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Chinatown

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.

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

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Year:: 1974
: 35,855 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:(3.83 / 6 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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