kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS*** A 28 year old Mickey Rooney shines in this car racing flick as brash and so full of himself Billy Coy who until a fatal accident of his best friend and fellow racer Happy Lee, Steve Brodie, that Billy was unjustifiably blamed for turned his life around for the better. Up until then Billy was following in the footsteps of his late dad the legendary race car driver Cannonball Coy. It was Cannonball who after a night of boozing and womanizing drove, dead drunk behind the wheel, in the Indianapolis 500 and ended up smashing his car into a wall killing himself. It was the tragic death of Lucky and being blamed for it that had Billy at first quit car racing then return to it with a whole new attitude.Starting from the bottom on the east coast circuit Billy worked himself up to become one of the few drivers to compete in the Indianapolis 500 within a year of his so-called retirement from racing. It was no easy task for Billy in him facing like what a crumb he was earlier in the movie in his relationship with those he worked with and competed against on the race track. Now brought down to earth and at the same time humanized from his experience Billy was ready to make it to the top of the car racing world in the big race that his father Cannonball Coy lost his life in 17 years ago. That with his mom Mary, Spring Byington, and top mechanic and boss now step-father Arthur "Red" Stanley in attendance.***SPOILERS*** Heart stopping and tremendous racing sequences especially those of the Indianapolis 500 race with a re-born as well as born-again Billy going all out to win the big race despite his car catching fires in the final lap with him in the lead. Risking a fiery death Billy floors the peddle to the medal to get to the finish line where the checked flag is waiting to be wagged as the leading car crossed it. Totally surprised and heart-felt ending with Billy and the audience, at the race track and watching the movie, finding out that the saying "Winning isn't everything it's the only thing" wasn't all that it was cranked up to be from the driver who won the race.

edwagreen This story of the race car industry is interesting and invariably there is that always exciting end of film racing scene.Mickey Rooney is perfect to play the lead role of a jockey, who seems to be going in the way of his late father. When Rooney is unable to save his friend during a race, it comes out that his dad was quite a boozer and a womanizer as well.The film gave Spring Byington, who plays Rooney's mother, the opportunity to engage in some dramatic acting. Most of Byington's career had her in almost comic roles or as a society matron. That changes all here.Interesting that 10 years after "Gone With the Wind," Thomas Mitchell and Hattie McDaniel again team for this film. Though McDaniel is in one scene, they are not in that one together.The film is a definite ode to race car drivers with their trials and tribulations.

bkoganbing Mickey Rooney's first film after leaving MGM was this independent production for United Artists, The Big Wheel. This is a racetrack story done with hardly the budget of Le Mans or Grand Prix or even MGM's racing story To Please A Lady that Clark Gable did with Barbara Stanwyck two years later. Still it has a nice cast with good location shooting at various racetracks climaxing of course with Indianapolis 500.The Mick's got a lot to prove, he's the son of a racing legend who lived a fast life, died at the Indianapolis 500 and left widow Spring Byington to raise Mickey by herself. She's had of late though Thomas Mitchell who was her husband's old mechanic and he's now courting Byington.Because of his attitude Rooney doesn't win many friends at the racing circuit. When Steve Brodie is killed, a lot of the drivers especially Michael O'Shea blame Rooney. And it comes out a lot of them disliked his father for some of the same personality traits and more.Mickey's got two girls in this one, Mary Hatcher daughter of race car owner Richard Lane and sultry singer Lina Romay. He has to the end of the picture to figure out which one is really in his corner.The Big Wheel is not a great picture, but it was better than some of what Rooney was doing after World War II at MGM. For the most part they still saw him as a kid over there. The Big Wheel let Mickey Rooney grow up and for that it should be considered a milestone film in his career.

jjsquare In the credits, my father, Jack Colin, not 'Jack Colon', which was the real spelling, appears as the track announcer. This was his only 'film appearance' but he was a newscaster at KFWB and KHJ in Los Angeles at the time when those stations were the number one and two rated stations in L.A. He burned he candle at both ends and in the middle. His style, high powered as it was, was the style of the day. Today it seems a parody. However, he was always on and seldom, if ever made a mistake. His style is over the top and it seems to mimic the acting style of the day. An interesting side note; Mickey Rooney was married, what, eight, nine times? My father went through 7 wives in the short span of 45 years. Actually, in the short span of 25 years. Should have just had girlfriends.