Runaway Nightmare (USA, 1982)

Runaway Nightmare (USA, 1982)
Director: Mike Cartel (as Michael Cartel), starring: Mike Cartel, Al Valletta, Seeska Vandenberg...

An action comedy horror movie written, directed & starring Mike Cartel. Low-budget, bad acting, weak plot, and never really delivers on the promise of this description I found on imdb: "Two dorky Nevada worm wranglers are kidnapped by a gang of beautiful women as part of a plot to steal plutonium from the Mafia."

There is a bar scene with pinball machines, a jukebox, a mirror ball, and the two main characters get into a fight amongst them.

Oblivious to the fighting, there's a girl playing Suspense (Williams, 1969) the whole time...

Just before this mean-looking guy punches out the main character, we can see the reflection of two machines in the mirror behind the bar, and these may be the Night Rider and Power Play seen a bit later...

The punch throws him into a 1976 Seeburg Sunstar jukebox, which starts playing (slightly earlier, we see a girl drop a coin and make a selection, but it fails to turn on)...

Another punch is thrown in front of a Night Rider (Bally, 1976) EM version, and a Power Play (Bally, 1978)... these are quite possibly the machines seen reflected in the behind-the-bar mirror in the still above...

The other main character is seen near a Drop-A-Card (Gottlieb, 1971)...

The scene ends with TILT flashing on a Roller Coaster (Gottlieb, 1971)...

Coogan’s Bluff (USA, 1968)

Coogan’s Bluff (USA, 1968). Director: Don Siegel. Stars: Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Susan Clark, Don Stroud...

This movie is sortof the missing link between his westerns and Dirty Harry-type stuff. He plays an Arizona (desert scene, like in his westerns) cop who is sent New York (the big city) to extradite a prisoner. The latter escapes and Harry, I mean Coogan encounters various members of the crime element and some hippies along the way trying to find him.

Hippie-chick Tisha Sterling takes Clint into a pool hall, and a fight ensues... we can spot a couple of pretty old machines. Here in the corner is a Thing (Chicago Coin, 1951) machine...

“Thing” was based on a novelty song that was a big hit in 1950, recorded by Phil Harris and others (listen here: https://youtu.be/JNAGir88An8 ).

Holy smokes, this Big Town (Genco, 1940) woodrail was about 28 years old when the movie came out! Clint punches the guy who goes flying into the machine and it slides a few feet over...

Bonus:
Bronco Billy (USA, 1980)
Director: Clint Eastwood. Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Scatman Crothers...

As Clint and his gang walk out out of some joint, we can spot a bowling machine, a “Sunstar” jukebox (Seeburg, 1976) and a 4-player pinball machine, which appears to be Strato-Flite (Williams, 1974)...

Bonus II:
The Enforcer (USA, 1976). Third installment of the Dirty Harry series. Whilst he plays pool, there’s a glimpse of a Big Indian (Gottlieb, 1974) and a Spin-A-Card (Gottlieb, 1969)...

Bonus II Part 2:  Also, in the fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact (USA, 1983), there’s a scene in a bar and we can hear the classic chimes of a machine being played in the background, but we never see it. Pinballhearing? No, that’s not a thing!

TILT.

Bad Day at Black Rock (USA, 1955)

Bad Day at Black Rock (USA, 1955). Director: John Sturges. Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis...

This one is thanks to my friend Mark Loeser, creator of the pinball supercut video that is projected in a loop at the North Star pinball bar in Montreal, Canada. Even though this blog is more about me stumbling upon pinball appearances in movies, sometimes I can’t resist dipping into sources like this.

Anyway, it’s just after World War II ended, and good ol’ Spencer tracy arrives in a one-horse town, looking for some answers. Everyone in town makes it clear that he is most unwelcome.

At one point Ernest Borgnine disrupts his meal, pushing for a fight. In the background, Robert Ryan plays a Follies of 1940 (Genco, 1939). The whole scene lasts several minutes, and the machine is visible a lot of the time...

The fight happens... and hey, that’s Lee Marvin sitting there...

So nice to see an old machine like this in color...

Robert Ryan was previously featured playing pinball in my post about the 1949 movie Caught.

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.

Heroes (USA, 1977)

Heroes (USA, 1977). Director: Jeremy Kagan. Stars: Henry Winkler, Sally Field, Harrison Ford...

For some reason I had never heard of this movie, although it was apparently a pretty big hit at the time. This was the first film people saw Ford in after Star Wars, even though it was filmed before... it’s a small role. John Cassavettes does a cameo.

At one point, Winkler goes into a bar with unsavory characters. We spot three machines... from left to right... a Jubilee (Williams, 1973), a Sure Shot (Gottlieb, 1976) wedgehead, and a Triple Strike (Williams, 1975)...

A fight breaks out and Field comes to the rescue by driving their car right through the wall... but since it was in the wide gap between the Sure Shot and Triple Strike, luckily no pinball machines were hurt... unlike the pool table...

Game over.

The Whole Shootin’ Match (USA, 1978)

The Whole Shootin’ Match (USA, 1978). Director: Eagle Pennell. Stars: Lou Perryman, Sonny Carl Davis, Doris Hargrave.

I was unaware of this film and director until I followed a trail from his fellow Austin, Texas based filmmaker Richard Linklater, who has said that this film was the one that made him believe it was possible to make films. Robert Redford has said that after seeing this film, he was inspired to start the Sundance Institute.

It’s a low-budget independent production shot in black & white on 16mm. There’s some pretty nice music by Pennell’s brother.  The story follows two buddies who can’t seem to hold down jobs, and try to come up with ideas to get rich quick. They drink a lot, flirt with women, and of them is a tinkerer, trying to come up with a money-making gadget.

In a scene in a bar restroom, two women get into a fight over one of the guys (the one who’s married!). The fight moves out into the bar, knocking over a pile of boxes next to a Spirit of 76 (Gottlieb, 1975) machine...

Convoy (USA,1978)

Convoy (USA,1978).  Director: Sam Peckinpah. Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine, Burt Young...

Even though I was in my formative years in the 70s and too young for bars, my vision of the period is that one could walk into just about any old bar or diner and there would be a pinball table or two in the corner. Well, perhaps that’s a romantic, pinball-nostalgic notion, but it’s certainly the case in this movie.

This movie was made during the time people were nuts about C.B. radios and truckers (e.g. Smokey and the Bandit and White Line Fever). It was based on a country & western song, and mythologizes truckers as the new heroes & outlaws of the day.

Early in the film, a big fight breaks out in a diner where the hero and his trucker buddies hang out, essentially kick-starting the plot, such as it is. In the background, we can spot several machines.

Here's the hero's girl, who works at the diner, walking by a few machines. On the extreme left is a Zodiac (Williams, 1971), next to a Casanova (Williams, 1966) and the one behind the guy on the extreme right is Hayburners II...

Next to some guys hanging out at the counter there’s the Hayburners II (Williams, 1968)...

It seems pool is the preferred game of skill in these parts, despite the presence of six machines in the place...

During the fight, a couple of guys get thrown across a pool table (including one of the pool player above), and we can spot, from left to right: MIBS (Gottlieb, 1969), Spin-A-Card (Gottlieb, 1969)  and Jive Time (Williams, 1970)...

Luckily, despite all the chaos and smashing of chairs and bottles and people, it appears that no pinball machines were harmed during the brawl!

Game over.