Chinatown EXPLAINED | Screenplay & Film Analysis
Robert Towne’s screenplay for Chinatown won an Oscar for best Original Screenplay. The script is considered by many to be the best ever written.
Welcome to How Stories Work with Jay Sherer! In this article (or the video below), I’ll go over the Chinatown script in detail to explain exactly what happens in 1974’s classic film: Chinatown.
VIDEO VERSION:
Now, spoiler warning… If you haven’t seen Chinatown, I’ll be spoiling the entire movie as I walk through the script.
ACT 1: THE SETUP
Act 1 of Chinatown’s screenplay starts in Jake Gitte’s office:
We see a close up of a series of black and white photos: various shots of a man making love to a woman in a park.
Next, we meet Jake Gittes — a private investigator — and his client, Curly. Curly’s upset. He was right: his wife is cheating on him. She’s the one in the photos.
Jake consoles Curly, but then Curly suggests he might kill his wife for cheating on him. He says it’s an unwritten law that killing your spouse if she cheats is okay.
Jake responds:
“I’ll tell you the unwritten law, you dumb son of a bitch, you gotta be rich to kill somebody — anybody — and get away with it.”
Jake’s line of dialogue appears on page three of the script. Pay special attention to what Jake said, because it’s essential to understanding the premise of Chinatown.
Well, it turns out, Curly doesn’t even have enough money to pay Jake for the photos. Jake ushers Curly out of his office and gets introduced to a brand new client: Mrs. Mulwray.
Mrs. Mulwray wants to hire Gittes. She believes her husband is cheating on her. His name is Hollis Mulwray, and he’s the Chief Engineer for the Department of Water and Power for Los Angeles, California. Gittes realizes the Mulwrays are wealthy and accepts the case.
In the next scene, we head to City Hall. Gittes is sitting in on a hearing on water use in Los Angeles. The former mayor — Sam Bagby — proposes a new Alto Vallejo dam and reservoir be built. LA needs more water, and the reservoir would help.
The City Council asks for Hollis Mulwray to respond to the proposal. Hollis gets up and simply states that the dam is poorly designed, and if built, the dam will burst. He doesn’t like the idea at all.
The farmers gathered in the courtroom get upset. Their farms need more water. They believe Mulwray isn’t doing enough to help. They even indicate that Mulwray may be restricting water access to their farms, all of which are located north of LA. They’re essentially accusing Mulwray of preventing their farms from getting water.
After the trial, Jake Gittes follows Mulwray to the LA River. He spies on Hollis Mulwray, who’s examining the LA riverbed. In the dry riverbed, Mulwray sees a young boy on a horse and asks him something about the riverbed, but we can’t hear it. Neither can Jake.
Mulwray leaves the riverbed, goes to his car, and pulls a set of blueprints out. He inspects the blueprints briefly, and then leaves.
Gittes tails Mulwray to Point Fermin Park. It’s getting dark. Gittes has been following Mulwray all day. Mulwray heads down to the beach alongside the Pacific Ocean. Gittes watches from an outcropping above, but sits too close to a drain pipe. That pipe starts spewing water and Jake has to scramble to avoid it.
Gittes leaves Mulwray and goes back to his car. He notices all the cars — including his won — have flyers on them that ask voters to vote on a ballot to increase water storage in LA. The flyers have been distributed by the former mayor, Sam Bagby.
Gittes takes a watch out of his glove compartment and places it under one of Mulwray’s tires.
Back at Gittes Office, Jake is working things out with one of his associates, Walsh. They’ve captured two pieces of information:
- The watch was broken — smashed by Mulwray’s tires — at 2:47 in the morning. In other words, Hollis was at the beach for a long time.
- Walsh took photos of Mulwray arguing with another man, but we don’t know who. While he was taking those photos, Walsh overheard them talking about what he heard as “apple core.”
Jake’s other employee, Duffy, calls in to the office. He’s spotted Hollis Mulwray at Echo Park with a young woman. Gittes and Walsh jump up. This could be a break in the case.
They arrive at Echo Park to find Mulwray in a boat with the young woman. They’re paddling around the lake.
