The Big Wheel

The Big Wheel (1949)

Roaring at you with mile-a-minute thrills!

The ambitious son of an accomplished race driver struggles to outrun his father's legacy and achieve his own successes.

Date of release
1949-11-04
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (12)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Action, Drama, Romance
Director
Edward Ludwig

Casting

Interesting facts

The Big Wheel is a 1949 American drama sport film directed by Edward Ludwig starring Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Mary Hatcher and Michael O'Shea. It includes the final screen appearance of Hattie McDaniel.

Production

Rooney returned from the war and made four films for MGM. He wanted to enter independent production and MGM agreed provided he promise to make five films for them.

In April 1949 Rooney announced he would make four films in partnership with producer Sam Stiefel of which Big Wheel would be the first, directed by Edward Ludwig based on a story by Robert Smith. It would be followed by Buckaroo based on an idea by Rooney, and Quicksand.

The agreement between Rooney and Stiefel ended before Rooney had made a film due to a financial disagreement. Rooney agreed to make three films for Stiefel as a salaried employee. The producer said Rooney owed him $180,000 and he was paying Rooney $100,000 a film; he was to pay it off at $60,000 a film, and thus would only get $40,000 cash.

Filming started 21 June 1949. Wilbur Shaw acted as technical adviser. Rooney's character was based on Mauri Rose.

In August 1949 it was announced the film would be produced by Stifel, Harry Popkin and Jack Dempsey.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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