When I first started pinballspotting, this is one movie that came to mind immediately. I’ve seen it many times since first getting into the 1930-40s black & white Warner Bros. classics back on late-night TV in the early 80s.
However, I hesitated to post it because of the two machines spotted, I can still only identify one of them despite a good view of the cabinet and part of the playfield. But this one is interesting because it’s quite an old film.
The machines spotted in this movie are flipperless; flippers only appeared in late 1947. So the player launched the ball, and tried to shake the machine just enough to influence where it would go and avoid tilting.
A minor character, played by Roscoe Karns, is seen playing pinball in two comedic scenes. Rather than shake the machine, he (and an onlooker) jerk and contort their bodies trying to influence the ball. Here’s the first scene in a truck stop diner, with the table whose cabinet appears to be a Rink (Genco Manufacturing Co., 1939) [Note: it doesn’t match the photos on ipdb, but it does in this one on photoseeum]...
There are shots of the ball moving on the playfield, which are hilarious because it moves unnaturally and is so obviously done with a magnet underneath. The playfield turns out to be from a Ricochet (Stoner Manufacturing Co., 1937), but the cabinet and backbox of that table do not match what we see in the other shots…
In the second scene, he plays a Big Six (J. H. Keeney and Company Inc., 1939)...
He’s on his last game, and will finally be able to go back to his job, but then is dismayed when he wins 58 free games and will never get out of there. In the background, we can see someone playing the Rink/Ricochet machine from the first scene...
Payout.
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