Gittes and Duffy get their own boat and they’re subtly taking photos of Mulwray and the young woman.
Later, Gittes and Duffy follow Mulwray and the girl to the El Macando apartment complex. Gittes takes pictures of the two eating lunch.
The following day, Gittes is at a barber shop. He’s feeling pretty good. He thinks he’s already cracked the case. The screenplay notes that he’a reading a newspaper headline that reads: “Department of Water and Power Blows Fuse Over Chief’s Use of Funds for El Macando Love Nest.” Gittes name is credited for the photos used in the article. Some of the other barbershop customers are discussing the drought, water rationing, and the heat wave. But one other customer comments on Gittes’ job. He thinks what Jake does is sleazy. That pisses Jake off and they almost get in a fight, but the barber calms Jake back down.
As Jake’s cooling off, he does reflect on it being odd that the newspapers got a hold of his photos so quickly.
Back in Jake’s office, Jake tries to tell an off-color joke to his employees. What he doesn’t realize is that behind him there’s an attractive woman. Walsh and Duffy try to tell him, but he ignores them.
After he tells the joke, the woman interjects: It turns out that she’s the real Evelyn Mulwray. She never hired Gittes to follow her husband. Someone else posed as her. Gittes is confused. The real Evelyn threatens to sue Gittes for giving the photos to the paper. She and her lawyer leave.
Gittes and his employees sulk, wondering how they were duped by the fake Mrs. Mulwray. Gittes calls the newspaper to see where they got the photos they used in the story about Hollis Mulwray’s affair. They tell Gittes they were sent in by… him! He’s incredulous. He didn’t send the photos to the paper.
Gittes goes to the Department of Water and Power, to Hollis Mulwray’s office. Hollis isn’t around. Jake smooth talks his way into waiting in Mulwray’s office. While he’s in there, he searches it and finds the blueprints that Mulwray was looking at in the riverbed. They’re labeled: “Watershed and Drainage System for the Los Angeles Basin.”
Jake also sees where Hollis has made notes on the blueprints. Gittes puts the blueprints back just as another D.W.P. manager, a man named Yelburton, enters. He asks Gittes to step into his office. Gittes does.
In Yelburton’s office, Jake notices a plaque with the initials “A.C.” on it. They have an awkward conversation, but it goes nowhere. Jakes takes some of Yelburton’s business cards and leaves. As he’s exiting he runs into Mulvihill, who he knows. Jake makes some snarky comments that indicate he and Mulvihill have a past. Mulvihill threatens Jake. Gittes asks why Mulvihill is there and Yelburton says they’ve hired him.
Gittes goes to the Mulwray House. A butler answers and Jake hands the butler a card and says he wants to see Hollis Mulwray. As he’s waiting, he notices that the Mulwray’s chauffeur is washing the car — odd, since LA is in a drought.
One of the important things to note in the Chinatown screenplay is all the minor details. The chauffeur washing the car actually says something about the Mulwrays. As the rest of LA talks about the drought, the Chief Engineer of D.W.P. has a chauffeur who’s washing his car. It’s little details like this that make this script so good.
The butler escorts Jake into the backyard. Gittes notices that the pond in the backyard is starting to overflow with water. He looks closer and sees something gleaming in the bottom of the pond.
The gardener, an Asian man, says: “Bad for glass.” Gittes doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but smiles as if he does. That’s when Evelyn Mulwray appears.
Gittes tells Evelyn he was set up, and that he’s not happy about it. He’d like to get to the bottom of it. Evelyn tells him she’ll drop her lawsuit. She also notes that Hollis thinks Gittes is innocent. Gittes tells her that he thinks someone’s out to get Hollis and asks where he can find Hollis. Evelyn tells him that Hollis often takes his lunch at one of the reservoirs.
Gittes heads to the one of the reservoirs. When he gets there, fire trucks and police cars are already there. They bar him from entering, but he uses Yelburton’s business card to convince them to let him through. That’s when the local detectives, Loach and Escobar spot Gittes. They both know Gittes. They all used to work together, in Chinatown, but Escobar and Loach are now higher up. They got out of Chinatown.
