Dogfight (USA, 1991)

Dogfight (USA, 1991).  Director: Nancy Savoca, starring River Phoenix, Lili Taylor, Richard Panebianco, Brendan Fraser...

The movie set in 1963, the day before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. River plays a soldier about to be shipped out...

He and his buddies have some fun an arcade... River's playing a Gigi (Gottlieb, 1963), which is a slight anachronism, since it came out in December...

Behind him, there is a row of mutoscopes ("movie" viewers, but using a lot of stills, like a large flip-it book) e.g. the black one on the left is a Mutoscope "clam shell" model D, made between late 1890s to about 1909. His buddy is by a Cockeyed Circus (Exhibit Supply Company, 1941), and to the right is a baseball / bat game 10th Inning (Williams, 1964), another anachronism...

Elsewhere in the arcade is a Super Circus Rifle Gallery (Chicago Coin, 1969) yet another anachronism, and a Carnival Gun (United, 1954), and a Mr. Top Gun (Taylor, 1960-1975) shootout game with life-size cowboy (different models of cowboy existed)...

Words are exchanged between the army guys and the navy guys. In Brendan Fraser's film debut, as he walks over to engage, we can spot a Hollywood (Williams, 1961) and an Egg Head (Gottlieb, 1961)...

When the fight breaks out, we can see a row of machines, some of which I could not identify... (from left to right)...
1. ?, 2. ?, 3. ?, 4. Gigi (Gottlieb, 1963), 5. a wall game?, 6. Fast Ball (Williams, 1969) anachronism, 7. Swing-Along (Gottlieb, 1963), 8. an old woodrail, maybe even flipperless, and 9.  Hollywood (Williams, 1961), where we can now see a bit of the "Styling of the 60's" cabinet (anodized aluminum trim and tapered tubular chromium steel legs)...

Oh yeah, on the left is an Uncle Sam strength-tester (possibly made by Caille Brothers, circa 1908, or maybe a reproduction).

In a later scene, River revisits the arcade with Lili and they play Whac-A-Mole (Creative Engineering, Inc., 1976). This is another anachronism. Mysteriously, I could not find any photos of the game that match this backglass and score reel type...

Towards the end of the movie, River is back from his tour of duty, it's 1966, and he walks into a themed bar called Circus, which has a Circus (Bally, 1973) , yet another pinball anachronism...

Also of note in this movie, there is a scene with a room full of antique coin-operated music machines from the late 19th century to the 1920s or 30s. There are mechanically-animated animal orchestras, a Regina Hexaphone, J.P. Seeburg Electric player piano, etc. Since the film was set and partly shot in San Francisco, perhaps these were from the Musee Mechanique?

Thanks to Ruby for spotting this one. I had seen this movie long before my pinball obsession and did not remember the arcade scenes.

Harper (USA, 1966)

Harper (USA, 1966)

Director: Jack Smight. Stars: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Janet Leigh, Robert Wagner...

Newman plays Harper, a private investigator who gets embroiled in a case and meets some crazy people. His character is a little bit of an S.O.B., tough, but loses some fights, quite witty and very entertaining to watch.

In some joint, he pumps a waitress for information next to a pinball machine...

He then talks to the barman, and finally asks for some dimes, walks over to the pinball machines -- Cross Country (Bally, 1963) and Go-Cart (Keeney, 1963) -- sticks his gum under a table, but before he's able to coin one of them up, he hears a cop car screech in and he goes to hide in the restroom to avoid them...

Although this blog is not about jukeboxes, this one was intriguing and easy enough to identify, so why not... At one point Harper ends up in a bar trying to get some info from Shelley Winters. We can spot a 1963 Rowe/AMI JAL model jukebox with a cool little animation thing (here's a fuzzy animated GIF showing that a bit)...

Not-quite Pinball Bonus:

Nine years later, they made a sequel called The Drowning Pool (USA, 1975)  and Harper embarks on another adventure. It was directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starred Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Melanie Griffith...

There's a scene in a bar where Harper talks to Richard Jaeckel and in the background, blurry, I believe is a pinball machine, but of course, too hard to identify. There appears to be a jukebox as well, again, too blurry to identify...

No Pinball Bonus:

Paul Newman also starred in The Hustler (USA,1961) which features several pool halls. There are no pinballs, but there are some interesting coin-operated machines...

Intro scene has an All-Star Deluxe Bowler (Bally, 1958)...

In a later scene in a bus station, we can spot a Deluxe Short-Stop (Williams, 1958) baseball (with part of cabinet painted over in a solid color), a rifle / gun game that looks like a Crossfire (Williams, 1956) and a Ten Strike (or Ten Pins), (Williams, 1957), a two-player, mechanically-animated manikin bowling game...

In the rest rooms, we can spot a Zodiac fortune teller / horoscope machine. It appears to be an "Astroscope", made by Crabb Manufacturing circa 1939. I spotted this machine before, in Dazed And Confused (USA, 1993), see this post...

