Strange little thriller movie. A rich couple hosts weirdo dressup parties, and in their game room is a “Turnpike” pinball machine, which was made for the movie. In addition to the usual bells, it produces sounds like screams and car crashes, which was faked since such sound capability didn’t appear until the second half of the 70s. [Note to self: was any pinball machine ever produced that electro-mechanically activated tape loops of sound, like the Chamberlin and Mellotron were doing in the 50s & 60s?]...
The backbox is a simple thing, with no score reels, and with several large areas that can be lit like “Fatalities”, “Innocent bystanders”, “Pedestrians” and “Serious injuries”, and a chaser... [you should see an animated GIF below]...
The playfield is a repainted Gaucho (Gottlieb, 1963). The slingshot wedges, bumper caps and bumpers are untouched, but the cabinet was repainted. The clue was the roto-target...
The woman playing it really enjoys the violent aspect of the game, and asks “Whoever thought of this lovely game?” Caan replies that it was a certain guest, and then their lawyer asks “Why?!”, to which that guest answers “Most of our lives are like pinball games. Fantastically designed machines. They merely whirr, click, and pay off at best another free game. The trivial things in life, we take too seriously. And the serious things – like death – too trivially.” He then moves by the machine and says “That’s all I tried to say here”...
Then the woman playing exclaims “I won! I won!”, and the machine produces a ding-ding-ding fire alarm type sound and lights up “You’re dead man!”...
In a later scene, the machine mysteriously begins playing in the middle of the night as Simone Signoret follows a spirit using a crystal ball...
Game over.
No comments:
Post a Comment