That’s when Gittes realizes why the detectives are there: they just found Hollis Mulwray in the reservoir. He’s dead.
PLOT POINT 1:
Hollis Mulwray’s death is Plot Point 1, which occurs around pg. 30 in the screenplay. Plot Point 1 changes the direction of the story. Until this point, Gittes has been suspicious of Mulwray. But Hollis Mulwray’s death changes everything. Now, Gittes isn’t just involved in trickery, he’s involved in a deeper ring of deceit. At the end of Act 1, we’re left with the following questions:
- Who was the fake Evelyn Mulwray and why did she want to take Hollis Mulwray down?
- Who’s setting up Jake and his office?
- What exactly is going on with the drought in Los Angeles?
- How did Hollis Mulwray die?
- And, since Mulwray is dead, what does that mean for Jake?
ACT 2, PART 1: THE CONFLICT
ACT 2 begins with everybody meeting at the L.A. Coroner’s Office. Evelyn identifies the body of Hollis Mulwray and tells the detectives that she’s surprised Hollis drowned because he knew how to swim. Escobar surmises that Mulwray must have fallen and was knocked out cold before hitting the water. He asks Evelyn about the young woman Hollis was having an affair with, but she denies any knowledge of it. Evelyn leaves and Gittes walks her to her car.
At Evelyn’s car, Evelyn thanks Gittes for going along with her when she avoided Escobar’s questions. She tells Jake that she’ll send him a check. She’s hiring him.
Back in the Coroner’s Office, Escobar tells Gittes he’s going to rule Hollis’ death as an accident. Gittes pushes back, but Escobar ignores it. Gittes goes into the morgue to see the body, which is banged up pretty bad. Gittes sees a second body and asks the coroner about it.
The coroner tells him it’s a local drunk who’d been living in a storm drain. It turns out the drunk drowned as well, in the LA riverbed. Gittes is incredulous. He was just in the LA River. The riverbed is bone dry. But the coroner insists that’s what happened.
Gittes visits the L.A. River again. He goes to the spot where the drunk drowned. All the drunk’s stuff has been washed down the riverbed a little. Gittes investigates and runs into the kid on horseback that Hollis Mulwray was chatting with a few days back.
He asks the kid what Mulwray asked him. The kid tells Gittes that Hollis was asking about the water that comes into the riverbed. Storm drains throughout the river pour water into the riverbed every night. Each night it comes from a different storm drain.
Gittes gets in his car and follows the riverbed up into the Hollywood Hills. At the top, he gets out of his car and starts to look around. He sees a couple of guys who take a shot at him. He hides and they leave. Once they’re gone, Gittes climbs into the flood control channel to poke around. Suddenly, a deluge of water comes flowing out, knocking him down and almost drowning him. He manages to get out and walks to his car. He’s soaking wet.
Two goons, Mulvihill — who was in Yelburton’s office — and another guy, confront him. They tell him to stop snooping around. The smaller guy even sticks a knife up Jake’s nose and cuts him. Gittes bleeds all over his shoes.
Back in Gitte’s Office, Jake’s nose is bandaged up, and he’s pretty pissed. He wants to go after whoever’s behind the city’s water problems. They’re messing with him, and he doesn’t like it. Duffy and Walsh push back, but he says he’ll sue whoever’s responsible. They’re doubtful.
Gittes gets a call from Ida Sessions. She tells him she was hired to pretend to be Mrs. Mulwray. Ida won’t tell Gittes who hired her, but she does tell him to look in the obituary column of the newspaper.
Gittes heads to the Brown Derby. He’s reading a newspaper and tears out the obituary column to take with him. On the front page of the paper, it declares that the “water bond issue passes council.” That means ten million dollars will go to fund the building of the dam.
Evelyn Mulwray arrives. Gittes shows her the envelope he got from her. It’s the payment she sent to hire him. On the envelope, the initials “ECM” can be seen. Gittes presses Evelyn for more information. He wants an explanation of what’s going on. Evelyn tells him she was cheating on Hollis and indicates that she’s not sad he’s dead. It’s enough of an explanation to make Gittes stop pressing her, but he does ask her what the “C” stands for in her initials. She replies: “Cross.” Cross is her maiden name.
