The Gothic atmosphere of Jane Eyre was enhanced by Joan Fontaine, who reminded audiences of her great performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca. Three other girls made an impression in the movie: Peggy Ann Garner as the young Jane, Margaret O’Brien as the French-accented Adele, and eleven-year-old Elizabeth Taylor. MGM loaned Elizabeth out to Fox to play Helen, the impossibly lovely childhood friend of Jane. For the rest of her life Elizabeth was known to befriend and take to heart underdogs and those fighting inner demons. The role of Helen in Jane Eyre brought her compassionate nature to the screen. In her first scene she descends the staircase of an exquisitely lit set like a little angel of mercy bringing comfort to the tortured Jane. The tragic Helen, battling a persistent cough, dies of a severe cold, and Elizabeth would suffer with similar symptoms for the rest of her life, through numerous bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia.
Helen was a small but important role, yet Fox saw fit to exclude her from billing. Elizabeth said years later that she saw it on television with her children and was disappointed to see that in the truncated version she had been cut out of the film entirely.
REVIEW
“Jane Eyre is a picture photographed and directed with an eye to mood. Its settings are desolate and terrifying, with photography to match. Often the film is reminiscent of Rebecca and often of Wuthering Heights. It is a picture to please those who enjoy the desperate, melodramatic love stories of the sisters Brontë.”
—New York Sun (Eileen Creelman)
With John Sutton. In Elizabeth’s first onscreen death, her star quality shone through.
She played a lovely little girl whose hair sits “in one mass of curls” to the dismay of the headmaster of Lowood Orphanage. The cruel headmaster promptly lops the offending hair off with scissors, to the horror of her friend Jane Eyre.
The White Cliffs of Dover
METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER
CAST
Irene Dunne Susan Dunn
Alan Marshal Sir John Ashwood
Roddy McDowall John Ashwood II (as a boy)
Frank Morgan Hiram Porter Dunn
Van Johnson Sam Bennett
C. Aubrey Smith Colonel Walter Forsythe
Dame May Whitty Nanny
Peter Lawford John Ashwood II (as a young man)
John Warburton Reggie Ashwood
Elizabeth Taylor Betsy Kenney (at age ten)
CREDITS
Clarence Brown, Sidney Franklin (producers); Clarence Brown (director); Claudine West, Jan Lustig, George Froeschel (screenplay), based on poem by Alice Duer Miller; Robert Nathan (additional poetry); George Folsey (photography); Herbert Stothart (music); Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell (art directors); Edwin B. Willis, Jacques Mersereau (set decorations); Douglas Shearer (sound); Robert J. Kern (editor); Irene, Gile Steele (costumes); Jack Dawn (makeup)
RELEASE DATE: June 19, 1944
RUN TIME: 126 minutes, black and white
A tender moment between Elizabeth and Roddy McDowall in The White Cliffs of Dover. She once said, “Genuine friends are the rarest of all in Hollywood.” For the rest of their lives Elizabeth and McDowall fit that bill for each other.
SUMMARY: In World War I–era England, American girl Susan Dunn falls in love and marries English nobleman John Ashwood. Their idyllic world is torn apart by the ravages of war and John is killed in action. Susan honors his memory by remaining in England to raise their son, John II. Two decades later, World War II calls John, Jr. to action. The courageous Susan does her part by becoming a nurse near the front. Her worst fears are realized when she finds herself caring for her own mortally wounded son.
notes
IN 1943 WORLD WAR II WAS STILL RAGING AND AT A RAPID rate Hollywood was producing films that celebrated, brought attention to, or otherwise paid homage to United States allies. Some were escapist fare set in exotic locales and some faced the war head-on and honored servicemen and women stateside and abroad. Films such as Mrs. Miniver (Best Picture of 1942) and Tonight and Every Night (a musical drama starring Rita Hayworth), saluted the British allies. The White Cliffs of Dover captured a similar need in the market, pure soap opera but with a heartfelt story that audiences wanted to hear in that era. The film showed a profit of more than $4 million and Louis B. Mayer was so proud of it that he named it MGM’s official twentieth-anniversary film.
