I can’t say it’s a great film, but it’s classic Keach, if you know what that means. An Australian film, definitely shot there, but the two main stars are American. Anyway, Keach plays trucker Pat Quid with a pet dingo, trying to haul a load of “Meat! M. E. A. T. as in meat!” to Perth but along the way suspects a van driver on the same route is a serial killer.
At a truck stop in Yellowdine along the Great Eastern Highway, he calls up the police and tries to explain his theory about the killer, but gets embroiled by questions and having to spell out his name (and what he’s hauling, which is where the above meat quote comes in) whilst the most unfriendly locals in the place most unhelpfully make noise playing a jukebox and pinball. The machine is obviously a Playboy (Bally, 1979)...
The scene is pretty cool because the camera does a slow 360 pan of the place whilst he’s on the phone and the locals are playing pool, buying stuff from the vending machine etc. According to the trivia on IMDB, the studio wanted the director to cut that scene, feeling it was too slow, but I’m glad he didn’t.
The jukebox is pretty cool, with a round infinity mirror built in. It’s a Seeburg 100-78D “Celestia” circa 1977-79 (or a 100-79M “Celestia” by Seeburg-Stern 1979-80)...