Suddenly, a woman comes up to the table to confront Gittes. She’s either a former customer or someone who he caught cheating. Either way, she’s very upset with him.
Gittes and Evelyn leave, quickly. Out in the Brown Derby parking lot Gittes gives Evelyn the facts:
- Hollis was murdered…
- A drunk drowned in the LA River…
- Somebody is dumping water while LA is in a drought, and everybody’s trying to cover it up…
Gittes heads to D.W.P. to see Yelburton. In Yelburton’s lobby, he sees a photo on the wall of D.W.P. in the early days. He notices a man he saw in the photos Walsh took earlier — the photos of the man with a cane arguing with Hollis. His name is Julian Cross.
NOTE: In the film, Julian Cross’ first name was changed to Noah.
Gittes looks at the envelope Evelyn sent him. He notes the ECM. Evelyn said her maiden name was Cross.
Gittes looks over more photos. Julian Cross and Hollis Mulwray are often seen together. They were good friends.
Jake asks the secretary about Cross and Mulwray. She tells him that Cross and Mulwray used to own the Department of Water and Power. They used to own all the water in Los Angeles. They were business partners.
Gittes goes in to meet with Yelburton and accuses Yelburton of:
- …hiring Ida Sessions
- …dumping water
- …and murdering Mulwray because he discovered the water dumping and didn’t want to build the new dam
Yelburton denies it all and Jake threatens to go to the press. Yelburton tells Gittes that they’re just re-routing some water to farmers north of LA, but they don’t want it to be made public, especially because of the drought. Gittes tells Yelburton he doesn’t want to nail him, but will if he’s up to no good, and gives him a business card. The implication is that Yelburton should help Jake or he’ll go down with everyone else.
Gittes goes back to his office. Evelyn is there. She asks Jake why people would be involved in this conspiracy theory. Gittes answers:
“Money. How they plan to make it by emptying reservoirs I don’t know.”
Evelyn agrees to pay Gittes $5,000 if he’ll find out who killed Mulwray. Gittes asks Evelyn:
“Did you get married before or after Mulwray and your father sold the water department?”
Evelyn admits that Julian Cross is her father and she married her father’s business partner. She also admits that Hollis and Cross had a falling out. She says it wasn’t over her. Hollis wanted the public to own the water department. Hollis also held Cross responsible for a dam that broke years earlier. It killed people. Hollis only built it because Cross wanted to.
The next scene in the screenplay isn’t in the final film. Gittes gets on a seaplane and sits next to the pilot, who he strikes up a conversation with. In that conversation we learn that:
- Jake’s on his way to visit Julian Cross.
- Julian Cross’ daughter — Evelyn — ran away from home at sixteen or seventeen years old and fled to Mexico. The rumor was she did it because she got pregnant.
MIDPOINT:
For me, the reveal that Evelyn ran away from home — and was likely pregnant — is the Midpoint of the script. It’s on page 60. It’s interesting that this scene doesn’t appear in the film because it sets up the second half in a way that has to deal with Evelyn’s secrets and what she’s hiding from Gittes. Up to this point, Gittes has assumed that Evelyn’s not a part of the conspiracy, but now there’s too much evidence suggesting that she’s hiding a lot of information from him.
At the Midpoint, we know:
- Jake was set up to be a fall guy reporting on Hollis Mulwray’s affair…
- Evelyn is Julian Cross’ daughter…
- Hollis and Julian were business partners…
- Evelyn ran away from home to Mexico and was likely pregnant at age sixteen or seventeen…
- Hollis Mulwray had an argument with Cross about something before he died…
- Hollis Mulwray most likely didn’t drown, he was murdered…
- The D.W.P. is dumping water during a drought, and they’re likely doing it to profit in some way…
But, in addition to all this information, we have some new questions as well:
- Who is Julian Cross and what is he up to?
