Lo spaccone vagabondo

This is a terrific ultra low-budget film that hits its marks and offers a few surprises. Mickey Rooney stars as an orphanage kid no one wanted. He's past school age (Rooney's 30ish here) but the priest who runs the joint (Pat O'Brien) can't get him motivated to learn a skill. After a big fight, Rooney runs away ... much to O'Brien's delight. Now he'll have to learn a skill. Faced with harsh reality he steals a pair of roller skates and tries to hawk them and eventually lands a job as a dishwasher in a dive. But those skates. He goes to the local rink for lessons and his world changes. He finally finds a passion and becomes a roller derby star until tragedy hits and he learns a thing or two about fame, humility, and life. Fascinating film with Rooney doing much of his own skating. Beverly Tyler is the girl, Ralph Dumke is the dive owner, Milburn Stone is the rink owner. And Marilyn Monroe shows up and gets a few lines as a fan. She even gets a couple scenes with Rooney. I remember roller derby from 1950s TV. It made no sense to me then or now.

'm one of the sons of the man on whose life this movie is based. Here are a few points that were different in the picture: My father skated under the name Eddie Cazar. One of his teammates was Johnny Cazar. If this movie is a hybrid of the two Cazars' lives, someone will have to fill in the details on Johnny.

My father was not an orphan. His Irish Catholic mother did leave him in order to take up with a French-Canadian Jewish gangster. Thus Eddie was left in the benignly neglectful care of my backwoods paternal grandfather. Either it was easier just to orphan him in the Hollywood version or being an orphan was part of Johnny's story.

My father was close to six feet tall, from the pictures I've seen I recall Johnny Cazar as being kind of tall himself. Mickey Rooney: not tall. Granted Mr. Rooney could do many of his own skating stunts, so maybe that's why he got the part.

The extent of the polio was seriously downplayed, which is the entire freaking point of the movie! Polio was a big deal back then, and they really gloss over it. It really belittles my father's struggle and accomplishment. You get a montage of treatments, including brief scenes of Mickey Rooney in an iron lung, and that's about it. No massive weight loss, no being rendered mute and having his vocal cords removed, no long time spent in that iron lung; just a little paralysis, no big whoop. It was just like a bad 'flu or something. They should have treated it more like the war injuries were in "The Best Years of Our Lives." Maybe that would have been too expensive or something. Of course it makes his comeback for one final season of skating all the less spectacular. In a way my father was the Earvin Johnson of the era, having the illness everyone feared the most, yet managing to fight back and still participate in a hugely popular sport.

The treatment of his rise from street skater to rollerderby star is close enough for a '50s era family movie. I.e. not enough sex and no drugs. That's true for both Cazars.

Real life is a lot more complex than reel life. His fall a lot harder, his climb up a lot harder, his triumph a lot more amazing, but it took a hell of a lot longer for redemption.

So do check out this movie, it is a glimpse into a nearly forgotten popular culture and plague. Even if it is a watered down look into one man's life or two men's conflated lives.

After the war, and the demise of the ANDY HARDY series, Rooney seemed to be trying to find his niche in Hollywoodland.

From around 1949 to 1956, Rooney made some of the very best film noir ever put on celluloid: THE BIG WHEEL, MY OUTLAW BROTHER, QUICKSAND, and the classic DRIVE A CROOKED ROAD. THE FIREBALL is a another mini-classic.

Yes, it's the typical sports story-young man struggles to the top, becomes a dickweed, then after life-altering crisis becomes a "real hero." But it is how the Mick plays it here that makes this one great viewing.

It also doesn't hurt to be able to catch a glimpse of MM now and again-and also a pre-RIN TIN TIN Jim Brown.

Throw in Pat O'Brien as a priest and you gotta classic!!!

Movies are often thought to be good or palatable in the time that they are new, when they are viewed in the particular era in which they are produced. The Audience and the picture are 'in synch' with other. Their further acceptance depends on their content, casting, story line, etc.

The passing of time is also a major player in the legacy of any production. The difference in our attitudes and mores can make a great difference in a film's 'reputation'. This is the basis for some very serious works of a former era become today's 'Camp'.

The age of the individual viewer and the time elapsed are also active agents in a movie's rating. The memory, of course, can enhance and expand the scope and impact of a story, making the version in one's head far different than the on screen product.The Fireball (1950) doesn't seem to fall into any of these traps (at least for this writer).

I remember viewing this at a relative's house in the early 50's. It was the nightly movie, the feature that so many TV Stations ran in the slot following the nightly news cast. We gathered around the small b&w screen,interrupted for commercial breaks, and followed the drama of an orphaned Mickey Rooney rise,fall and rise again as a Roller Derby Star. Oh, the Roller Derby!It was a very popular item at then. It seemed to be a great picture (to an 8 year old) at the time.

Now, years later, viewable on VHS, with no interruptions, The Fireball is once again around to be seen by all. It,of course, now can be seen as chronicling the spirit of the Post World War II America and a simpler, slower, quieter time. But in its own way, it has held up quite well. It may even be seen in a little better light today, because it seems to be a sincere, straight forward story.

And, we must not forget a very good cast. Mickey Rooney had fallen a little in his Box Office ratings, and turns in a very good performance, including some very amusing skating sequences. Add Pat O'Brien as (what else?) a Priest at the Orphanage,James Brown, Milburn Stone and a young Marilyn Monroe and you've got a solid 'little' film, one that many, who may be unfamiliar with it, will find to be surprisingly enjoyable.

A lot has been written about Marilyn Monroe. And a lot of people pride themselves on knowing almost everything about her. But my guess is that these folks have not seen some of her early film work.

For instance, she has a bit part in DANGEROUS YEARS (1948); then has a prominent role in Phil Karlson's LADIES OF THE CHORUS (1948), a low-budget entry from Columbia. Next she has a tiny role in the Marx Brothers flick LOVE HAPPY (1950).

Though she began her ascendancy at 20th Century Fox in 1950, she did not have her first starring role until 1952's DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK. For two years, she was put into a series of Fox programmers, playing supporting parts. These second-tier jobs are interesting to watch, because you can see how she has to serve out her apprenticeship under actresses like Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert and Ginger Rogers.

At one point, she was loaned out was to RKO for CLASH BY NIGHT, where we find her understudying another major star (Barbara Stanwyck). As always, even in a minor role, she still makes an indelible impression.

This brings us to a 1950 effort she made with Mickey Rooney and Pat O'Brien called THE FIREBALL. It was produced independently and released through Fox. However, the copyright for this film was taken over by Warner Brothers, and for years it languished in the vaults. Not long ago, it was released through the Warner Archive, without the benefit of special features or the kind of restoration one would like. Hey, at least it is commercially available.

The picture was a starring vehicle for Rooney, who plays a daredevil skater that risks his life to impress the right people. And although she's eighth billed here, it is clear who the real fireball is.