The White Cliffs of Dover was based on a poem of the same name by Alice Duer Miller. Actor Ronald Colman held the film rights, which he sold to director Clarence Brown. Brown, in turn, sold the rights to MGM, and himself as director in the bargain. Brown had been one of the top directors at the studio since the mid-1920s, when he began a collaboration with Greta Garbo that saw the actress through the peak of her stardom. He had also put a number of MGM’s other top female stars through their paces on the screen, including Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, and Norma Shearer.
On his latest film in the spring of 1943, Brown had another strong lead actress in Irene Dunne and continued his association with legendary ladies by directing Elizabeth Taylor in one of her first films. They were about to be allied in a landmark movie in her career, but for the present Elizabeth already seemed to shine under his leadership. Brown had cast Roddy McDowall as the young John Ashwood II, and he shared scenes with Elizabeth. Being close friends already gave them a natural chemistry that Brown was able to capture on camera. Elizabeth played a girl with a crush on McDowall; their characters grow up to be played by June Lockhart and Peter Lawford. In a film that could be classified as a three-hanky weepie, Elizabeth and McDowall’s are among the most heartfelt and subtly sweet moments.
Studio portrait of Elizabeth, c. 1943. The movie was filmed primarily between late May and September of that year.
A visit with brother Howard during the time she made The White Cliffs of Dover. Before Elizabeth, Sara Taylor tried to interest Howard in an acting career but he rebelled.
REVIEW
“That it is more episodic than dramatic is the fault of the script rather than the acting. With Irene Dunne giving an illuminating portrayal of an American woman who marries a Britisher, the film has emotional depth and significance. Since the other acting in the Sidney Franklin production is above reproach, it has all the fascination of an upper-bracket tear-jerker. But it skips so blithely through thirty years of ominous history that it wastes the power of its central theme.”
—New York Herald Tribune (Howard Barnes)
National Velvet
METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER
CAST
Mickey Rooney Mike “Mi” Taylor
Donald Crisp Mr. Brown
Elizabeth Taylor Velvet Brown
Anne Revere Mrs. Brown
Angela Lansbury Edwina Brown
Jackie Jenkins Donald Brown
Juanita Quigley Malvolia Brown
Arthur Treacher race patron
Reginald Owen Farmer Ede
Norma Varden Miss Sims
CREDITS
Pandro S. Berman (producer); Clarence Brown (director); Theodore Reeves, Helen Deutsch (screenplay), based on novel by Enid Bagnold; Leonard Smith (photography); Herbert Stothart (music); Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary (art directors); Edwin B. Willis, Mildred Griffiths (set decorations); Douglas Shearer (sound); Joseph Boyle (assistant director); Robert J. Kern (editor); Irene, Kay Dean, Valles (costumes); Jack Dawn (makeup)
RELEASE DATE: January 26, 1945
RUN TIME: 123 minutes, color
As Velvet Brown
SUMMARY: An accident that prevents Mi Taylor from continuing his career turns the ex-jockey into a shiftless wanderer. He turns up at the country home of the Brown family and there meets Velvet, a young girl determined to enter her horse, the Pie, in the Grand National Sweepstakes. Taming the Pie’s wild ways and preparing him for the big race gives Mi new purpose in life. Velvet masquerades as a boy to ride the Pie in the big race herself. The journey to the finish line in the Grand Nationals is a bumpy and at times dangerous one, but Mi, Velvet, and the Pie prove to be a winning triumvirate.
/> Jackie Jenkins, Mickey Rooney, and Elizabeth
notes
ELIZABETH TAYLOR ONCE SAID, “WHEN I WAS A LITTLE KID I wanted to grow up and get married and have a house with a white picket fence and six children and one maid and lots of dogs, cats, horses, and cows.” What she got in 1943 was a prized movie role, a studio contract, and mostly importantly for her at the time—that horse.
