In the 1974 film Chinatown, the bifocal glasses found in the saltwater pond at Evelyn Mulwray's house belonged to Noah Cross, Evelyn's father. Jake Gittes realized they were not Hollis Mulwray's because Hollis did not wear bifocals. They were a key piece of evidence showing Cross drowned Hollis.
Evelyn denies this and instead confesses that Katherine is both her sister and her daughter, her father having raped her when she was a teenager. When Evelyn tells him that the eyeglasses did not belong to Hollis, Gittes figures out that they must be Cross's and that Cross must have drowned Hollis in the pond.
Why does Curley's wife have a black eye in Chinatown?
Later in the movie, Jake pretends to lead the police to Evelyn—but he's actually going to Curly's house to ask him to drive him out the back, so he can escape and confront Noah. When he knocks on the door, Curly's wife answers, bearing a black eye indicating that Curly hit her for cheating on him.
Polanski appears in a cameo as the gangster who cuts Gittes' nose. The effect was accomplished with a special knife which could have actually cut Nicholson's nose if Polanski had not held it correctly.
Chinatown (7/9) Movie CLIP - Capable of Anything (1974) HD
Did Jack Nicholson really slap Faye Dunaway in Chinatown?
After several takes that never looked quite right, Faye Dunaway got annoyed and told Jack Nicholson to actually slap her. He did and felt very guilty for it, despite it being Dunaway's decision.
Jake returns to the Mulwray mansion, where he learns that a backyard pool is filled with salt water, and he finds that it contains a pair of broken glasses. Jake deduces that Evelyn drowned Hollis in the pond.
In Chinatown, the water department, under the influence of Cross, is behind a plan to secretly dump water from a vital reservoir in the San Fernando valley at night during a drought, so that the local agricultural land becomes unusable, and is devalued – allowing the department and Cross to buy it off cheaply from ...
Yes, Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson generally got along well, with Dunaway calling him a "soul mate" and remembering him fondly for their Chinatown collaboration, though they maintained a platonic relationship as he was with Anjelica Huston. Their dynamic was characterized by mutual respect and creative chemistry, contrasting sharply with Dunaway's famously difficult relationship with director Roman Polanski during the same film.
Lastly, Curley's wife, the only woman on the ranch, faces loneliness because her husband does not spend much time with her. As well, although Curley thinks she is having affairs with the other men, specifically George, she is not. In fact, all the other ranch hands ignore her and she has no one to spend her time with.
What does "as little as possible" mean in Chinatown?
His reply was "as little as possible", probably referring to the fact that corruption and crime ran so rampant that Jake got the feeling that he did not amount to anything, and may even have inadvertently helped injustice take place.
In the bedroom scene with Evelyn Mulwray, she asks Gittis "What did you do when you worked on the police force?" He answered, "As little as possible." He repeated that line at the end of the movie; and Escobar responded "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
Friends, a semi-spoiler alert: nothing good happens in Chinatown. From casual racism to intimate violence, plot and themes center on people doing bad things to each other. Be aware, should you choose to watch, that viewing this story will involve some rough going.
Like most of us, Franklin found that his eyesight was getting worse as he got older, and he grew both near-sighted and far-sighted. Tired of switching between two pairs of eyeglasses, he invented “double spectacles,” or what we now call bifocals.
Jack Nicholson is reportedly showing signs that he has dementia. Signs of dementia can include problems with memory, attention, communication, reasoning, problem-solving, eyesight, and completing tasks.
Actress Faye Dunaway has publicly revealed she has bipolar disorder, a diagnosis she discussed in the 2024 HBO documentary Faye, explaining it contributed to past erratic behavior and "difficult" on-set reputation, though she feels it helps her understand and cope with mood swings through treatment and medication. She views the condition as part of her identity, impacting her performances and relationships, and hopes her openness helps others with mental health challenges.
Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown. This line from the final scene, which Walsh speaks in a sympathetic voice as he leads Jake away from Evelyn's dead body, sums up one of the film's major themes. Throughout the film, several characters suggest that Chinatown is a place to be avoided at all costs.
After several takes that never looked quite right, Faye Dunaway got annoyed and told Jack Nicholson to actually slap her. He did and felt very guilty for it, despite it being Dunaway's decision.
Based on a screenplay by Robert Towne, a screenplay over which Towne and Polanski battled fiercely (in Towne's version, the evil tycoon dies and the heroine lives), “Chinatown” is a fact-based tale about the role greed played in the evolution of modern-day Los Angeles and, of course, Hollywood.
Jack Nicholson was 36 when he filmed Chinatown (1974). He had begun working in Hollywood in the late 1950s on B movies directed by Roger Corman. His big break into wider fame and critical acclaim came with his supporting role in Easy Rider (1969).
What happens to Katherine at the end of Chinatown?
Instead, the movie ends with Cross gathering Katherine up and spiriting her away, achieving a victory that should have belonged to Jake. The way Cross finally triumphs is the most devastating part of the scene.
