Chinatown

A Review, Part Two

by Bill Johnson

During his lunch hour, Jake visits the mortician, who jokes about Mulwray's death.

In the middle of a drought and the
water commissioner drowns! Only in LA.

A second drowning, that of a drunk living in one of the downtown storm drains, is more interesting to Jake. Jake doesn't understand how a man could drown in a dry riverbed. Jake knows the riverbed was dry because of following Hollis. So what seemed to be simply a backdrop to the story comes back around to play an important role.

By raising a question around this drowning, both Jake and the audience are pulled forward. In that way, the audience is sharing the journey of discover both through Jake and with Jake. It's an element that makes mysteries pleasurable for an audience. That sense of participation.

Jake's investigation of this new mystery also gives his actions a clear sense of purpose.

At the Hollenbeck Bridge, Jake prowls around for a closer look, noticing a trickle of water in the bottom of the "damp riverbed."

This raises the question, where did the water come from? Now what had seemed background details about Hollis Mulwray and his activities comes closer to center stage. The ominous music is also a cue that this death in a 'dry' riverbed is not what it seems.

In the background, we see the dresser of the drowning victim is elevated several feet from the river bed. That suggests a great deal of water must have come down the river to drown the man.

The Mexican boy on horseback appears and tells Jake that he would regularly report to the man with glasses (Mulwray) about the water.

It goes in different parts of the river.
Every night a different part.

Jake has found another clue similar to the one Hollis Mulwray was in the process of learning just before his death. Portions of the city's water supply are being dumped or diverted secretly.

That night, Jake drives to the reservoir where Mulwray's corpse was found. We don't have intervening scenes because they would not serve a purpose in the story.

Jake finds a locked fence at the reservoir. Jake is a man of action. He goes over the fence and calmly resumes walking forward.

Jake hears gunfire. Believing he is a target, he jumps into a run-off channel for cover. The storm drain immediately fills with rushing water, almost claiming him.

This is a highly visual, dramatic scene. Jake jumps from a dangerous moment (the sound of shots) to an even more dangerous moment.

Now he must climb back over the fence in soggy clothes. Note also the symbolism of the events of the story starting to degloss Jake.

Jake is threatened for trespassing by Claude Mulvihill. Jake flippantly asks Claude,

Where'd you get the midget?

referring to another hired thug with Claude. This communicates that Jake is a tough guy.

A knife-wielding creep [Director Roman Polanski] warns Jake to stop snooping around.

You're a very nosy fellow, kitty-cat, huh? You know
what happens to nosy fellows? Huh, no? Want to guess?
Huh, no? OK. They lose their noses. Next time you lose
the whole thing. Cut if off and feed it to my goldfish.
Understand?

Jake's nose gushes blood after a sharp flick of the knife.

This scene escalates the drama over what's at stake in this story. If Jake goes forward, he is clearly risking his life. It is because he is willing to risk his life to find the truth that makes Jake a dynamic character.

He sports a bloody-bandaged and stitched nose in the next scene and an unraveling bandage. It visually tells us that Jake is willing to risk his persona to get at the truth. It also undercuts the stereotype about the hard bitten private investigator who travels through a story unscathed. In that way, this film again suggests it is going for a deeper sense of 'truth.' It's not going to play the normal conventions. This signals to the audience they can have no easy expectations about how this story will turn out or where it will go.

Jake's associates tell him he really doesn't have anything on Mulvihill, but Jake responds,

I want the big boys.

This cues the audience to what Jake wants in the story. So while the mystery at the heart of the story is still unrevealed, we're again oriented to a dramatic purpose for the moment and for Jake that is clear and direct.

A woman named Miss Ida Sessions telephones. She insists Jake knows her. This moment is designed to draw us deeper into the story.

Well, I'm a working girl. I didn't come in to see you
on my own...

We still don't know what she's talking about. So both the audience and Jake now want the answer to this question. Jake,

When did you come in?

Ida,

I was the one who pretended to be Mrs.
Mulwray.

Although she won't divulge her address or who hired her to be an impostor, she suggests that Jake look at the day's obituary column in the Los Angeles Post-Record - there he can find "one of those people."

This again pulls both Jake and the audience forward.

Once this information has been communicated, the scene is over. We move forward to a cocktail lounge, where Jake tears out the obituary column. It's not clear that he's found the information he's looking for. So what might have been a clear lead opens out into a deeper question.

Jake glances at the headlines of the paper: "WATER BOND ISSUE PASSES COUNCIL." Both Jake and the audience would now know this has some significance to the story, but what?

