A thoroughly average but also quite watchable little sports flick, The Big Wheel will probably appeal most to race fans, especially those with an itch to experience automobile racing "as it used to be." Indeed, the best parts of Wheel come when it puts its stock characters and stock situations on hold and takes to the speedway. What happens out there on the track is just as stock as anything else in the film in terms of story, but the footage makes it exciting. While clearly shooting on a budget, director Edward Ludwig and cinematographer Samuel H. Steifel make sure that these sequences, especially the final one, are pretty darn gripping. Although one can often tell where the "real" racing footage ends and the "created" footage begins, it still packs a decent wallop. As indicated, the script that surrounds these segments is quite routine, but it's handled with commitment by Ludwig and given their best shot by Mickey Rooney, Spring Byington and Thomas Mitchell, all of whom add significantly to the picture. (Coming off less well is steady love interest Mary Hatcher.) Its screenplay may keep it out of the big time winner's circle, but Wheel is a perfectly fine way to pass a little time.