Enid Bagnold’s 1935 novel National Velvet was Elizabeth’s favorite as a child, so when she and her mother, Sara, learned that MGM was planning to adapt it for the big screen, they set out to make the starring role hers. The little heroine of Bagnold’s story was a spirited one and perfectly suited Elizabeth, but producer Pandro Berman thought her physically too small. He considered casting an older teen in the part. As the story goes, eleven-year-old Elizabeth hit a fortuitously timed growth spurt that added might to her small frame and three inches to her height in just four months. Berman and director Clarence Brown were satisfied and Elizabeth happily took to the saddle for her first iconic screen characterization.
Enid Bagnold’s 1935 novel National Velvet was Elizabeth’s favorite as a child.
Besides capturing the essence of Velvet Brown, Elizabeth was an ideal choice for the role because of her experience with horses. Her affinity for equines dated back to her childhood in England where, Sara Taylor said, “That’s all she ever wanted to do—ride horses.” Elizabeth had strong riding skills but she had never encountered a “total renegade” such as the animal that played the Pie onscreen. During filming it once lunged forward and threw Elizabeth to the ground. The accident resulted in a spinal injury that exacerbated her preexisting scoliosis. Back pain would plague Elizabeth for the rest of her life and eventually put her in a wheelchair decades later, but for the present she mustered her strength and got back in the saddle, too devoted to the role to even think of giving it up. No one else could manage the horse, so the studio gave it to Elizabeth as a birthday gift.
National Velvet director Clarence Brown had a history of making great films with MGM screen icons, especially the ladies. His alliance with young Elizabeth in their second film venture added another stellar credit to his name. Sara Taylor was known to occasionally direct her young daughter with hand signals from off camera, but her presence did not diminish Brown’s duties. He brought out an endearing, high-spirited performance from Elizabeth that showed all the charm of a girl frantic to please her mother (played to perfection onscreen by Anne Revere) and driven to achieve big dreams. Both aspects of the characterization were a mirror into Elizabeth’s own world.
Test shots show costumes and hairstyles considered appropriate for the character of Velvet.
No one else could manage the horse, so the studio gave it to Elizabeth as a birthday gift.
With director Clarence Brown. The horse in the film was a birthday gift for Elizabeth, who said, “They gave him to me because no one else could ride him.”
“I sometimes think I prefer animals to people. And I was lucky. My first leading men were dogs and horses.”
Elizabeth, one of the studio’s newest contract players, dines in the studio commissary. Actor Darryl Hickman sits beside her.
Besides Elizabeth, Brown had superstar Mickey Rooney in the cast of National Velvet. The lasting impression is that it is an Elizabeth Taylor movie, but her costar really drove the box office in the mid-1940s. The dynamic Rooney was at the peak of his career as costar of a series of lively musicals with Judy Garland, and as the leading player of the lucrative Hardy family films. Known as a larger-than-life personality, Rooney was generous in sharing the star spotlight with Elizabeth in National Velvet, and utterly impressed by her talents. He remembered her as a “marvelous” young professional who required only one or two takes when the cameras were rolling.
National Velvet was made between January and June 1944, and was in theaters by January of the following year. It was great family fodder that brought in over $4 million at the box office in 1945. The movie was also big at the Academy Awards in 1946. Anne Revere won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The film also took home the award for Best Editing and earned nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Director.
Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth, and Anne Revere. Elizabeth’s rapport with her onscreen mother was vital in the film.
Known as a larger-than-life personality, Rooney was generous in sharing the star spotlight with Elizabeth in National Velvet, and utterly impressed by her talents.