- What’s Evelyn hiding about her past?
- Is Evelyn wrapped up in this fraud? And how is she connected to Hollis Mulwray’s murder?
ACT 2, PART 2: THE CONFLICT
The seaplane lands at an island off California, specifically at a place called the Albacore Club. Gittes takes a station wagon out to visit Cross’s home. Jake meets with Cross (though most of this sequence was cut from the final film).
Gittes and Cross have a conversation about horseshit. Cross says it’s what he’s had to deal with his whole life. But he seems to like overcoming the problems he’s presented with. Jake and Julian then have breakfast together. Cross knows Gittes has been hired by his daughter. Gittes tells Cross he thinks Hollis Mulwray was murdered. That doesn’t seem to phase Cross.
Julian asks about the police investigation. Gittes tells Cross that it’s being led by Escobar, a man he used to work with in Chinatown. Julian asks Gittes if he’s sleeping with his daughter. Gittes, surprised, ducks the question.
Julian goes on to tell Gittes that Evelyn’s a disturbed woman. He says:
“You may think you know what you’re dealing with, but believe me, you don’t.”
Gittes smirks and says that’s what the DA in Chinatown used to tell him. Julian offers to pay Gittes double what Evelyn’s paying him if he’ll help Julian find Hollis’ girlfriend — the girl he was with at Echo Park. Gittes entertains that, and then asks Cross when he last saw Mulwray. Cross tries to play that question off, but Gittes already knows he was arguing with Cross five days earlier. He’s got the photos — the photos Walsh took. Cross doesn’t like that, but doesn’t react too strongly. That ends their conversation, though.
Jake heads to the Hall of Records. He looks into land ownership north of Los Angles. We know the farmer’s up there are upset with L.A. because there’s not enough water for them to farm their crops. Shockingly, all the land ownership records show that almost all the plots north of L.A. have brand new owners, and they all bought the land within the last few weeks. Gittes tears the names of the land owners out of the records book and pockets it.
Gittes then heads up to the farms north of LA. He drives by an old, dried up plot of land that doesn’t look like it’s been a farm in awhile. (In the film, Jake drives by empty plots, but it goes by very quickly. There’s not as much detail.) He checks the parcel ownership by looking at the list of names. There’s a “SOLD” sign on the property, indicating it was sold recently.
He drives by a dusty intersection (This was also cut from the final film). There’s a “SOLD” sign on this property, too, and there’s no farming being done. Gittes pulls up on a guy using an odd machine. He asks some local kids what the man’s doing. They tell him he’s got a machine that’ll make it rain. Gittes looks at the dry field and doubts it’ll work. He talks to the rainmaker, who confirms that a lot of folks have sold their land. There’s not enough water to sustain the farms.
Gittes drives farther north until he finds a lush area that’s not dry like the others. It says “No Trespassing” all over the place. Gittes pulls his car into the grove of lush trees and looks around.
Suddenly, somebody shoots at him with a shotgun. It’s a man on horseback, and the guy’s headed right at him. Gittes drives farther into the orchard, but gets pinned down.
Two more men show up. The three of them start to beat Gittes up. They ask Gittes if he’s with D.W.P. or the real estate office. Jake tells them the truth: he’s investigating what’s going on.
The farmer tells him that D.W.P. keeps sending goons up to his farm to blow up his water tanks and poison his wells. They’re trying to ruin his farm and put him out of business, like the other farms in the area. The farmer blames Mulwray for his problems, but Gittes tells him Mulwray’s dead and doesn’t know anything about what’s going on. Gittes response is rude enough that the farmer’s security guy knocks him out.
Gittes gains consciousness on the farmer’s porch. (Another scene cut from the final film). Evelyn is there to pick him up. The farmer apologizes to Gittes and tells him that somebody’s buying up land for cheap, ruining the farms and cutting off their water, which makes the farmland worth nothing.
