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Chinatown
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Chinatown (1974) More at IMDbPro »

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Chinatown (1974) -- A private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water.
Chinatown (1974) -- A private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water.

Overview

User Rating:
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 15% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Roman Polanski
Writer:
Robert Towne (written by)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Chinatown on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
20 June 1974 (USA) more
Genre:
Mystery | Thriller more
Plot:
A private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 18 wins & 22 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(47 articles)
Chinatown Comes Back to DVD on October 6th
 (From MovieWeb. 15 July 2009, 10:37 AM, PDT)

This Week On DVD and Blu-ray: July 14, 2009
 (From Rope Of Silicon. 14 July 2009, 3:23 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
Marvelous more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Jack Nicholson ... J.J. Gittes

Faye Dunaway ... Evelyn Mulwray

John Huston ... Noah Cross
Perry Lopez ... Escobar
John Hillerman ... Yelburton
Darrell Zwerling ... Hollis Mulwray

Diane Ladd ... Ida Sessions
Roy Jenson ... Mulvihill

Roman Polanski ... Man with Knife
Richard Bakalyan ... Loach (as Dick Bakalyan)
Joe Mantell ... Walsh

Bruce Glover ... Duffy
Nandu Hinds ... Sophie
James O'Rear ... Lawyer

James Hong ... Evelyn's Butler
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Additional Details

Runtime:
131 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Stereo

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Director Cameo: [Roman Polanski]the hood who slits Jake's nose. more
Goofs:
Anachronisms: In scene with Gittes, Mulvihill, and Yelburton (“Mulvihill! What are you doing here?”), elevator call buttons are modern, automatic elevator type--they have lights. In the 1930's, elevator call buttons were generally black and had no lights. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Jake Gittes: All right, Curly. Enough's enough. You can't eat the Venetian blinds. I just had them installed on Wednesday.
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Movie Connections:
Spoofed in "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law: Trio's Company (#2.2)" (2004) more
Soundtrack:
Some Day more

FAQ

What is the meaning of "Chinatown"?
A Note Regarding Spoilers
How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
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111 out of 159 people found the following comment useful:-
Marvelous, 30 January 2002
10/10
Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico

There is a word, impossible to spell, that describes the alignment of solar bodies like the planets when they all fall into place together. A similar word would describe this film. Everything about it is right. Polanski never directed a better movie. The performers, down to the lowest atmosphere person, are superb. The editing, the score, the sound, the decor, the dialog, all are just about flawless. The photography is peerless. The white garden apartments, the terra cotta roof tiles, the palms and desert sand are all painted with a faint gold, faintly ripe with false promise, like the oranges that bounce from Gittes' desperately speeding car in the northwest Valley.

Polanski deserves much of the credit. When Gittes surprises Evelyn Mulwray in her car, after he follows her to her daughter's house, her face slumps forward and beeps the horn briefly. Then, so faintly, we hear a few dogs bark in the background. Not only is the scene itself exquisitely done but it prefigures the ending, as does Gittes' remark earlier to Evelyn that she has a flaw in her iris. The movie is too good to deserve much dissecting. It stands repeated watching. If there is anything wrong with it, it is the serious and tragic ending that Polanski always insists on tacking on. Robert Towne was right and Polanski wrong in this case. Everything came together on this film. It's not only the best detective movie ever made; it's one of the best movies ever made -- period. A marvelous job by everyone concerned.

I have to add (6/27/05) that the word I mentioned in the first sentence is spelled "syzygy." Man, did I get enlightening email on that. I might as well add two other impressive features of this movie. (1) Polanksi takes his time. Example: Gittes sneaks into Hollis Mulwray's office and begins to go through the drawers of his old-fashioned wooden desk. As he slides each drawer out, Polanksi gives us a shot of their humdrum contents (checkbooks, magnifying glass, and so forth) and we can almost smell the heat and the odor of shellac and sawdust emanating from the wooden containers. The contents reveal nothing of importance in this case. But (2) sometimes irrelevant information crops up that resonates later in the film with its own echo. The detail might be just a word ("applecore") or an ordinary object (a pair of spectacles found in a pond, immediately after Gittes imitates the Japanese gardener's remark that the water is bad for the "glass.") Some of the references may be so consistent as to constitute a theme (water). None of this hits you over the head with its significance. It's all very neatly stitched together.

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Doesn't deserve to be in the top 1000 exclusiveburner
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