale for $11.20.

 

[timk1041]

Enjoyed the review! Buying it.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Viewing this thread some time after Ben posted some great photographs from it, I just want to thank him for them, especially for the one with the young very precocious Angela Lansbury clutching a betting ticket ... just two years before she featured so splendidly in 'The Harvey Girls'.