Tilt (1979)

Tilt is the story of a young girl, who is a pinball machine wizard. Because she does not get on with her parents, Tilt is contemplating running away from home, and skipping school one day ... See full summary »

Director:

Rudy Durand

Writers:

Donald Cammell, Rudy Durand (screenplay),

Stars:

Brooke Shields, Ken Marshall, Charles Durning

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brooke Shields	...	Tilt (Brenda Louise Davenport)
Ken Marshall	...	Neil Gallagher
Charles Durning	...	Harold 'The Whale' Remmens
John Crawford	...	Mickey
Karen Lamm	...	Hype
Gregory Walcott	...	Mr. Davenport
Harvey Lewis	...	Henry Bertolino
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Truck Driver
Rob Berger	...	Replay (as Robert Brian Berger)
Don Stark	...	Gary Laswitz
Lorenzo Lamas	...	Casey Silverwater
Gary Mule Deer	...	Felix
George Jacobs	...	Clint
Helen Boll	...	Mrs. Davenport
Frank Pesce	...	Rock Manager (Carrots)

Storyline

Tilt is the story of a young girl, who is a pinball machine wizard. Because she does not get on with her parents, Tilt is contemplating running away from home, and skipping school one day she decides to go to Mickey's Bar. Mickey, who is Tilt's good friend, helps her set up a gambler for a pinball game. Because the gambler is unaware of Tilt's pinball wizardry, he is easily hustled out of his money. While watching the confrontation, a young man, who is a potential country and western singer and who has tried to hustle and cheat the pinball champion, is impressed with Tilt's ability, congratulating her after the win. Because Neil Gallagher has to raise money to make a demo tape of his songs, he has an idea of taking Tilt with him and having her hustle would-be gamblers. Neil invites Tilt to watch him sing at a rock concert, and after seeing him sing, she believes that he can become a great singer. Henry Bertolino, Neil's manager, thinks his plan is a bad idea and they have a dispute ...

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Plot Keywords:

pinball | independent film

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Taglines:

See, hear and feel the excitement and the music of America's pinball adventure!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

April 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bonita

Filming Locations:

Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

Rudy Durand began pitching the idea for this film in the late '60s. He contracted others to write the screenplay but wasn't satisfied with the results, so he ultimately wrote it himself.

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Crazy Credits

"Game Over" flashes on the screen at the end, in place of "The End."

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Connections

References The Hustler (1961)

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Soundtracks

"Koala Shuffle"
Composed and Arranged by Bill Wray

User Reviews

my views

ok... the review listed here already is pretty accurate and explains the mechanics of the film... a couple things id like to mention however...

i saw this one night and it totally blew me away... i was really bored and i thought i might as well sit through it... it reminded me of some other really lousy movies that might get shown at like noon on a sunday on the local station that only ever shows reruns... it has this painfully stupid song which is like this rock/country 70s type junk which completely fuels and drives the film... it repeats at least 3 or 4 times, and the most "exciting" moments of the film are arranged to it... its as bad a catchy theme song could ever be and has some twangy hicks singing "pinball... pinball...". the character described as the "whale" dances (whilst playing pinball) and seems possesed by this song and pretty much LIVES to hear it...

but beyond that... it was deep. brooke shields' performance was adequate for like the 9 or 10 year old girl she is... but its not really HOW she acted... its WHAT she seemed to be... if i may quote twin peaks... "the owls are not what they seem".

the relationship between her and the budding musician she attempts to save (like some sort of ethereal spirit or angel come to help) is very strange... he is like a little puppy to her and i think he bursts out crying to her at some point...

she uses her incredibly pinball skills in a battle against the "whale"... (of course to the tune of "pinball... pinball...") afterwards, when he tries to compliment her on being a good little lady or something... it was so creepy... she stares at him and slowly and sternly says "im NOT a little lady"...

i ended up shaking my head at the theme song but i was just blown away... ive wanted to show this movie to some other people... it really tried to make some sort of statement... and since it really felt like it was aimed at little kids i was just blown away at what i THOUGHT was going on...

look for it... you might hate it in 20 sec... but i really believe that things are NOT what they seem in the "tilt" universe...

made me wanna read moby dick...