Chinatown - Original Trailer 1974

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foxter65
January 06, 2009

"You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't," warns water baron Noah Cross (John Huston), when smooth cop-turned-private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) starts nosing around Cross's water diversion scheme. That proves to be the ominous lesson of Chinatown, Roman Polanski's critically lauded 1974 revision of 1940s film noir detective movies. In 1930s Los Angeles, "matrimonial work" specialist Gittes is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to tail her husband, Water Department engineer Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling). Gittes photographs him in the company of a young blonde and figures the case is closed, only to discover that the real Mrs. Mulwray had nothing to do with hiring Gittes in the first place. When Hollis turns up dead, Gittes decides to investigate further, encountering a shady old-age home, corrupt bureaucrats, angry orange farmers, and a nostril-slicing thug (Polanski) along the way. By the time he confronts Cross, Evelyn's father and Mulwray's former business partner, Jake thinks he knows everything, but an even more sordid truth awaits him. When circumstances force Jake to return to his old beat in Chinatown, he realizes just how impotent he is against the wealthy, depraved Cross. "Forget it, Jake," his old partner tells him. "It's Chinatown." Reworking the somber underpinnings of detective noir along more pessimistic lines, Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne convey a '70s-inflected critique of capitalist and bureaucratic malevolence in a carefully detailed period piece harkening back to the genre's roots in the 1930s and '40s. Gittes always has a smart comeback like Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but the corruption Gittes finds is too deep for one man to stop. Other noir revisions, such as Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) and Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975), also centered on the detective's inefficacy in an uncertain '70s world, but Chinatown's period sheen renders this dilemma at once contemporary and timeless, pointing to larger implications about the effects of corporate rapaciousness on individuals. Polanski and Towne clashed over Chinatown's ending; Polanski won the fight, but Towne won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Chinatown was nominated for ten other Oscars, including Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Score.

Jack Nicholson - J.J. Gittes
Faye Dunaway - Evelyn Mulwray
John Huston - Noah Cross
Perry Lopez - Escobar
John Hillerman - Yelburton
Diane Ladd - Ida Sessions
Darrell Zwerling - Hollis Mulwray
Denny Arnold - Farmer in the Valley
Dick Bakalyan - Loach
Jim Burk - Farmer in the Valley
Fritzi Burr - Mulwray's Secretary
Lee de Broux - Policeman
Cecil Elliott - Emma Dill
Doc Erickson - Customer
Jerry Fujikawa - Gardener
Bruce Glover - Duffy
Bob Golden - Policeman
Elizabeth Harding - Curly's Wife
Nandu Hinds - Sophie
John Holland - Farmer in the Valley
James Hong - Evelyn's Butler
Rance Howard - Irate Farmer
Paul Jenkins - Policeman
Roy Jenson - Claude Mulvihill
George Justin - Barber
Charles Knapp - Mortician
Joe Mantell - Walsh
Claudio Martinez - Boy on Horseback
Elliott Montgomery - Councilmen
James O'Reare - Lawyer
Belinda Palmer - Katherine
Roman Polanski - Man With Knife
Beulah Quo - Maid
Frederico Roberto - Cross's Butler
Roy Roberts - Mayor Bagby
John Rogers - Mr. Palmer
Jesse Vint - Farmer in the Valley
Allan Warnick - Clerk
Noble Willingham - Councilman
Burt Young - Curly

Category: Film & Animation

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Chinatown - Original Trailer

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overhere2000 (3 days ago) Show Hide

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Is this the original Phillip Lambro soundtrack?

HolyKira666 (5 months ago) Show Hide

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Ah, Dick Bakalyan, such a great guy. I knew him once, when I lived in Hollywood California. He was my next door neighbor, he was like a grandfather and a friend to me. I always called him "Dickie-B"
He was such a sweet man, me,him and my little brother used to throw those plastic foam paper air planes.
Its not a lie either

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