Gittes and Evelyn drive home together. Gittes tells Evelyn that the dam they intend to build up in north L.A. is a con job. The dam will be paid for by LA’s residents, but the water won’t go to L.A., it’ll go to the land north of L.A. Somebody’s withholding the water from the farms, now, but as soon as the land gets bought up, the reservoir will offer plenty of water to the new land owners. Gittes surmises that’s why Hollis was killed. He knew the dam was a con. The people buying up property are gonna make a lot of money.
Suddenly, Gittes realizes something. He pulls the obituary column out and looks over the names. They match the names of those who purchased the farm properties. All the names are residents of the Mar Vista Inn and Rest Home.
Gittes and Evelyn drive straight to the Mar Vista Inn and Rest home. They talk their way into the place, pretending to be potential customers. Gittes starts to poke around and realizes that all the senior citizens inside are the people who are buying up the land.
Jake strikes up a conversation with one of the old ladies from the property ownership list. He notices she’s working on a quilt that has the initials “AC” on it. He asks her about it. She says:
“It means ‘apple core’ club.”
“Apple core?”
She corrects him:
“Albacore Club.”
That’s the name of the club Julian Cross owns.
The director of the retirement home shows up. He’s pissed. He escorts Gittes and Evelyn out. Mulvihill is waiting for them outside. He threatens Gittes. Gittes and Mulvihill start fighting, but Gittes overcomes him.
Evelyn and Gittes run to their car and escape before Mulvihill and the other goons can capture them.
Back at the Mulwray home, Gittes and Evelyn start to get more romantic. Evelyn asks him if he’s ever been involved with something so troubling in the past.
“Not since Chinatown.”
…Jake says. He says the DA asked the police in Chinatown to do very little.
Evelyn asks him why he doesn’t like talking about Chinatown. He responds:
“You can’t tell what’s going on there. You think you’re helping someone, except you end up hurting him.”
Evelyn asks him if there’s anything that could be done about it. His response:
“Yeah, stay out of Chinatown.”
Gittes and Evelyn then make love.
The next morning, the phone rings and wakes them up. Evelyn says she has to go. Gittes asks her where and she says it doesn’t matter. Evelyn tells Gittes that her father owns the Albacore Club. But he already knows that. He tells her he visited her father. She grills him on what he said to her. He tells her Cross was concerned about Mulwray’s girlfriend.
She tells Gittes her father is a dangerous man, then says:
“You may think you know what’s going on, but you don’t.”
(NOTE: That almost sounds like what Jake complained about with Chinatown.)
Gittes responds:
“You’re telling me that your father’s behind all this?”
She says:
“Possibly.”
Gittes follows Evelyn to a house and spies on her. Inside the house, he can see her butler, and then sees… Hollis’ girlfriend!
When Evelyn walks out of the house, Gittes confronts her. He tells her to drive herself to the police or he’ll drive her. She’s incredulous. Why would she do that? He says:
“You’ve got Hollis’ girlfriend tied up in there!
“She’s my sister.”
Gittes is confused.
Evelyn tells Gittes she loved Hollis even more than her family. Gittes, confused, leaves. He goes home and gets a call. The caller tells him Ida Sessions — the woman who pretended to be Evelyn Mulwray — wants to meet him.
Gittes goes to the address the caller gave him. He enters the home and finds Ida Sessions dead. Escobar’s there. Loach is the one who called Gittes to get him to come to Ida’s home. Escobar grills Gittes about the case, but Gittes gives him nothing.
During the exchange, Escobar reveals that he believes Mulwray was murdered after all. Why? Becaues Hollis had salt water in his lungs, and the reservoir was fresh water.
Gittes guesses:
“Mulwray was murdered and moved because somebody didn’t want his body found in the ocean. He found somebody was dumping water there.”
Escobar’s intrigued, so Gittes tells them he’ll show them. In a scene that was cut from the film, they drive to the storm drain. Nothing’s happening. Gittes tells them they only dump water at nighttime.
The cops call Yelburton. He tells them that Gittes is spreading false rumors. Escobar, now pissed, tells Gittes he’d better start helping or they get him for withholding evidence. The detectives are starting to think Evelyn murdered Hollis. They don’t believe Gittes.
