FilmSkool — a free film school
Chinatown
Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.
1974 · Directed by Roman Polanski · 130 min · Crime · Mystery · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 30 frames
Tagline
You get tough. You get tender. You get close to each other. Maybe you even get close to the truth.
Plot
In 1937 Los Angeles, a woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray hires private investigator J. J. "Jake" Gittes to trail her husband, Hollis, the chief engineer at the Department of Water and Power. Gittes photographs Hollis in the company of a young woman and the pictures make their way into the Post-Record, exposing their apparent affair. Gittes is then confronted by the real Evelyn Mulwray, who threatens to sue him. He concludes that the impostor was using him to discredit Hollis.
Gittes crosses paths with his former colleague, LAPD Lieutenant Lou Escobar, when Hollis's corpse is found in a reservoir. Investigating further, he discovers that huge quantities of water are being released from the reservoir each night, despite the fact that the city is in the midst of a drought. Water Department Security Chief Claude Mulvihill warns him off, and he has his nose slashed by one of Mulvihill's henchmen.
Gittes receives a call from Ida Sessions, the woman who posed as Evelyn. She refuses to say who hired her, but urges Gittes to check the Post-Record's obituary section. Now working for Evelyn, Gittes investigates Hollis's death. He learns that Hollis was once the business partner of Evelyn's wealthy father, Noah Cross. Cross offers to double Gittes's fee if he finds Hollis's supposed mistress, who has disappeared.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Robert Towne, Roman Polanski
- Cinematography: John A. Alonzo
- Edited by: Sam O'Steen
- Music: Jerry Goldsmith
- Production design: Richard Sylbert
- Produced by: Robert Evans
Cast
- Jack Nicholson as J.J. 'Jake' Gittes
- Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Cross Mulwray
- John Huston as Noah Cross
- Perry Lopez as Lieutenant Lou Escobar
- Burt Young as Curly
- John Hillerman as Russ Yelburton
- Darrell Zwerling as Hollis I. Mulwray
- Roman Polanski as Man with Knife
- Diane Ladd as Ida Sessions
- Richard Bakalyan as Detective Loach
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: Spanish, Cantonese, English
- Studios: Paramount Pictures, Long Road Productions, Robert Evans Productions
- Budget: $6,000,000
- Box office: $30,000,000
- Themes: dying and death, sea, pedophilia, rape, mistake in person, river, chinatown, barrage, femme fatale, conspiracy
Own the film
FilmSkool earns a small commission from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no cost to you.
More by Roman Polanski
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.