Mrs. Mulwray joins him and is startled to see his bandaged nose, staring at it, but not asking about it. Although Jake has been generously paid, still wants the truth. Jake,

Something else besides the death of your
husband was bothering you. You were upset, but
not that upset.

Mrs. Mulwray,

Mr. Gittes. Don't tell me how I feel.

Jake,

Sorry. Look. You sue me. Your husband dies. You
drop the lawsuit like a hot potato all of it quicker
than the wind from a duck's ass. Excuse me, uh. Then
you ask me to lie to the police.

Mrs. Mulwray,

It wasn't much of a lie.

Jake,

If your husband was killed, it was. This could
look like you paid me off to withhold evidence.

This adds a new wrinkle to the story. Mrs. Mulwray,

But he wasn't killed.

Jake,

Mrs. Mulwray. I think you're hiding something.

Mrs. Mulwray,

Well, I suppose I am. Actually, I knew
about the affair.

Jake,

How did you find out?

Mrs. Mulwray,

My husband.

Jake,

He told you? (She nods yes.) And you weren't
the least bit upset?

Mrs. Mulwray,

I was grateful.

Jake,

Mrs. Mulwray, you'll have to explain that.

Mrs. Mulwray,

Why?

Jake,

Look. I do matrimonial work. It's my métier [he
pronounces it "meeteeyay"]. When a wife tells me that
she's happy that her husband is cheating on her, it
runs contrary to my experience.

Mrs. Mulwray,

Unless what?

Jake,

She was cheating on him. Were you?

We're getting at different 'truths' in this scene.

Mrs. Mulwray,

I dislike the word cheat.

Beautiful, elusive dialogue. She offers nothing freely.

Jake,

Did you have affairs?

More probing by Jake,

Where were you when your husband died?

Mrs. Mulwray,

I can't tell you.

Jake,

You mean you don't know where you were?

Mrs. Mulwray,

I mean I can't tell you.

Jake,

You were seeing someone too. For very long?

This is a loaded question that echoes deeply in the story. One of the many things about this great film is that repeated viewings offer new insights into the subtext of the dialogue.

Like their earlier extended scene, the dialogue here is witted, barbed, pointed.

Mrs. Mulwray,

I don't see anyone for very long, Mr.
Gittes. It's difficult for me. Now, I think you know
all you need know about me. I didn't want publicity. I
didn't want to go into any of this then or now. Is that
all?

She's offered Jake, and the audience, all the truth she's going to volunteer.

Jake,

Oh, by the way, uh, what does this C stand for?

Mrs. Mulwray,

Cr...Cross.

This innocent-seeming detail speaks to what has been mostly unseen in this story. Both Jake and the audience are cued that something else is happening here by Mrs. Mulwray's reaction.

Before he roars away in his car, Jake tells her his conclusions about her husband's death.

OK, go home, but in case you're interested, your
husband was murdered. Somebody's been dumping thousands
of tons of water from the city's reservoirs and we're
supposed to be in the middle of a drought. He found out
about it and he was killed. There's a waterlogged drunk
in the morgue, involuntary manslaughter if anybody
wants to take the trouble - which they don't. It seems
like half the city is trying to cover it all up, which
is fine by me. But Mrs. Mulwray, I goddamned near lost
my nose. And I like it. I like breathing through it.
And I still think that you're hiding something.

This puts an exclamation point on the question, what is she still hiding? Again the purpose of such a question is to orient the audience to the direction of the story.

Jake's spiel here also orients the audience to one dimension of the story, that there is a cover-up over Hollis Mulwray's death. That aspect of the story stands in full relief. But the more Jake discovers, the less he seems to really know. What he's discovered also makes him a kind of partner with Mrs. Mulwray as we see them face to face. It visually suggests the looming intimacy of these two.

Jake revisits the office of Hollis Mulwray - now being taken over by Yelburton. While waiting in the outer room, he notices that the walls are covered with photographs, one of which is captioned "Noah Cross, 1929," and others dated in the 1920s picturing Hollis Mulwray and Noah Cross. Jake has had this opportunity because Yelburton initially refuses to come out and see him. So this moment is put to dramatic use.

Note the sequence in this story. We have the early photo of Cross where he's unidentified; just a man arguing with Hollis. Then we hear his name from Mrs. Mulwray. Now Jake comes across his name and who he is. There's a clear progression for the presentation of information; the audience is being cued that Cross is a significant character.

Jake casually asks the secretary,

Noah Cross worked for the water department.

Secretary,

Yes. No.

Jake,

Well, did he or didn't he?

Secretary,

He owned it.

