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.

Pawn Sacrifice (USA, 2014)

Pawn Sacrifice (USA, 2014)

Director: Edward Zwick.  Stars: Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber, Peter Sarsgaard...

Based on the famous chess match for the World Championship which happened in 1972 in Reykjavík, Iceland. It's still the Cold War, and American chess player Bobby Fischer plays against the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky in a tense match.

In the movie, Spassky (Liev Schreiber) plays pinball in an open-24-hours joint, a Stampede (Stern*, 1977)...

A limo pulls up and his comrade gets out... we can see the reflection of the pinball cabinet in the window...

His comrade scolds him for disappearing and convinces him it's best that he get back to their hotel to rest up for the big match the next day. Spassky tells him that it's his shot, but his comrade just plunges the ball and walks away disdainfully...

This is another example of pinball anachronism, since the machine was made 5 years after the event depicted in the movie.

One would expect pinball machines to be rather rare in Iceland due to high import duties and its remote location. Pretty much all of them were brought in for R & R purposes by the US military when they maintained a base there (so it's a little doubtful that one would be in a bar as depicted in this movie). Nowadays there are only about 60 machines in the entire country. Here's a little article about Keeping pinball alive in the land of fire and ice.

* It's possible that this was made by Chicago Coin. Stern took them over in December 1976 and continued to produce the title.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Canada, 1974)

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Canada, 1974). Director: Ted Kotcheff. Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Micheline Lanctôt, Jack Warden, Randy Quaid...

This is the film adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s 1959 novel about an ambitious young working-class jewish man determined to make a name for himself no matter what the cost. The story takes place in the late 1940s in Montreal.

An scene early in the film takes place in Wilensky’s Light Lunch (a classic, family-operated soda fountain & Jewish deli since 1932 which exists to this day, although at the time of the story, was in a different location). I doubt they really had a pinball machine in the place, but for the movie, the girl that Duddy’s father pimps leans against a Sittin’ Pretty (Gottlieb, 1958)...

Of course, this is a pinball anachronism... the machine is a decade too modern. Also, in the late 40s, early 50s, machines still had wooden legs, not metal like we see here...

It’s too bad the movie didn’t use a Sea Breeze or a Richelieu machine, made by the Montreal-based North Star Coin Machine Co. These tables were made in 1949-1950, which would have better fit the time period that the story was set.

Later, one of Duddy’s money-making schemes is to sell some pinball machines. On a train to NYC, he meets Virgil (Randy Quaid), an american who bought 10 machines in order to go into business for himself, but alas, pinball is banned in the U.S. and he’s stuck with them. Duddy proposes that if Virgil got them to Montreal, he would take them off his hands.

Virgil does so, and they pile them into a truck during a downpour and drive them up to Ste-Agathe, a resort town in the Laurentians, about an hour and a half North of Montreal.

All we see is them loading an Arrow Head (Williams, 1957) without even bothering to take the legs and backbox off...

And we catch a glimpse of the cabinet of a Jig Saw (Williams, 1957) already loaded in the truck. Again, these machines are from a later decade than when the story is set...

In Ste-Agathe, they try to sell the Arrow Head (Williams, 1957)...

In the novel, he manages to sell all but one of the machines, which ends up in his apartment. In the movie, for economy, they show us the same table from the previous scene,  which is the Arrow Head...

Bonus:
In a scene in a bowling alley, there’s a Short-Stop (Williams, 1958) baseball / bat game in the background...

Once Upon A Time In America (USA, 1984)

Once Upon A Time In America (USA, 1984). Director: Sergio Leone. Starring: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Tuesday Weld...

I don’t think I saw this film since the 80s, but a friend tipped me off that there was a pinballspotting, so I took that as an excuse to re-watch it.
De Niro’s character visits his old friend in his bar where there are a couple of pinball machines in a corner...

Once again we have pinball anachronism, since the machines are from 1975, but the scene is set in 1968. On the left is a Star-Flite (Sonic, 1975), and on the right is a Tiger (Gottlieb, 1975)...

Star-Flite was a Spanish company’s version of the 2-player Super-Flite and the 4-player Strato-Flite (both by Williams, 1974). Also, Astro-Flite was another 1-player version by Segasa, which was a different name for Sonic. They all have variations in the backglass artwork as to where the title is placed, but have the same distinctive delta-wing aircraft and cloud formation.

American Graffiti (USA, 1973)

American Graffiti (USA, 1973). Director: George Lucas, Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard...

Well, I much preferred Star Wars, but the success of this film made that film possible, I guess.

Dreyfuss’ character is basically kidnapped by members of the Pharaohs gang. They go into an arcade and he distracts the owners whilst they jimmy the locks and grab the nickels and dimes from the cashboxes.

Anyway, not much to say, except that this contains an example of pinball anachronism. The movie is set in 1962, yet every machine we see was only made 3 to 9 years later.

From left to right in the still below… Wild Wild West (Gottlieb, 1969), Royal Guard  (Gottlieb, 1968), Skyrocket  (Bally, 1971), Vampire  (Bally, 1971), Buckaroo (Gottlieb, 1965)...

In the corner is a Ball Park  (Williams, 1968) bat game (not a pinball), and on the right in the frame is a crane game and a shooting game.

Skyrocket (leftmost in the following still) is of particular significance to me, since a collector friend lent me one, and I’ve played many a game on it!

As a bonus, Ron Howard was also in the TV series Happy Days (1974–1984), which I used to watch as a kid. Another case of pinball anachronism, since the series is set from about 1955 to 1965, and they’ve got a Nip-It (Bally, 1972). Heyyyyyyy...

Game over.

[Edit 2017.12.09: added better still for Happy Days]