The last spoken line of Chinatown is frequently quoted in many other movies or television shows. Most recently I heard it on a rerun of Home Movies. So I recorded it on the DVR with Yankee Doodle Dandy that same evening TCM had a guest programmer. I’ve been wanting to watch it for some time since I never understood the reference and I was curious why this film was a favorite amongst critics and geeks. While I was sick in May I finally watched it and its review kept getting pushed back but it’s still an impressive mystery to discuss.
Jake Gittes (Nicholson) runs a private detective agency in LA during the Thirties and when the movie opens, a Mrs. Mulwray enters to hire Jake’s agency to follow her husband because she suspects him of cheating. Jake tries to talk her out of it, especially when she says her husband is Hollis Mulwray, LA’s Water Commissioner. Since she is adamant, Jake and his associates take the case. At first the work is routine: attending a hearing about building a dam, watching Hollis make some inspections at dry river beds and drains (LA is experiencing a drought) and having an argument with someone. Finally, they photograph Hollis hugging a younger woman. Case closed. Not really. The picture is then put on the front page of the paper and the actual Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) appears in his office with her lawyer announcing a lawsuit against the agency. Jake goes up to the Mulwray mansion to apologize, explain, etc., only to hear Evelyn state her decision to drop the lawsuit. Puzzled, he accepts it but he continues tailing and investigating Hollis since he knows somebody is using him and he doesn’t like it.
I never thought I’d ever find a likable movie starring Jack Nicholson in my lifetime. Of course Chinatown was guided by a strong director, Roman Polanski, and Nicholson hadn’t become a parody of himself yet. The better performance is from John Huston as Noah Cross, Evelyn’s father. He has this creepy millionaire vibe around him which explains itself with the horrible surprise near the end of the story. The ending is probably too anti-climatic for most audiences today but as I’ve always said, that was the trend in the Seventies. It’s tragic yet it explains the context of “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”