One of the greatest movies ever made, released in 1974, directed by
Roman Polanski and starring
Jack Nicholson. Set in
Los Angeles in 1937, the film revisits the
film noir classics of the 1930s and 40s and Nicholson's portrayal of the private eye Jake Gittes is a clear invocation of the spirits of
Marlowe and
Spade.
The plot concerns Gittes being hired by a concerned wife, played by Diane Ladd who is concerned her husband, water chief Hollis Mulwray, is playing away from home. Gittes takes the job, spies Mulwray with a young blonde and finds the case splashed all over the papers. Enter Faye Dunaway. It transpires that she is the real wife of Mulwray and that Ladd was a working girl hired to blacken the Mulwray name. Gittes starts to poke deeper and further but it is not long before the body of Mulwray is pulled out of his own reservoir. Then things start to get interesting.
The film plays almost entirely through the eyes of Gittes, and Nicholson gives one of his best performances, with no indication of his later descent into the 'mad Jack' caricature. Dunaway is similarly excellent, playing up as the classic femme fatale in the tradition of the genre, a perception enhanced as it is reflected through Nicholson's cynical viewpoint. The climactic revelation changes every aspect of Dunaway's performance, making a second reviewing a rewarding experience and flags up the stench of evil and corruption embodied by Noah Cross.
Cross, played by the renowned director John Huston, sits at the heart of the film in a quitely understated but deeply sinister role. He is one of those rich, powerful, corrupt and evil men who always seem to rise to the top and pull the strings in any half-decent political thriller. But Cross is more than this, he is also the future, and our other protagonists, reeling towards Chinatown, are powerless to do anything to withstand him, leading to the famous concluding lines, "forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Initially, Chinatown was meant to convey a certain mood, the stench of corruption where the normal rules no longer apply and honest men fear to tread. Indeed in scriptwriter Robert Towne's original script Chinatown did not appear as a location. But after a long conflict between Towne and Polanski over how to end the film, Polanski won, and a final confrontation was added, giving the film the tragic climax that would make Chinatown one of the most memorable films of the 70s.
The picture was nominated for 11 oscars, but only Towne won for his screenplay. Nevertheless this would be a career highpoint for most of those involved, and is probably the best work that Roman Polanski has produced to date.
Cast
Jack Nicholson - J.J. Gittes
Faye Dunaway - Evelyn Mulwray
John Huston - Noah Cross
Perry Lopez - Lieutenant Lou Escobar
John Hillerman - Yelburton
Darrell Zwerling - Hollis Mulwray
Diane Ladd - Ida Sessions
Roy Jenson - Mulvihill
Roman Polanski - Man with knife
Richard Bakalyan - Loach
Joe Mantell - Lawrence Walsh
James Hong - Kahn
Burt Young - Curly