Jake is astonished that Cross "owned the entire water supply for the city." Mr. Mulwray, a co-owner/partner "felt the public should own the water" and persuaded Cross to turn it over to the public.

Now we have a reason for Mulwray's death. With Jake, we share this discovery. But this is just another piece of the puzzle. It sets up the larger question, was Noah Cross involved in the death?

Once it becomes clear Jake won't leave until he sees Yelburton, he's allowed into his office. They spar, until Jake says,

Well, let's look at it this way. Mulwray didn't
want to build a dam. Had a reputation that was hard to
get around. You decided to ruin it. Then he found out
you were dumping water at night. Then he was, uh,
drowned.

Yelburton,

Mr. Gittes, that's an outrageous accusation.
I don't know what you're talking about.

Jake offers to take the story to the papers. This forces Yelburton to admit that some secret diversions of irrigation water are indeed being made.

We're not anxious for this to get around. We have been
diverting a little water to irrigate orange groves in
the Northwest Valley. As you know, the farmers out
there have no legal right to our water. We've been
trying to help some of them out. Keep them from going
under. Naturally when you divert water, there's a
little run-off.

Jake's challenging dialogue forces out revelations that advance the story.

Jake wants to know exactly where those grooves are. Yelburton stalls. Jake tells him,

I don't want to nail you. I want
to find out who put you up to it.

Jake is again operating from his personal moral code here. He suggests that if Yelburton cooperates, Jake can pin the murder on higher-ups and Yelburton can remain department chair for 20 years. This suggests that what Jake wants here is the truth, that he's aware the truth can't uproot all the corruption he comes across.

When Jake returns to his office, his secretary signals silently that someone is waiting for him. This gives dramatic shape to another small moment in the film. Now we as well as Jake anticipate discovering who's in his office.

Jake opens the door and sees a woman standing by the window with her back to him and us. Note how the drama of the moment is extended. She turns. It's Mrs. Mulwray.

He offers her a drink. She asks about his salary. This allows Jake to offer a few concrete details about his business. This is also a pleasurable moment because it plays against other detective scenes where we find out how much the detective charges. So the scene plays against a context of other movies and stories.

She asks,

Whoever's behind my husband's death - why have
they gone to all this trouble?

Jake,

Money. How they plan to make it out of
emptying reservoirs, that I don't know.

This is movement for the story, from their last scene when Jake presented the idea that her husband was murdered, to her acceptance of that idea here. It's still not the real truth of the situation, but it shows her acceptance of Jake.

She offers him his regular salary plus $5,000 to,

Find out what happened to Hollis and who was involved.

This orients the audience to Jake's purpose.

Jake reveals he knows that her father is Noah Cross, causing her to nervously light two cigarettes. Note how closely the camera focuses on Mrs. Mulwray as she lights the second cigarette. This sets up the payoff when Jake mentions she already has a lit cigarette. Jake,

Tell me something uh. Did you get married before or
after Mulwray and your father sold the water
department? Noah Cross is your father, isn't he?...Then
you married your father's business partner...Does, uh
my talking about your father upset you?

Mrs. Mulwray,

Why yes. No. A little.

Neither Jake nor the audience can fully understand why Mrs. Mulwray is so nervous here, but both Jake and the audience know this is a significant moment.

According to Mrs. Mulwray, Hollis and Cross had a "falling out" over the ownership of the water, never speaking again. Jake,

Over you? Or over the water department?

This question clearly startles Mrs. Mulwray.

Over me? Why should it be over me?

Jake (and the audience) is standing next to the truth, but it is not recognized.

Hollis had opposed the construction of an earlier dam, but was forced into building it by Cross. The dam collapsed, and she says they never spoke from that time on. Jake, remembering the recent photographs shown to him by his operatives of the two men fighting, asks if she is sure of her recollection as she signs the newly-drawn contract.

This is a pleasurable moment for the audience because they've been set up to know something that Mrs. Mulwray doesn't. This kind of set up, where the audience knows something a character doesn't, is part of how a story communicates that it is more 'true' than life, where most people feel in the dark about events.

The scene ends with Mrs. Mulwray signing the contract. The scene is over because it's fulfilled its dramatic purpose. We're a step closer to the truth about who killed Hollister Mulwray and the moral truth about why it happened.

Jake goes to the Albacore Club (flying the fish symbol). Note how the presentation of the scene draws us forward to want to know who he's meeting there (although we suspect who that is). Jake meets Mulwray's former partner, a sinister, jovial tycoon named Noah Cross (John Huston).

Cross misnames Jake, a subtle put down. Cross,

Mr. Gits.

Jake,

Gittes.

