a5c7b9f00b Billy Coy, brash young midget car race driver, lives in the shadow of his famous father, a drunken womanizer, who was killed in an accident years earlier. His mantra that he&#39;s going &quot;to drive over&quot; everyone comes back to haunt him when his best friend is killed during a race. Everyone assumes that his ruthless driving style was the cause of the fatality, and it takes the love of a pretty tomboy workinga mechanic and his loyal mother to believe in him and his ability to overcome the resentment and redeem himself. A brash young midget car race driver lives in the shadow of his famous father, a drunken womanizer, who was killed in an accident years earlier. This story of the race car industry is interesting and invariably there is that always exciting end of film racing scene.<br/><br/>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 womanizerwell.<br/><br/>The film gave Spring Byington, who plays Rooney&#39;s mother, the opportunity to engage in some dramatic acting. Most of Byington&#39;s career had her in almost comic roles ora society matron. That changes all here.<br/><br/>Interesting that 10 years after &quot;Gone With the Wind,&quot; Thomas Mitchell and Hattie McDaniel again team for this film. Though McDaniel is in one scene, they are not in that one together.<br/><br/>The film is a definite ode to race car drivers with their trials and tribulations. ****SPOILERS*** A 28 year old Mickey Rooney shines in this car racing flickbrash 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.<br/><br/>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 &quot;Red&quot; Stanley in attendance.<br/><br/>***SPOILERS*** Heart stopping and tremendous racing sequences especially those of the Indianapolis 500 race with a re-bornwellborn-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 waggedthe 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 &quot;Winning isn&#39;t everything it&#39;s the only thing&quot; wasn&#39;t all that it was cranked up to be from the driver who won the race.
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