Chinatown (4/9) Movie CLIP - A Respectable Man (1974) HD

CLIP DESCRIPTION:
Cross (John Huston) questions Jake (Jack Nicholson) about his investigation.

FILM DESCRIPTION:
"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.

CREDITS:
TM & © Paramount (1974)
Cast: John Huston, Jack Nicholson
Director: Roman Polanski
Producers: C.O. Erickson, Robert Evans
Screenwriters: Roman Polanski, Robert Towne

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[natewheatshelf]

Norm Macdonald says John Houston was a big inspiration for Daniel Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, I can kind of see it.

[jayjayjigsbys]

"Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get 'respectable' if they last long enough." Great line.

[deadhardy]

Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.  Great line.

[poetcomic]

Polanski got such a thrill using Huston. In his first big Hollywood hit, Rosemary's Baby, he filled the cast with old film greats that he grew up with such as Patsy Kelly, Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Bellamy etc.and it was heaven. But he was totally in awe of John Huston. Huston's 'Noah Cross' fills the screen with character and menace.

[gumballsrelative]

"You may think you know what your dealing with, but believe me; you don't".
I've been using this dialog as my own ever since, it has a sophisticated sense of putting others on notice.

[tinadavis]

has anyone ever seen another version where huston asks " hows the fish" and jake says "a little greasy" huston says "ill tell the cook"

[Gnomelord]

"Come come, you don't have to think about that to remember" Well you don't Cross

[Tadicuslegion]

There will never be another man as epic as John Huston.

[JanPBtest]

Just noticed something (after many years): Houston is holding his knife and fork the standard European way, Nicholson the American way (fork in the right hand). Probably an accident, not a directed thing? Houston's accidental mispronouncing of "Gittes" was kept in the film.

[CYP]

At the time of filming, Jack Nicholson had just embarked on his longstanding relationship with Anjelica Huston. This made his scenes with her father, John Huston, rather uncomfortable, especially as the only time Anjelica was on set was the day they were filming the scene where Noah Cross interrogates Nicholson's character with "Mr. Gittes...do you sleep with my daughter?" (IMDB)

[danieldecker]

I'm here because of Kevin Pollack talking about this scene on the Rich Eisen show.

[lemorab]

Noah Cross can be pidgin English for "Don't cross me." This sinister power broker's name contains an implicit threat and warning. When Cross tells Gittes, "You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't, " I imagine Cross wagging a finger at Gittes saying "Noah Cross." It's also an allusion to Chinatown and the casual racist attitudes towards Chinese people back in 1937, when the film is set. The Chinese gardener says, alluding to the salt water in the pond, "Bad for glass, " as he makes small talk during Gittes' first visit to the Mulwray home. Jake offhandedly responds, "Yeah, bad for glass, " unconsciously demeaning the gardener's difficulty with American English pronunciation of the letter "r." This is also a veiled reference to the glasses at the bottom of the pond, which Gittes notices as the sunlight glints on them, and forgets about when distracted by Evelyn's sudden appearance. Water is one of the film's main characters: it's elusiveness due to drought; sudden, threatening appearances without warning as a destructive force; its manipulation by shadowy forces not yet understood by Gittes; the secrets held in the pond in the Mulwray yard. These foreshadowings, period details, and hidden meanings are some of the reasons why "Chinatown" is a great film. Chinatown is not only a place, it's also a state of mind and a spiritual condition.

[admin]

Noah Cross serves up fish the same way he likes his people, with the head on.

[ergonautilus]

"Enough! I am Gandalf. And Gandalf means me!"

[artlover]

"As long as you don't serve the chicken that way". F'ing hilarious.

[arinross]

after reading reviews of There WIll Be Blood, great influence on Day-Lewis's American-accent though Day-Lewis didn't rip him off, because he's the man and doesn't have to

[russellgiblin]

If I quote the YouTube link could I use this in a podcast? Audio only.

[HC-cbyp]

Slightly awkward scene as Nicholson WAS sleeping with Houston's daughter at the time...

[zooeyhall]

John Huston was truly menacing and creepy in this movie.

[Sdfghjk]

I love this movie so goddamn much. Best mystery movie of all time.