Cross,

Oh. How do you do? You've got a nasty
reputation, Mr. Gits. I like that...If you were a bank
president, that would be one thing. But in your
business it's admirable and its good
advertising...It's, um, why you attracted a client like
my daughter...But I'm surprised you're still working
for her unless she's suddenly come up with another
husband.

Jake,

No. She happens to think the last one was
murdered.

Cross,

Umm, how did she get that idea?

Jake,

I think I gave it to her.

Like the extended scenes with Jake and Mrs. Mulwray, the dialogue here is sharp, barbed, laced with undercurrents. It clearly comes out just how ruthless Noah is.

Cross,

Are you, uh, sleeping with her? (No answer from
Jake) Come, come, Mr. Gits. You don't have to think
about that to remember, do ya?

The real reason why he's asking that comes out later.

Jake,

If you want an answer to that question, Mr.
Cross, I'll put one of my men on the job. Good
afternoon.

Jake is too tough to be toyed with. But he's also in the dark, and unaware of it.

Cross,

Gittes. You're dealing with a disturbed woman
who's just lost her husband. I don't want her taken
advantage of. Sit down.

This echoes with the real 'truth' of the story.

Jake,

What for?

Cross,

You may think you know what you're dealing with,
but believe me, you don't. Why is that funny?

This speaks to the story being, on one level, about a search for the truth.

Jake,

That's what the district attorney used to tell
me in Chinatown.

Cross,

And was he right? Exactly what do you know about
me? Sit down.

This is another step into the 'why' of the title. It's that subtle quality of movement that this story expressed in every scene, in every nuanced line of dialogue.

Jake,

Mainly that you're rich, and too respectable to
want your name in the newspapers.

Cross,

Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians,
ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they
last long enough. I'll double whatever your fee is and
pay ya $10,000 if you find Hollis' girlfriend.

Jake,

Girlfriend?

Finding the girl opens up another purpose for Jake. His looking for the girl also orients the audience to a clear sense of purpose for Jake. Noah wanting the girl found seems natural, innocent. Both Jake and the audience are being pulled in here. Like the fake Mrs. Mulwray, Noah is presented in such a vibrant, natural way, what he really is does not openly register.

Jake,

When was the last time you saw Mulwray?...Do
you remember the last time you saw Mulwray?

This is a loaded question. Cross tries to evade it.

Jake,

It was five days ago outside the Pig 'n'
Whistle and you had one hell of an argument. I got the
pictures in my office if that'll help you remember.
What was the argument about?

Cross,

My daughter.

This is another bombshell that isn't what it appears to be. It appears to offer the 'truth,' but only another slice of it. Great dialogue.

They continue probing each other for information, some advantage.

Jake,

I'll look into it as soon as I've checked out
some orange groves.

Cross,

Orange groves?

The dialogue in this scene operates across different levels of truth. Note that at the end of the scene Jake offers some information about his plans. It orients the audience to where Jake is going.

At the Hall of Records, Jake asks to see the plat books for the Northwest Valley. Numerous land sales are in escrow with new owners buying up the land, shown with their names pasted in the plat books. Most of the valley has been sold in the last few months.

This suggests something is happening, but what? Again, an answer leads to a deeper question.

A trip to the valley confirms the plat book records - farm land is rapidly being sold.

On one level, we're discovering why Hollis Mulwray was murdered, but not the deeper truth that murder conceals.

Men on horseback fire on Jake's car in the middle of one orange grove, pursuing him through the narrow rows of trees. He is dragged from his crashed automobile, beaten, and his pockets are emptied.

The audience is set up to expect that things are very grim for Jake. The dramatic tension of the story escalates. Will searching for the truth cost Jake his life?

The leader of the farmers wonders which of two hated groups Jake represents, misdirecting his anger at him.

Who are you with? The water department or the real
estate office?

Jake identifies himself as a private investigator, hired by a client,

To see if the water department was irrigatin'
your land.

The shotgun-armed farmer is flabbergasted - the exact reverse is happening.

Irrigatin' my land? The water department's been sending
you people out here to blow up water tanks. They put
poison down three of my wells. I call that a funny way
to irrigate. Who'd hire you for a thing like that?

This is a revelation for both Jake and the audience.

Jake now understands why the farmers are defending themselves - water officials have diverted irrigation water to cause a drought in some parts of the valley to force farmers out of the dry areas, buying up their parched land at cut- rate prices. When he hands over Mrs. Mulwray's contract, one of the farmers is angry.

Mulwray! That's the son-of-a-bitch who's done it
to us.

Jake is knocked out cold when he calls the man a "dumb Okie."

Just when Jake seems safe, things go awry again.

