Jack Nicholson
Faye Dunaway
John Huston
John Hillerman
Burt Young
"Forget it, Jake -- it's Chinatown." The opaque shrug that ends this 1970s classic embodies the
film's world-weary depiction of people who are never what they seem and dark motives that dwell
deep below the surface. Like the water that drives the plot, secrets in Chinatown have a way of
bubbling up in the most unexpected places, as detective Jake Gittes (Nicholson) discovers when he
takes on Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) as a client. Not so much a recreation of the classic-era
Chandler and Hammett private-eye stories as an outright celebration of the depravity they only
hinted at.
