NATIONAL VELVET - 1944

A simple story of everyday folk....girl meets, horse, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, gains horse and together they live happily ever after....they go through a few ups and downs during The Grand National steeplechase held at Aintree Liverpool. Only this movie never went anywhere near the UK and filmed everything back in Hollywood....plenty to explore....so why not join me at the three strand tape and wait for the starter to send us on our way?

Enjoy

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello, and welcome to this week's look at action and stunts on film and television. The last Grand National at Aintree before a closure due to World War II was in 1940. That was the year that Boxcar won the race, partnered by jockey Mervyn Jones, who lost his life the following year in a Spitfire whilst engaging enemy fire. This was the last Grand National until 1946. This didn't stop Hollywood in producing a truly remarkable story about a little girl, a horse, and the world's greatest staple chase. This is National Velvet.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

National Velvet, a great story. As a highly successful book of the month club selection, this fine-spirited drama, with its very unusual title, thrilled thousands of readers. Metro Golden Mayor now presents this most human story of a boy, a girl, and a horse in all the warm tenderness of its modest, unpretentious sincerity. National Velvet, an intriguing title. The Velvet is for Velvet Brown. Shy and unassuming, her only dream in life is horses, particularly after she wins an unruly, mischief-loving sorrel in a raffle. As to the national part of the title, with wholesome faith in her horse, the pie. Train him for the grand national steeple chase. The greatest, grandest prize a horse ever won. As to the boy, he is courageous, stout of heart.

SPEAKER_04 1:51

The horse not good enough? The pie? That's not only the pie, man, with the money, it's a score of other things. 30 jumps, the hardest course in the world. The national, the greatest race on earth. Training him month on month.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Then there's Velvet's young brother.

SPEAKER_05 2:04

I'll think all night!

SPEAKER_03 2:07

And her loving, understanding mother.

SPEAKER_05 2:10

Things come suitable to the time, Velvet. Enjoy each thing, then forget it, and go on to the next. The time for everything. The time for having a horse in the Grand National. Being in love, having children.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Velvet's father isn't a frivolous man, but I'd like to risk a couple of pounds. Put it on the pie for me. Yes, sir. And I'll not be angry if you don't tell the misses about it. And would it bust your own foolish heart to look at an account of 5,000 pounds in a solid bank?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Can I help it, Father? Sooner had the horse have been go to heaven.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

We promise you the thrill of your movie opening experience in the running of the river. Sincerely and honestly, we make you just promise too. It's been a mighty long time since you've seen a better picture.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

To say that this film was astonishing would be an understatement. Based on the book, although pretty loosely, it tells the story of Velvet Brown, played by Elizabeth Taylor, who's mentored by ex-jockey Mai Taylor, played by Mickey Rooney, after she wins a horse in the town's raffle. Velvet falls head over heels in love with the horse called Pie, short for pirate, and after taking him on a hell for leather gallop over the hedges separating the fields around the town, decides that she'd love to race him. Now, Mai explains that the greatest steeplechase in the world is the Grand National, and after watching Velvet and Pie negotiate the hedges, he thinks the horse could be a good contender. The twist in the tale is when Mai says he'll ride the Pie in the race. But Velvet is having none of it. Back in this time period, a woman riding in the Grand National was unheard of. Charlotte Brew, riding Barony Fort, became the first woman to ride in the race in 1977. But we had to wait until 1982 for jockey Geraldine Reese aboard her horse Cheers to become the first to complete the course. In 1994, Rosemary Henderson riding Fiddler's Pike finished fifth, which was an outstanding achievement. After 1994, the same names would crop up year after year. Nina Carberry, Katie Walsh, Brian Frost, and Rachel Blackmore. Rachel, considered by many as one of the very best jockeys ever to ride a national hunt, had two previous rides before getting aboard Manila Times in 2021 to become the first woman to ever ride a grand national winner. Velvet Brown to Rachel Blackmore. It's quite a journey. The other major player in this movie is the Pie, who is actually a horse called King Charles and was descended from the great American racehorse Man O'War. A temperamental sort of fellow. King Charles was the grandson of Man of War, who himself was also very highly strung. But one thing was certain, he was a very powerful and very fast horse. Between 1919 and 1920, he won 17 major races and two Triple Crown races in the Prignes and Belmont Stakes. King Charles was a chip off the old block, and when he was partnered with the young Elizabeth Taylor, he mellowed. Just like the men in her life. Only difference was that this partnership would last forever. She was gifted the horse after filming, and they stayed together until his death in the mid-1950s. Now, let's talk about recreating race riding on film. This is a fascinating example of complete recreation of the race. No actual race footage was available, so they had to start from scratch. Unlike the race recreated for the Bob Champion movie Champions in 1984, where race coordinator Terry Biddlecom and stunt coordinator Richard Graydon were able to create new footage of the race whilst using actual race footage from the Grand Nationals of 1982 and 1983. In 1944, the movie about the Grand National never went anywhere near the UK. The whole race was filmed at the Uplifters Ranch in Rustic Canyon near Santa Monica, and the fences were lovingly recreated along with some stands for the crowds and an inner track allowing the camera car to keep pace with the action. Ain Tree Racecourse is a left-handed track, though when you go down the strait you must turn left at the end. This is a reason why some horses aren't suited to Aintree, as they prefer going right-handed. This didn't stop the producers who actually filmed a sequence of the race where the pie and velvet brown can be seen in the pack of horses going right around the track. I thought at first this was camera trickery by the numbers on the horses' backs, but they're not reversed as you'd expect. It was simply switched around. For me and for many, the most impressive part of this film is the race itself and the remarkable way these falls at these huge fences were recreated. Now many of those in the race field itself were accomplished jockeys and were more than capable of taking their horses over these bug obstacles, but only a few were stunt riders. These would have been brought in to double Elizabeth Taylor and take to the saddle when one of the horses in the race falls on the other side of the fence. Elizabeth Taylor did a great deal of the riding in the film herself. For a girl of twelve, she was very proficient in the saddle, but for some of the race riding she was doubled by stunt rider Alice Van Springsteen, who was a notable riding double, having been double for Dale Evans, who was one of the leading actresses in Western musicals at the time, and Olivia de Havilland, and she was her double on Robin Hood. In fact, the only time she didn't double Elizabeth Taylor on the picture was during a rehearsal, for approaching a fence surrounded by lots of other horses. Now, she was approaching the fence on her own aboard the pie, and the horse came in a bit tight to the fence, but being a bit clever, fiddled himself over it to the other side, but threw Elizabeth Taylor over his head and onto the ground below. She got up and brushed herself off, but it became apparent that something wasn't quite right. Years later it was discovered that she'd fractured her lower back. See? That's why stunt people are very important. The other two major players in the race are Johnny Carpenter, who was an actor but could ride very well. In fact, his first few jobs were in those great westerns, starting around 1935. To find extra work, he was approached to take part in National Velvet and took a bunch of falls throughout the race. The other stump rider who did quite a bit of work in the movie was Rex Snowy Baker, an Australian and a very fine athlete. Boxing, track and field, he could do it all. His riding career started around 1920 and saw him take the mantle as the villain in more than one or two of the villain's possies in a bunch of Western flicks. He was also employed on National Velvet as a stunt rider, and when Johnny was taking falls, Rex was too. Apart from it being a great story, it's huge fun to watch the race and its many ups and downs. Now knowing that it was filmed in California makes it even more exciting, and on Friday we'll explore the race itself. So don't forget to subscribe, and until then, it's by for now.