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Synopsis: When Los Angeles private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by Evelyn Mulwray to investigate her husband's activities, he believes it's a routine infidelity case. Jake's investigation soon becomes anything but routine when he meets the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) and realizes he was hired by an imposter. Mr. Mulwray's sudden death sets Gittes on a tangled trail of corruption, deceit and sinister family secrets as Evelyn's father (John Huston) becomes a suspect in the case.
Year:
1974
862,083 Views


FADE IN:

FULL SCREEN PHOTOGRAPH

Grainy but unmistakably a man and woman making love.

Photograph shakes. SOUND of a man MOANING in anguish. The

photograph is dropped, REVEALING ANOTHER, MORE compromising

one. Then another, and another. More moans.

CURLY'S VOICE

(crying out)

Oh, no.

INT. GITTES' OFFICE

CURLY drops the photos on Gittes' desk. Curly towers over

GITTES and sweats heavily through his workman's clothes, his

breathing progressively more labored. A drop plunks on Gittes'

shiny desk top.

Gittes notes it. A fan whiffs overhead. Gittes glances up at

it. He looks cool and brisk in a white linen suit despite

the heat. Never taking his eyes off Curly, he lights a

cigarette using a lighter with a "nail" on his desk.

Curly, with another anguished sob, turns and rams his fist

into the wall, kicking the wastebasket as he does. He starts

to sob again, slides along the wall where his fist has left

a noticeable dent and its impact has sent the signed photos

of several movie stars askew.

Curly slides on into the blinds and sinks to his knees. He

is weeping heavily now, and is in such pain that he actually

bites into the blinds.

Gittes doesn't move from his chair.

GITTES:

All right, enough is enough -you

can't eat the Venetian blinds,

Curly. I just had 'em installed on

Wednesday.

Curly responds slowly, rising to his feet, crying. Gittes

reaches into his desk and pulls out a shot glass, quickly

selects a cheaper bottle of bourbon from several fifths of

more expensive whiskeys.

Rate this script:3.3 / 9 votes

Robert Towne

Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz; November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. His most notable work was his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest movie screenplays ever written. He also wrote its sequel The Two Jakes in 1990, and wrote the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973), and Shampoo (1975), as well as the first two Mission Impossible films (1996, 2000). more…

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