International Velvet (film)

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International Velvet

The advertising material
Directed by Bryan Forbes
Produced by Bryan Forbes
Written by Bryan Forbes
Enid Bagnold (book)
Starring Tatum O'Neal
Nanette Newman
Anthony Hopkins
Christopher Plummer
Jeffrey Byron
Sarah Bullen
Richard Warwick
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time 127 min.
Language English
Preceded by National Velvet
IMDb profile
For the 1998 album by Welsh band Catatonia, see International Velvet (album).

International Velvet is a 1978 dramatic film. It was a sequel to the 1944 classic, National Velvet.

Contents

[edit] Plot

International Velvet is the story of an American girl, Sarah Brown, who is orphaned when her parents are killed in a car crash. She is sent to England to live with her aunt, Velvet Brown. When Velvet was a similar age to Sarah, she entered the legendary Grand National horse race and won, however was instanty disqualified as she was too young and women were not allowed to ride in the race. The horse Velvet rode on that occasion was known as The Pie. The horse was retired to a stud, and after much deliberation, Sarah and aunt Velvet buy the last offspring of The Pie and Sarah aptly names him "Arizona Pie" (combining the name of the stallion and the state in America where Sarah lived). Sarah lives up to her dream and enters the Olympic Three Day Event helping Great Britain win the team competition. She falls in love with an American competitor, and moves back to America with him. At the conclusion of the film, she sends her aunt Velvet her Olympic medal, saying here was a prize Velvet could keep.

[edit] Locations

[edit] Production notes

The following are some aspects about production of the film:

  • International Velvet shares none of the stars with the original film, although some were still acting at the time.
  • The director Bryan Forbes cast his wife Nanette Newman in the role of Velvet Brown, over Elizabeth Taylor, who had played her in the original film.
  • Somehow The Pie, who was a chestnut gelding with white socks and a big blaze in the original film, becomes a dark bay stallion with no white at all in the sequel.

[edit] Controversy

  • The film has been noted as lacking connections with the original film, such as changing the horse "The Pie" to become a dark bay in the film.
  • In reaching to cover an "international" aspect, the film seems to belittle the British competition, and the American girl seems to maintain contempt for the British, getting rescued to return to America, with the better "beautiful people" as though British were not. Meanwhile, the girl acted the part of "the ugly American" during much of the film, getting golden rewards at the end, with little connection to the original film of a nice girl struggling to win against all odds.
  • Some do not consider the plot, although significant, much of a sequel to the original film.
  • In the prequel, National Velvet, The Pie was a gelding - not a stud. A gelding can not produce offspring so one is left to question how exactly Arizona Pie came to be. It is uncertain if it safe to speculate that perhaps the Pie had sired get before being gelded. However, this is highly unlikely as The Pie was young when Velvet Brown acquired him and this would make Arizona Pie a considerable age to be competing. This ads to the theory that this sequel does not live up to the prequel.
  • "The Pie" was short for "The Piebald" in the original novel, and a piebald is a black and white pinto horse, not a chestnut or a bay, so that is definitely inaccurate in the movies.
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