Black Beauty

There's only superficial resemblances to Anna Sewell's classic in this 1946 movie but this is a not bad piece of Hollywood hokum. Mona Freeman is a pretty and lively heroine as she cavorts on horseback across a Hollywood version of the English countryside and falls in love with handsome American Richard Denning.Very pleasant musical background by Dimitri Tiomkin.

Heartwarming movie and a beautiful tomboy to boot.

I've watched this movie excitingly waiting to see in a film version (what I believed) a version of the book. The acting isn't great.. it was dissapointing. It drags on and seems very British. Overdone. Doesn't show more naturalness into it.

Widower Squire Weldon (Charles Evans). trying to raise his motherless daughter, Anne (Mona Freeman) presents her with a colt, Black Beauty (Highland Dale), in the hope that by disciplining the horse, she may learn to discipline herself.

Seeing as this was released in the 1940s, I am going to assume the film was black and white and color was added later. This may not be correct, as some great color was around early on. But either way, the use of it here is very nice and makes the dresses (for example) very vibrant. This is how color of its time ought to be used.

The story itself is alright and tends to be a children's story, though it may have a wider family appeal. There is the element of romance, and of course the theme that a horse is more than just something to ride.

This is to me the best version of the movie. Most complain because it's in b/w, but that makes it even better. A lot of people don't realize that this was the debut of Fury, the horse from the 50's TV show by the same name. Never a smarter horse was there.