Jake regains consciousness with Mrs. Mulwray staring down at him, surrounded by the farmers on a Northwest Valley porch. This is another twist on our expectation of who Jake would see when he comes to.

As he drives back to town with Mrs. Mulwray, Jake describes the scandal to her, explaining how valley acreage is being purchased cheaply for speculation pending the reservoir's construction. Hollis was killed because he opposed the reservoir.

Something clicks in Jake's' memory about Jasper Lamar Crabb. His name is mentioned in the newspaper obituary column in his pocket. A memorial service was recently held at the Mar Vista Inn for Crabb who died two weeks earlier. Dummy investors are the new owners who are buying up the valley land. Jake,

He passed away two weeks ago, and one week ago, he
bought the land.

They drive into the Mar Vista Rest Home and enter pretending to be a rich couple who need to find a convalescent home for Jake's dad. The home director, Mr. Palmer assures them that Jews are excluded and that strict privacy is maintained for all residents. This is another kind of immorality.

On an activities board for the home, Jake finds familiar names for the land sales. Some of the elderly residents are sewing a flag with the fish symbol of the Albacore Club, since Mar Vista is an "unofficial charity of theirs."

Palmer requests that they follow him out, and Mulvihill greets them in the lobby. After first urging Mrs. Mulwray to her car, Jake beats up Mulvihill. As he leaves, he is rescued just in time from the nose-cutting thug when Mrs. Mulwray wheels into the driveway with the car. In a quick getaway, Jake leaps onto the car.

First Jake is threatened, now Mrs. Mulwray. The pace of the story continues to escalate.

At the Mulwray mansion, all the servants have purposely been given "the night off" by Mrs. Mulwray. Thinking that he has asked "an innocent question" about how deserted the place is, she observes that his questions are never to be taken at face value.

Mrs. Mulwray,

No question from you is innocent, Mr. Gittes.

She mentions that his afternoon and evening have been fraught with danger, and wonders if this is typical of his whole life,

If this is how you go about your work, I'd say you'd be lucky
to, uh, get through a whole day.

Jake mentions his past police work in the alien, mysterious world of Chinatown for the district attorney. This exchange speaks to how Jake has tried to find his way in an immoral world. He tries to live up to his own moral code, particularly after what happened to him in Chinatown. So we're getting a stronger sense here of Jake's world and what shaped it.

Jake changes the subject, asking for some peroxide for his bruised nose. He removes his bandage in the bathroom, causing Mrs. Mulwray to exclaim,

God! It's a nasty cut. I had no idea.

While she dabs it with peroxide, he notices that she has a black speck in the green part of her eye. She confesses,

It's a, it's a fl-flaw in the iris...it's a sort of birthmark.

Their faces are so intimately close to each other that they kiss.

Their relationship has advanced from their initial conflict to this moment.

The next scene shows them naked in bed after making love, leisurely smoking cigarettes. Wanting to know more about his past, Mrs. Mulwray finds that he is reluctant to speak about his past in Chinatown - where "you can't always tell what's goin' on." But he reveals to her that he had tried to prevent something terrible from happening there to a woman he cared for, only to hasten the tragedy. This caused him to quit the police force.

Jake,

I was trying to keep someone from being hurt. I
ended up making sure that she was hurt.

Mrs. Mulwray,

Cherchez la femme? Was there a woman
involved?

Jake,

Of course.

Mrs. Mulwray,

Dead?

We're getting closer to the 'truth' about Jake's life and what drives him.

Before Jake can respond, the phone rings, and she answers it with worry and concern in her voice after being told something troubling. Anguished, she replies cryptically,

Look, don't do anything. Don't do anything till I get there.

After hanging up the phone, she insists on leaving immediately, withholding her destination and her reasons. This story is never static. It is always advancing, moving, offering new revelations, new questions. Again both Jake and the audience are left in the dark about the purpose of the phone call.

Mrs. Mulwray,

Just that I have to...It has nothing to do with you or with
any or all of this...Please, trust me this much! I'll be back.
(She kisses him.) There is, uh, there is something that I
should tell you about. The uh, the fishing club that old lady
mentioned, um. The pieces of the flag...

Jake mentions Noah Cross. Mrs. Mulwray (kneeling by his side),

I want you to listen to me. Now, my father
is a very dangerous man. You don't know how
dangerous. You don't know how crazy.

Jake,

Are you trying to tell me that he might be behind
all this?

Mrs. Mulwray,

It's possible.

