The Big Wheel [DVD] [1949]

To his credit, Mickey Rooney worked hard to shed his homespun Andy Hardy image in his postwar films. In The Big Wheel, Rooney plays Billy Coy, a garage mechanic who matriculates into a champion race-car driver. On the way to the top, he steps on friends and foes alike. He even manages to briefly alienate his saintly mother (Spring Byington). The cocky Coy eventually kills another racer when he forgets that gas and alcohol don't mix. It takes some doing, but Billy finally redeems himself. The climax cleverly blends stock footage of the Indianapolis 500 with newly-lensed racing sequences. The Big Wheel has been run incessantly on cable TV since lapsing into public domain in 1976.