Though not nominated for any Oscars, Elizabeth was recognized as an essential part of the film’s success too, meaning a new, long-term contract with MGM was in order. Signing the deal was the start of a tumultuous relationship with the studio, and specifically with her boss, Louis B. Mayer, whom Elizabeth called “an absolute dictator.” They got off to a rocky start when Sara Taylor suggested Elizabeth take voice and dance lessons. Mayer did not mince words in telling Mrs. Taylor that he did not need her to tell him how to run his studio. Elizabeth, appalled by Mayer’s tone and language with her mother, stood up and told her boss, “You and your studio can both go to hell!” She walked out of his office expecting to be fired. Only she was not let go; already she was too intrinsically valuable to MGM for an argument with the boss to lead to her dismissal. Elizabeth was on her way to sixteen years at the studio that would produce a fair share of duds as well as some of the all-time classics of her career.
REVIEWS
“[Elizabeth Taylor] imparts a breathless, utterly genuine charm to the character of Velvet, and takes top acting honors in an excellent cast.”
—Liberty
“National Velvet should be a joy to all right-minded folks. For this fresh and delightful Metro picture, based on Enid Bagnold’s novel of some years back, tells by far the most touching story of youngsters and of animals since Lassie was coming home. . . . Mr. Brown has also drawn some excellent performances from his cast, especially from little Elizabeth Taylor, who plays the role of the horse-loving girl. Her face is alive with youthful spirit, her voice has the softness of sweet song and her whole manner in this picture is one of refreshing grace.”
—The New York Times (Bosley Crowther)
“Mr. Brown’s direction may account for the quietness of Mr. Rooney’s work. It is good work, anyway, an emotional part without any mugging. That beautiful child of Lassie Come Home, a dark-haired, blue-eyed girl named Elizabeth Taylor, plays the dreamy Velvet and makes her one of the screen’s most lovable characters.”
—New York Sun (Eileen Creelman)
Velvet Brown masquerades as a young male jockey in order to race her beloved horse in the Grand Nationals.
Courage of Lassie
METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER
CAST
Elizabeth Taylor Kathie Merrick
Frank Morgan Harry MacBain
Tom Drake Sergeant Smitty
Selena Royle Mrs. Merrick
Harry Davenport Judge Payson
George Cleveland old man
Catherine Frances McLeod Alice Merrick
Morris Ankrum Farmer Crews
Mitchell Lewis Gil Elson
Jane Green Mrs. Elson
CREDITS
Robert Sisk (producer); Fred M. Wilcox (director); Lionel Houser (screenplay); Leonard Smith (photography); Scott Bradley, Bronislau Kaper (music); Cedric Gibbons, Paul Youngblood (art directors); Edwin B. Willis, Paul Huldschinsky (set decorations); Douglas Shearer (sound); Conrad A. Nervig (editor); Irene (costumes)
RELEASE DATE: November 8, 1946
RUN TIME: 92 minutes, color
SUMMARY: A resourceful collie, born and bred in the wilderness, is accidentally shot. Young Kathie Merrick nurses the dog, which she calls Bill, back to health. Trained as a sheepdog, Bill becomes a useful addition to the family farm until an accident lands him far away from the Merricks and amidst warfare in the line of enemy fire. His instinctive cunning and courage lead him to save a platoon but the war takes a toll on Bill. He eventually makes his way back home
but the vicious streak the war has given him leads to serious trouble—until Kathie and kindly neighbor Harry McBain reenter Bill’s life.
Kathie has Bill trained as a sheepdog.
REVIEWS
“The principal human actors are excellent in their simple roles. Elizabeth Taylor is refreshingly natural as Lassie’s devoted owner. . . . But it is Lassie’s, or Bill’s, picture. And, despite some improbabilities in the plot, it is his ‘acting’ and the polychromatic settings which are the chief delights of the offering.”
—New York Herald Tribune (A. W.)
“Anyone who doesn’t like a dog picture, especially one starring Lassie, is an unqualified cad. . . . The plot of Courage of Lassie is not likely to give you pause. Neither is the acting by the bipeds. Lassie walks off with all the honors, which is as it should be.”
—The New York Times (Bosley Crowther)
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