Black Beauty is a 1971 British drama film directed by James Hill and starring Walter Slezak, Mark Lester, Uschi Glas, Patrick Mower and John Nettleton.

When Gervaise volunteers for overseas active military service to prove his bravery his fiancée gives him Black Beauty as his steed.

Because of his bravery in battle, the horse is shipped back to England, but is then sold by Gervaise's comrade in arms, now a penniless and alcoholic army officer.

Director James Hill plays the assorted episodes for all they are worth; and if the story appears a little thin at times – reflecting the simple-minded didacticism of Anna Sewell's original – it at least has the comparative advantage of not being told entirely from the equine viewpoint, while in the swirl of events there is little chance for its downtrodden hero (any of the five of him needed for different portions of the story) to steal the show.

"[3] Roger Ebert was overall complimentary of the film, and believed the re-telling of the book remained true to the original aims of the author, although changing the actual biography of the horse.

[2] A review in The New York Times also commented on the major plot changes, but called the movie "uncommonly interesting, handsome and sometimes quite marvelously inventive".