Quicksand (USA, 1950)

Quicksand (USA, 1950). Director: Irving Pichel. Stars: Mickey Rooney, Jeanne Cagney, Peter Lorre, Barbara Bates...

Rooney makes one stupid decision after another. To impress his date (Jeanne Cagney), he’s gotta have cash, so he borrows money from the cash register where he works... of course things go wrong, and get worse and worse...

In the diner where Jeanne works we can spot an aviation-themed pinball...
Fleet (Bally, 1940)...

Nick (Peter Lorre) runs a penny arcade (I include these shots because there are a lot of other vintage coin-operated amusement machines that may interest someone)...

Rooney and Jeanne go for some pinball, and we can spot a Big Hit (Exhibit, 1946) partially visible on the left, and a Ballerina (Bally, 1948) that she plays...

Jeanne Cagney wins a payout after one ball (she knows the trick because she used to work at the arcade)... “Hey Nick! Pay me! I hit the jackpot.” Lorre begrudgingly comes over...

He pays her, but then puts an “Out of Order” sign on it saying “That’s all for you.”...

Later there’s a reverse angle on Ballerina, with a card-themed game (not necessarily a pinball) on the left...

The Man with the Golden Arm (USA, 1955)

The Man with the Golden Arm (USA, 1955). Director: Otto Preminger. Stars: Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Eleanor Parker, Darren McGavin...

Sinatra plays Frankie Machine, arriving home to a run-down Chicago neighborbood, fresh off the bus from a rehab/prison facility, tries to avoid his old life as a skilled card dealer and heroin addict...

Chicago was of course the pinball capital of North America, being home to the giants of the industry, so perhaps it’s normal that one finds a couple of old machines on the sidewalk?! In the opening scene, we can spot a pair of “Majors - 1941” (Chicago Coin, 1941), which were already pretty old by the time the movie was shot...

In Frankie’s hangout bar, there’s a headless machine probably from the early-to-mid 1930s. By about 1936 or so, machines with backboxes (heads) were taking over, even if the heads were often only a few inches tall. It’s hard to identify the actual machine because back in the 1930s, there were so many machines being made... for example, according to the Internet Pinball Database, there were 309 machines made in 1935 alone, by some 54 different companies!

Portland Exposé (USA, 1957)

Portland Exposé (USA, 1957). Director: Harold Schuster. Stars: Edward Binns, Carolyn Craig, Virginia Gregg...

A low-budget sortof gangster noir, although with some rougher stuff than most. It does seem, as the main character remarks, that these organized crime goons and their methods are from another era, but apparently, this kind of thing was really going on in the 50s in Portland, OR.

The basic story is that a tavern owner is forced by the mob to run his place “wide open”, with all that evil stuff like slot machines, pinball machines, general gambling and B-girls. When his daughter is attacked by one of the gangsters, he starts collecting evidence in order to bring the syndicate down.

In the beginning, a local pinball machine supplier manages to convince the tavern owner to take a pinball machine, who doesn’t want more because he’s afraid of the evil gambling aspect. It’s a Yuma Arizona (United, 1950). BTW, The jukebox looks like it’s a 1954 Wurlitzer model 1700...

It was still the early days of flippers, and this machine had a pair that were activated simultaneously with one button. The kid even stands on one side to play after putting in a coin.

The gangsters rough up the pinball supplier to get his list of clients so they can move in on them. We spot a bunch of machines that end up in the tavern. In the foreground, an Ump (Stoner, 1941), and directly behind that is a Super Hockey (Chicago Coin, 1949), and on the right is the Yuma Arizona (United, 1950) again. Behind the goon’s head we can spot a bit of a Bally Beauty (Bally, 1952) bingo machine...

Behind the goon is the backbox or backglass of a “Match Bowler” (Chicago Coin, circa 1952) bowling machine...

As the goons leave, we spot a Pin-Bowler (Chicago Coin, 1949)...

Now the tavern is in full swing, with people playing the Yuma Arizona (United, 1950), and in the background we see bits of the Pin-Bowler (Chicago Coin, 1949) and Bally Beauty (Bally, 1952) bingo machine.

The place has a bunch of slot machines and we can spot a bit of the Super Hockey (Chicago Coin, 1949) on the left...

Here’s a closer shot of the Bally Beauty (Bally, 1952) bingo machine...

And a closer shot of the Pin-Bowler (Chicago Coin, 1949)...

And here’s the baseball-themed Ump (Stoner, 1941) again...

François Truffaut & The Doinel Series

Alas, only two of the five movies in François Truffaut’s “Cycle Doinel” A.K.A. “The Adventures of Antoine Doinel” series have pinballspottings...

Les quatre cents coups (France, 1959) A.K.A. The 400 Blows
Director: François Truffaut. Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier...

Antoine Doinel and his friend skip school and amongst various mischief and watching movies, play this unidentified machine...

Baisers volés (France, 1968) A.K.A. Stolen Kisses
Director: François Truffaut. Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Delphine Seyrig...

In a café, Antoine walks by an A-Go-Go  (Williams, 1966)...

Edge of Fury (USA 1953, released 1958)

Edge of Fury (USA 1953, released 1958). Directors: Robert Gurney Jr. & Irving Lerner. Starring: Michael Higgins, Lois Holmes, Jean Allison...

I guess I came across this little-known low-budget film when I was in my Film Noir period. It was made in 1953 but shelved and only released in 1958. The tagline was “A night of tension... a moment of madness... and now he is at the edge of fury”. The story is of a psychologically damaged man, a war veteran, who befriends a family at a beach house. He was turned loose from the state mental institution for financial reasons, and and due to (sexual) tensions involving the daughters of the family, things take a turn for the worse.

I found this blog post that goes into a little more detail of the plot and production: http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.ca/2010/10/edge-of-fury-1958.html

There is a brief scene where one of the daughters and her date play some pinball in a local bar. The machine is a Carolina (United Manufacturing Co., 1949)...

Anatomy of a Murder (USA, 1959)

Anatomy of a Murder (USA, 1959). Director: Otto Preminger. Starring: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara...

I saw this film long before I started playing pinballspotting, but recently was switching channels and just happen to come upon a scene wherein Remick’s character is saying that she sometimes wears glasses to play pinball amongst other things.

So I figured there might be a pinball machine we can spot. Anyway, it’s a great film, so I took the opportunity to watch it again. Pretty racy for the times… apparently Jimmy Stewart’s father called it a dirty movie and took out an ad to tell people not to see it! And despite the heavy subject matter, there are actually quite a lot of laughs. Masterfully done.

Alas, we don’t see anyone playing, but we do spot the machine they are talking about in this bar…

Here are some closer shots… it’s a World Champ (Gottlieb, 1957)...

Here’s a little bonus non-pinball, vintage coin-operated machine… the bar also has a “Clover Shuffle Alley” bowler machine (United Amusement Co., 1953)...