The Verdict (USA, 1982)

The Verdict (USA, 1982). Director: Sidney Lumet. Starring: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason...

A friend tipped me off to this one... I hadn’t seen it in decades. Certainly well worth re-watching. The film opens to the sounds of pinball, and Newman’s character is playing a Disco Fever (Williams, 1978) in his favorite drinking establishment...

In a later scene, he does so well that he wins a free game, but alas, cannot play it because he realizes he’s late for an important case meeting with the judge...

Disco Fever was one of the only two machines that had “banana” flippers, i.e. curved (The other was Williams’ 1979 ‘Time Warp’). But I seem to remember playing a hockey-themed machine in the mid-80s with them. Perhaps the operator changed them.

Bonus
Another movie that Paul Newman was in was the terrible WUSA (USA, 1970), directed by Stuart Rosenberg and also starring Joanne Woodward and Anthony Perkins...

Joanne is in a bar and we catch a glimpse of a couple of sailors playing a Lucky Strike (Williams, 1965)...

Replay.