She showers and then leaves. Although strictly told not to follow her, Jake disobeys her and trails after her. While hiding outdoors of the house she enters, he watches through a side window with a half-drawn curtain as she first talks to her Chinese butler. In another room he spies her late husband's visibly upset young blonde mistress lying down. Mrs. Mulwray administers drugs (sedatives, narcotics?) after they talk.

This answers one question, where is the girl? But it raises another, deeper question. How long has she been at this house? Why is Mrs. Mulwray hiding her? Again we have the process of an answer to a question setting up a deeper question that continues to draw the audience through the story.

Jake sits in Mrs. Mulwray's front car seat when she returns to the car. He assumes that the girl in the house is the missing girlfriend. Jake demands the truth.

Mrs. Mulwray,

Sh-she's my sister.

Jake,

Take it easy. So she's your sister - she's your
sister. But why all the secrecy?

Mrs. Mulwray,

I can't...(anguished)

Later, Jake leaves the car and she asks,

Aren't you going - coming back with me?

Jake assures her,

Don't worry. I'm not going to tell anybody about this.

She has again been misinterpreted,

That's not what I meant.

He bids her goodnight,

Yeah. Well, uh, I'm tired Mrs. Mulwray. Good night.

Jake is making an effort here to stay detached. That by staying detached he won't feel responsible for what's happening in her life. His decision will cost him dearly.

That night, Jake lies awake on his bed. He's clearly swept up in what is happening. He picks up the ringing phone. An anonymous caller summon him to Ida Sessions' house. Jake refuses to be pulled to leave his bed. At first he seems disinterested in the caller, which forces them to call back. This plays against the expectation that Jake would want information.

The next morning, Jake drives to the location and finds broken glass in the front door window. Inside, Ida's dead body is sprawled amidst spilled groceries. We now have another question, who killed her? And the deeper question, why did they want Jake on the scene earlier?

Ex-colleagues Escobar and Loach confront Jake with a flashlight beam from inside a darkened bathroom.

Find anything interesting, Gittes? What are you
doin' around here?

They suspect that Jake knows her or had something to do with her murder, because his phone number is written on her kitchen wall next to the phone. That suggests someone is trying to set up Jake, but who?

Jake is accused by Escobar of having worked for Ida Sessions. Jake defends Evelyn Mulwray's innocence after telling Escobar that he is "dumber" than he thinks. He explains how Hollis' body was deliberately moved to the reservoir to divert attention from the ocean.

What do you think? Evelyn Mulwray knocked off her
husband in the ocean, then dragged him up to a
reservoir 'cause she thought it would look more like an
accident. Mulwray was murdered and moved because
somebody didn't want his body found in the ocean...He
found out they were dumping water there. That's what
they were trying to cover up.

When Jake can't prove his point, he is given two hours to present himself and Mrs. Mulwray at Escobar's office.

Jake enters the Mulwray mansion, finding the maid covering furniture. In the garden patio area, the gardener repeats his frustration: "Salt water - very bad for glass." Jake suddenly realizes the water in the fishpond is salt water.

Racing to the house where the young girl is hidden, Jake finds Evelyn rushing to pack in order to catch a 5:30 p.m. train. Without explaining why, Jake phones and summons Escobar to their location, and then asks Evelyn,

You know any good criminal lawyers?

He is determined to force information from her about everything he believes she has been concealing. This acts out Jake's determination to discover the truth.

Jake spills out a murder theory: the glasses in the pond belonged to Evelyn's husband and the pond was where he was drowned.

I want to know how it happened, and I want to know why,
and I want to know before Escobar gets here because I
don't want to lose my license...I want to make it easy for
ya. You were jealous. You had a fight. He fell. He hit
his head. It was an accident but his girl was a witness.
So you had to shut her up. You don't have the
guts to harm her, but you got the money to keep her
mouth shut.

She finally tells the truth - the girl, Katherine, is the product of a union between her and her father. To discover this shameful fact, Jake has to slap her again and again - until he realizes that she isn't making a fool out of him.

Jake,

Who is she? And don't give me that crap about your sister, because you don't have a sister.

Mrs. Mulwray,

I'll tell you, I'll tell you the truth.

Jake,

Good. What's her name?

Mrs. Mulwray,

Katherine.

Jake,

Katherine who?

Mrs. Mulwray,

She's my daughter.

Jake (slapping her),

I said I want the truth.

Mrs. Mulwray,

She's my sister. (Slap again.) She's my
daughter. (Slap.) My sister, my daughter.

Jake,

I said I want the truth.

Mrs. Mulwray,

...she's my sister and my daughter!...My
father and I, understand? Or is it too tough for you?

