Chinatown (film)

Chinatown (in Spanish: Barrio chino) is a 1974 American noir drama film directed by Roman Polanski and starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston. The film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for 10 more awards. Since its premiere it is considered simultaneously as a classic film and a cult film.

Finds AFI's 10 Top 10 in the "Mystery Movies" category.

Plot

In 1930s Los Angeles, private detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is visited by a woman claiming to be the wife of the city's water utility engineer, Hollis Mulwray (Darrel Zwerling), and that he believes that he is being unfaithful; soon after, Mulwray's real wife, Evelyn (Faye Dunaway), also turns up at the detective's office in later days, after Gittes makes a fool of himself for being naively deceived by the first woman, who later calls herself Ida. Sessions (Diane Ladd). When Mulwray is murdered, Gittes is hired, twice, by two different clients, to investigate the case; And that's when he begins to discover that behind everything, as expected, is a huge real estate deal, family secrets and a lot of greed.

Cast

• Jack Nicholson: J. J. "Jake" Gittes
• Faye Dunaway: Evelyn Cross Mulwray
• John Huston: Noah Cross
• Perry Lopez: Lieutenant Lou Escobar
• John Hillerman: Russ Yelburton
• Darrell Zwerling: Hollis I. Mulwray
• Diane Ladd: Ida Sessions
• Roy Jenson: Claude Mulvihill
• Roman Polanski: the knife man
• Dick Bakalyan: Detective Loach
• Joe Mantell: Lawrence Walsh
• Bruce Glover: Duffy
• Nandu Hinds: Sophie
• James Hong: Kahn, Evelyn's butler
• Beulah Quo: Evelyn's employee
• Belinda Palmer: Katherine Cross
• Burt Young: Curly
• Jerry Fujikawa: The Gardener

Awards and nominations

John Huston in an advertising picture of the movie.

Oscar 1974

Golden Globes

BAFTA Awards