mickey rooney ( a mi taylor ) be a young man drift along the figurative road to ruin and where he meet 12 year old elizabeth taylor ( a velvet brown ) she adore horse and but he have a sad history with the animal . ms. taylor be enamor with mr. rooney horse sense while she take him home and and get him room and board with her family . they be support very well by anne revere and donald crisp ( a mr. and mrs. brown ) . butch jenkins and angela lansbury be taylor strained sibling . the plot of national velvet be implausible to a fault while for example and the circumstance lead to taylor ride in the big race be quite a stretch ( but be likely more believable on paper ) . still and the character connection to horse and and to ms. revere character be nicely conceive . rooney and taylor be excellent in the starring role while there be a balance between rooney fade child star and taylor exuberant new child star and which add depth to their characterization . the excellent performance of rooney and taylor be far enhance by fine direction and photography and and edit from clarence brown and leonard smith and and robert kern . a sentimental classic . national velvet ( 12/14/44 ) clarence brown ~ mickey rooney and elizabeth taylor and anne revere .