Her revelation has nothing to do with the water department, the land swindle, the building of the new reservoir, corrupt money, or Jake being setup. Mrs. Mulwray had incestuous relations with her father, Noah Cross. Hollis Mulwray's "mistress" is the offspring of their liaison. The struggle over the girl has led Cross to murder Hollis Mulwray. He and Evelyn were trying to protect the girl from her incestuous father.

With Jake, we now have the core 'truth' of this story. But it sets up the immediate question, will Jake be able to help them escape? Can he not help them?

Jake decides to help Evelyn and her daughter avoid Escobar's men, suggesting that she avoid both the railway station and the airport. This speaks to the sense of morality that drives Jake. Unlike the night before, he's committed now.

He sends Mrs. Mulwray off to her Chinese butler's home in Chinatown. And as a footnote to everything, Evelyn casually observes that the spectacles aren't Hollis'.

These didn't belong to Hollis. He didn't wear bifocals.

Which raises the question, who did they belong to?

Katherine is brought down the stairs to meet Jake. Jake tells Mrs. Mulwray that he knows where they are going in Chinatown. He then calls colleagues Duffy and Walsh to meet him at the Chinatown address in two hours if they haven't heard from him.

The story is now going to the destination foreshadowed by its title. But now the word Chinatown has taken on a specific meaning to this story and its dramatic issues of morality.

After Escobar arrives, Jake is able to elude him and his men by leading them to Curly's home and then driving away with Curly in his truck. In exchange for his previous services, he wants Curly to provide safe passage that night for Evelyn and Katherine by smuggling them from Los Angeles to Ensenada. Curly wonders whether this is the right thing to do. This is an important exchange. Because the issue at the heart of this story is morality in a corrupt world, Curly is not just a plot device. His dialogue places him in the context of the world of the story.

Jake calls Cross and arranges a meeting at the Mulwray mansion - the scene of the crime - baiting him.

Have you got your checkbook handy, Mr. Cross?
I've got the girl.

In their showdown, Cross is eager to get his hands on the girl. Jake first wants to pursue his questioning about the phony valley land investors by showing him his evidence - the obituary column. Jake also shows the spectacles as evidence of Cross' murder of Mulwray. Cross, however, explains how the new dam will be constructed to irrigate land in the valley, causing LA to become one vast metropolitan area, benefiting those who own land in the valley.

Jake asks,

Why are you doing it? How much better can you
eat? What can you buy that you can't already afford?

Jake is struggling to understand Cross' moral code.

Cross,

The future, Mr. Gits - the future! Now where's
the girl. I want the only daughter I've got left. As
you found out, Evelyn was lost to me a long time ago.

Jake,

Who do you blame for that? Her?

Cross,

I don't blame myself. You see, Mr. Gits. Most
people never have to face the fact that at the right
time, the right place, they're capable of anything.

This speaks to the story's deeper issue of how we chose to live to a moral code. Noah Cross lives to one that justifies his actions, including raping his daughter and wanting to abuse her/his daughter.

At the urging of Cross to take them to the girl - with Mulvihill's gun pointed at his head - Jake reluctantly leads them to Chinatown.

In the startling and despairing ending scene, all the characters converge, including the unsuspecting police. Escobar's partner Loach immediately handcuffs Jake. At first relieved to be arrested, he then protests that Cross, Evelyn's incestuous father, is,

...the bird you're after...He's crazy, Lou. He killed
Mulwray because of the water thing...Lou, you don't
know what's going on here, I'm tellin' ya."

Escobar, though, has gotten to his position in life by doing what is wanted, not always what is right. He is a contrast to Jake. It's clearer now how Escobar survived in Chinatown.

Cross, who has finally caught up with his two daughters, identifies himself to the girl as her grandfather. Evelyn pushes him and attempts to get him away from the girl. He pleads with her to have the young girl.

Cross,

Evelyn, pleeease pleeease be reasonable...How
many years have I got? She's mine too?

Mrs. Mulwray,

She's never going to know that.

With that, Mrs. Mulwray pulls out a small pistol. Cross tries to reason with her and accuses her of being neurotic,

Evelyn, you're a disturbed woman, you
cannot hope to provide... You'll have to kill me first.

She shoots, and wounds her father in the arm, and then attempts to escape by car with Katherine.

Escobar fires his pistol into the air as a warning, and then both he and Loach take four shots at the escaping car. Suddenly the car slows to a stop, horn blaring.

Katherine screams as the awful, horrible scene is revealed. Slumped over the wheel of her car is Mrs. Mulwray, shot through the head from behind. Her face is horribly blown apart. Cross, lamenting "Lord, Oh Lord," shields and cover the eyes of an hysterical Katherine and takes her away. Escobar has the cuffs removed from Jake.