The "Is this your lucky day?" seems to be an optional topper...

More (France, 1969)

More (France, 1969)

Director: Barbet Schroeder. Stars: Mimsy Farmer, Klaus Grünberg, Heinz Engelmann...

A young German fresh out of college hitch-hikes to Paris and meets up with a lovely American girl, who he ends up following to Ibiza, where they live a hedonistic lifestyle in the sun and eventually become heroin addicts. Of course, the main reason I watched this was because Pink Floyd did the music for it.

Anyway, before meeting the girl, he befriends a guy in a café, who plays a few games of Ship-Mates (Gottlieb, 1964)...

Alfie (UK 1966 & USA 2004)

Alfie (UK, 1966)

Director: Lewis Gilbert. Stars: Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Denholm Elliot, Jane Asher...

Caine hit it big in this role of a womanizing cad, treating most women with disrespect and referring to them as “it”. Certain events force him to learn a bit of a lesson.

As he enters a truckstop diner, we spot an Alpine Club (Williams, 1965)...

Then he plays a game of Sky-Line (Gottlieb, 1965), just to be able to chat up a “bird” (Jane Asher)...

Later in a bar fight scene, we spot a glimpse of a Flying Chariots (Gottlieb, 1963)...

Alfie (USA, 2004)
Director: Charles Shyer. Stars: Jude Law, Sienna Miller, Susan Sarandon, Marisa Tomei...

This pointless remake modernises the women, making them much less the victims that they were in the 60s. So basically it’s a bunch of pretty people having casual sexual relationships, and the lesson Alfie learns is much less harsh.

In a scene where Alfie’s chatting up the bartendress, he’s sitting on a Mata-Hari (Bally, 1977) next to a PIN-BOT (Williams, 1986)...

Thanks to M.L. for reminding me that the remake also had a couple of pins in it.

Dead Ringer (USA, 1964)

Dead Ringer (USA, 1964). Director: Paul Henreid. Stars: Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter Lawford...

A not great but watchable thriller with Bette Davis playing twin sisters (the second film in which she does so).

There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpse of two pinball machines in a bar as Bette walks by in a huge hat and veil. One is a Deluxe Duette (Gottlieb, 1955) and the other I could not identify. [Sorry about the poor quality of the image... I had to photograph my TV screen, and it’s such a quick scene. The better shot is the second one, when Bette’s almost out of view...]

Bette Davis bonus:
A much earlier film Bette starred in was Special Agent (USA, 1935) directed by William Keighley. George Brent goes undercover to bring down a racketeer with Bette’s help.

There’s a scene in the racketeer’s penny arcade, where we can spot some very early pinball machines, definitely flipperless, possibly bumperless for the most part, but in any case, difficult to identify...

room91334 has managed to identify the one in this first photo as a Major League (Model 44) (PAMCO, 1934)... the others could very well be the same machines, or similar...

Madigan (USA, 1968)

Madigan (USA, 1968). Director: Don Siegel. Stars: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Harry Guardino, Susan Clark...

Despite the talent involved, a disappointing movie with some bad writing, and that doesn’t know quite what it wants. Is it a gritty New York City police thriller or a drama?

Anyway, there’s a scene in a bar, when Madigan and his partner check out a tip from one of their lush informants and we can spot three pinball machines (from left to right): Thing (Chicago Coin, 1951), Happy Clown (Gottlieb, 1964) and Ship-Mates (Gottlieb, 1964)...

Chicago Coin’s “Thing" was based on a novelty song “The Thing” that was a big hit released late 1950, recorded by Phil Harris and others (including Ray Charles). If the dates are correct, they worked pretty fast to develop the machine and release it.

Games (USA, 1967)

Games (USA, 1967). Director: Curtis Harrington. Stars: Simone Signoret, James Caan, Katharine Ross, Don Stroud...

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.

2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (France, 1967)

2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (France, 1967) A.K.A. Two or Three Things I Know About Her
Director: Jean-Luc Godard. Stars: Marina Vlady, Anny Duperey, Juliet Berto...

Apparently Godard shot this simultaneously with Made in U.S.A., which I’ve covered in this post. Hardly a narrative film, it’s more like an essay where the actors spout Godard’s observations and comments about contemporary life, social and political stuff. Stylistically experimental as well, characters would also break the 4th wall, the actors sometimes seemingly talking about themselves, not in character.

His marriage with Anna Karina on the rocks, this time we have the lovely Marina Vlady... she walks into a café to meet a friend, passing by a man playing a Masquerade (Gottlieb, 1966)...

In a later, rather long scene, the camera focuses on several different conversations going on in a restaurant/café, accompanied by the sounds of a woman playing pinball the whole time. In the conversation involving Juliet Berto, we can see the woman behind her playing a Big Chief (Williams, 1965). Behind the man is an A-Go-Go (Williams, 1966)...

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)...