Chinatown: Key Facts

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Full title: Chinatown

Director: Roman Polanski

Lead Cast: Jack Nicholson as J.J. "Jake" Gites, Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray, John Huston as Noah Cross

Supporting Cast: Darrell Zwerling, Perry Lopez, John Hillerman, Diane Ladd, Roy Jenson, Joe Mantell

Writer: Robert Towne

Producer: Robert Evans

Genre: Film noir, neo-noir

Language: English

Date of release: June 20, 1974

Awards

1975 Academy Awards:

Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Roman Polanski), Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Faye Dunaway), Best Original Screenplay (Robert Towne), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Music (Original Dramatic Score)

Won: Best Original Screenplay (Robert Towne)

Setting (time & Place): Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley in 1937

Foreshadowing A farmer asks if Hollis Mulwray is being paid to steal water. Though the accusation is misdirected, it foreshadows the bogus draught the deputy engineer is masterminding and the land fraud the scheme helps to support.When Jake talks about a woman he once failed to protect in Chinatown, Evelyn asks if the woman was killed. Though her question is never answered, the conversation foreshadows Evelyn’s fate and Jake’s inability to prevent it. After Jake confronts Evelyn about holding Katherine prisoner, Evelyn leans her head against the steering wheel and accidentally sets off the horn, foreshadowing the long, unbroken sound of the car horn that signals Evelyn’s death at the end of the movie.

Major conflict Jake struggles to uncover who is behind a land- and water-fraud conspiracy that has led to murder.

Rising action After a woman dupes Jake into discrediting an innocent man who is later murdered, he slowly pieces together a complex web of corruption that he discovers is masterminded by the wealthy Noah Cross.

Climax Jake confronts Cross with his many crimes.

Falling action Noah Cross forces Jake to lead him to Evelyn, a meeting that leaves Evelyn dead and Cross in possession of their daughter Katherine.