Jake is stunned and numb but mumbles what he told Mrs. Mulwray he used to do in Chinatown and has again succeeded in doing: "as little as possible." The devastated Jake is ordered by Escobar to get the hell out of there.

What's that? What's that? You want to do your partner a
big favor, you take him home. Take him home! Just get
him the hell out of here. Go home, Jake. (Whispering)
I'm doing you a favor.

Walsh also tells him to lay the inexplicable blame on the foreign area, in a haunting closing line.

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown!

Sirens sound and Escobar clears spectators gathering on the street.

Alright. Come on, clear the area. On the sidewalk. On
the sidewalk, get off the street.

Jake walks away.

Chinatown is a great film that should be viewed twice just to begin to comprehend its careful, precise, full-bodied construction. Because every detail operates around moving the story toward the resolution of its plot -- the murder of Hollis -- and the fulfillment of its story -- the issue of living to a moral code -- the story creates a vivid, complex world. That every detail of the film serves a dramatic purpose speaks to how a story can be constructed to be more 'true' than life.

A story built around details that communicate no clear sense of purpose struggles to fully engage the attention of its audience. This isn't to suggest that every film be an art-house film. In its way, a Jackie Chan film communicates a sense of being true to its purpose and fulfilling that purpose in an enjoyable way. But what becomes clear when viewing and reviewing a film like Chinatown is the great care that went into its construction; that every detail have a clearly defined, detailed purpose. That the storytellers here understood where they were going and the effects they wanted to create in each moment of the film combined with an understanding of the different levels across which the story was advancing, both the seen and unseen. And how those different elements intermeshed as they advanced. While appearing effortless in its smooth, precise movement, a deeper look at the film begins to reveal its many levels.

One level of Chinatown is created around its vivid and complex characters. There is an underlying storytelling process that can be perceived in their dramatic design. For example, to understand that one wants to create a mystery around an issue like morality suggests a need for a character like Jake who will pursue the truth because of his moral code. In such a story one potentially needs characters who are amoral but might appear moral (Noah Cross). Or a character like Mrs. Mulwray who appears tough and amoral but in reality is fragile and struggling to find a sense of morality in a life shattered by an amoral character. Or a character like Escobar, who unlike Jake didn't find his moral code offended by what he needed to do in Chinatown. Or even a minor character like Curly who appears to find it moral to beat up his wife but wonders whether he should help Jake get Mrs. Mulwray and her daughter to safety.

These characters are designed and set loose in a world that forces them to react and act, and by their actions to reveal the kind of people they are while their actions advance the story. The events of the story are designed specifically to compel them to react to issues of morality. This is not to suggest there is a simple formula for creating dynamic characters, just that there is an understandable logic at work in their creation.

Another aspect to this film's effect is that the audience is always offered a sense of where they are in relationship to the story/plot question at hand. For example, where they are in relationship to Jake finding out whether Hollis is having an affair. Finding out what appears to be the reason for his murder (the water scandal). Finding out the real reason for his murder. Being caught up in the drama of whether Jake can save Mrs. Mulwray and her daughter. The audience is drawn in to understand and track each stage of this story.

At each stage of this story, the audience is also offered fresh revelations and new information. Because this story never offers the same information, it claims the attention of its audience. In a weakly written story, a young boy could be turned into an old woman into a middle-aged man into a ghost into a dragon into a flying pig without changing the course or outcome of the story. Here, everything has a purpose, creates an effect, offers something new to the audience. No two moments are alike. No moment can be deleted without in some way altering, changing the overall effect of the story.

This isn't to suggest that a storyteller begins a story like Chinatown knowing every detail of its construction. But understanding the process of how a story like Chinatown is constructed can help free the imagination of a writer to write that which is complex and interesting, and not that which merely functions to let a story's plot avoid internal collapse from inertia or bad design. The writer with no understanding of the craft that underlies the creation of a story like Chinatown -- whether intuitive, learned, unconscious, or imitative -- more likely would struggle to assemble the details that collectively tell their story with passion and precision. To the degree the details of their story don't ring 'true' by speaking in some way to the story's dramatic purpose, they do not create the fundamental effect of a story, moving an audience around some issue/dramatic design moving to the audience.

A story that generates a clear sense of dramatic purpose and an anticipation of an outcome can survive some details that are merely descriptive, as long as they don't stall the advance of the story. Chinatown is a great example of what can be achieved when every stroke of a story operates to create and set out a vivid, dynamic purpose, and then to masterfully fulfill that purpose.

A great film. A joy to watch.

©2000-2023 Bill Johnson