Gittes heads to the Mulwray home to warn Evelyn. She’s not there, but he notices her bags are packed. He goes outside and sees the gardner working on the pond.
He mimics what the gardener said to him last time:
“Bad for glass,”
…even though he still has no idea what that means.
The gardener smiles, points to the grass and says:
“Salt water very bad for grass.”
This blows Gittes mind. The pond in Hollis Mulwray’s yard is salt water. He looks deeper into the water and notices something gleaming in the pond. The gardener fishes the object out of the pond. It’s a pair of glasses.
Gittes calls Cross on the phone. Jake tells Cross to bring his checkbook to the Mulwray house. He’s broken the case and wants to get paid. Cross tells him he’ll be there in two hours.
Jake finishes the conversation with something Cross will like:
“I’ve found the girl.”
(Meaning Hollis’ girlfriend.)
PLOT POINT 2:
For my money, Gittes telling Cross to meet him at Mulwray’s house is Plot Point 2. Why? Because it forces resolution to the story. Jake finds the glasses in the pond, realizes the pond is saltwater, and then calls Cross. This scene forces Gittes to:
- Confront Evelyn (which may be the scene others might call Plot Point 2)
- It also means Jake will need to reveal what he knows to Escobar so he won’t arrest Gittes.
- And finally, it means that Cross will now play a much bigger role in the ending.
And that brings us to:
ACT 3: THE RESOLUTION
Gittes heads to the home where Evelyn is keeping Hollis’ girlfriend. Jake confronts Evelyn and tells her she’s going to jail. Then, he calls Escobar and tells him to come to the home.
Evelyn is confused. Gittes shows her the glasses he found in her pond and says:
“They belonged to your husband, didn’t they?”
Jake firmly believes Evelyn murdered her husband by drowning him in their pond. He starts to guess at what happened, getting more aggressive with her, when she stops him and says:
“I’ll tell you the truth. Her name is Kathernine. She’s my daughter.”
Gittes slaps her:
“I said the truth!”
“She’s my sister.”
Another slap.
“She’s my daughter.”
Another slap.
Evelyn finally comes out with it:
“She’s my sister and my daughter!”
She tells him that her father had a nervous breakdown after the old dam they built broke. Her mother died around the same time. Her father became lost in that grief. That led to incest. When she knew she was pregnant, she ran to Mexico.
Gittes is shocked.
Evelyn talks about how Hollis helped both her and her daughter. Evelyn says:
“I just don’t want her to know.”
Jake changes his tune. He tells her to run to Mexico. But then Evelyn indicates the glasses he showed her:
“Those didn’t belong to him,”
Meaning, the glasses didn’t belong to Hollis’.
Gittes tells Evelyn to take Katherine to their butler’s house, and then head to Mexico as soon as possible. Gittes asks where her butler lives and she gives him an address. She asks him if he knows where that address is. Jake reacts slowly:
“Sure. It’s Chinatown.”
Evelyn, Katherine, and the butler leave. Gittes calls his office and tells his receptionist to have Duffy and Walsh meet him at the butler’s place in Chinatown.
Escobar arrives at the home. Jake tells Escobar he’s too late and that Evelyn has fled to her maid’s house. He gives Escobar the address. The detective tells Gittes they’re all going to go together to get Evelyn.
Escobar takes Gittes to a home in San Pedro. Gittes convinces Escobar to let him go in and get Evelyn and bring her out. Escobar agrees, but warns him that he’s only got three minutes.
Gittes walks up to the house. A woman with a black eye answers the door. It’s not Evelyn’s butler’s house, it’s Curly’s house. Curly — from the opening scene — welcomes Gittes inside.
Gittes takes Curly into the kitchen and convinces Curly to get him out of the house. Curly agrees and they get into his car. They take off just as Escobar enters the house.
Jake makes a deal with Curly. He’ll forgive Curly’s debt and even pay him extra if he agrees to take Evelyn and Katherine to Mexico in his boat. Curly agrees to do it.
Curly drops Gittes off at the Mulwray home.
