Le Roi de la piste

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.

One of the early attractions of television was the Roller Derby, I well remember it though I certainly can't say I was any fan. And I doubt anyone became a fan after watching this average Mickey Rooney film.

It took a while apparently for Mickey Rooney to finally get cast in adult roles. Producers were still seeing him as either good kid Andy Hardy or that punk from Boys Town, Whitey Marsh. Fireball has Mickey running away from an orphanage where Father Pat O'Brien is having a devil of a time trying to reach this angry young man. Maybe Spencer Tracy had a better touch.

Anyway he finds a pair of roller-skates, a job washing dishes with Ralph Dumke, and pretty soon he's found his way to the skating rink where he finally shows a natural aptitude for speed skating under the tutelage of champion Beverly Tyler. That fact doesn't sit well with her skating partner Glenn Corbett.

Mickey attracts the attention of the television audience just now discovering roller derby when the TV cameras pan to him, heckling the living fecal matter out of Glenn Corbett. Seeing Mickey doing that reminded me of someone I knew way back in the day who used to get free baseball tickets and I went to games with him. The price was listening to this short obnoxious individual heckling the opposition ballplayers the way Rooney was doing to Corbett. Like Mickey in the movie, this individual had issues, many kinds of issues.

Of course he does become a roller derby champion, but faces a couple of crises, personal and professional which I won't go into.

Fireball was made on the cheap to take advantage of the current discovery of the roller derby. Pat O'Brien is the usual wise Catholic prelate, nothing new here since Angels With Dirty Faces. And Rooney is 30, looking 30 playing a teen.

Fireball did give me that unwanted trip down memory lane, not to early television and the roller derby, but to Yankee Stadium trying to pretend I did not know the obnoxious individual sitting next to me.

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.

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!!!

If you are willing to suspend disbelief for 84 minutes and accept that someone who has never skated can become a roller derby champion in a matter of weeks or months, then you just might enjoy this movie. I watched it only to see Marilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles and wound up actually liking the movie. Pat O'Brien gives a solid performance in a familiar role as Father O'Hara and it is difficult not to fall in love with Beverly Tyler as Mickey Rooney's loyal, suffering girlfriend. And while Miss Monroe's role is a very minor one with only a few lines, her presence in this film, by definition, makes it a classic.