At the Mulwray home, Jake is smoking out by the pond when Cross arrives. Cross asks about the girl — meaning Hollis’ girlfriend) — who we know is actually his daughter via his incestious relationship with Evelyn.
Gittes tells him the girl is with her mom. Cross immediately gets suspicious. Jake hands Cross the obituary column from the newspaper. Cross puts on a pair of glasses to read it. His glasses have bifocals, like the ones Gittes found in the Mulwray pond. Cross asks:
“What does this mean?”
Gittes responds:
“That you killed Hollis Mulwray.”
Jake and Cross discuss Cross’ plans to build the reservoir north of L.A. and develop that land. L.A. will pay for it, but won’t get any of the water. Cross corrects him, suggesting that you don’t bring the water to L.A., you bring LA to the water. He’s going to incorporate the land north of L.A. into the city. It’ll make him rich.
But Jake knows Cross is already rich, so he asks him what he really wants. What more could he have? Cross answers:
“The future, Mr. Gittes, the future.”
When Gittes confronts Cross about what he did to Evelyn, Cross responds:
“I don’t blame myself. You see, Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and right place, they’re capable of anything.”
That’s when Mulvihill shows up and takes the glasses from Gittes. Cross then says:
“Take us to the girl. Either Evelyn allows me to see her, or I’m not averse to seeing Evelyn in jail. If I have to buy the jail. Hollis and Evelyn kept her from me for fifteen years. It’s been too long, I’m too old.”
They head into Chinatown. (Note: this is a slightly different ending than the one in the film, and although I believe the script is even better than the film, I do think the film has a slightly better ending. I explain why in another video.)
As Gittes drives up to the house in Chinatown where Evelyn is, he sees Evelyn walking toward Curly’s car. Gittes pretends he didn’t see her, but Cross spots Evelyn and demands they stop. Mulvihill clobbers Gittes, which causes the car to jump the curb and hit a pole.
Cross tries to head for Evelyn, but Gittes pulls on him. There’s a brief fight between Gittes, Mulvihill, and Cross.
Curly, seeing the ruckus, gets out of his car, but Gittes tells him to take Evelyn and go.
Gittes and Mulvihill fight for Mulvihill’s gun. Mulvihill drops it and it skitters away. Evelyn picks it up and points the gun at her father. Cross takes a step toward Evelyn and says:
“You’re going to have to kill me, Evelyn. Either that or tell me where she is. How many years have I got?… she’s mine too.”
Evelyn responds:
“She’s never going to know that.”
A police siren distracts Evelyn. Cross lunges toward her. Gittes grabs him.
Duffy and Walsh show up.
Gittes tells Duffy and Walsh to grab Mulvihill and take Evelyn to San Pedro, to Curly’s boat.
Escobar steps between Evelyn and her escape route. All the most important characters in the film are now in Chinatown.
Jake grabs Escobar so Evelyn can escape. Evelyn gets in Curly’s car and starts to drive off. Gittes almost gives a sigh of relief, except there’s a gunshot.
An officer down the street has fired at the car. Gittes rushes to the car and finds: Evelyn. Dead. Jake starts to go crazy.
“Where is he? I’ll kill him, I’ll kill the son of a bitch.”
Gittes is detained by Escobar, who tells him to take it easy. Jake looks back down at Evelyn. Julian Cross, her despicable father, is cradling her body, and crying over her. Gittes loses it:
“Get him away from her. He’s responsible for everything. Get him away from her!”
Duffy and Walsh collect Gittes and start to drag him away. Walsh’s final words hang in the air when he tells Gittes:
“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”
CONCLUSION & THOUGHTS:
And that’s it. That’s a full exploration of Chinatown. And if you go all the way back to page three of the script, Jake Gittes’ words to Curly ring true at the end of the script:
“I’ll tell you the unwritten law, you dumb son of a bitch, you gotta be rich to kill somebody, anybody and get away with it. You think you got that kind of dough, you think you got that kind of class?”
Curly didn’t have that kind of dough or class, but Cross has both. He’s rich and influential, so he’ll get away with it. Why? Because in Chinatown, where the film ends, if you’re rich and influential — there’s no such thing as justice.
