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It’s now regarded as one of the great films of the ‘70s, as one of the best examples ever of film noir and for featuring Jack Nicholson at his cocky best.
But at the time it was made, “Chinatown” seemed headed for disaster.
So recalls screenwriter Robert Towne, who has been hitting the publicity trail to drum up interest in a new two-disc DVD release of the Roman Polanski classic.
“I first saw ‘Chinatown’ in a screening at the Directors Guild about a week before it opened,” Towne said. “And as I settled into my chair, I thought, ’ ... we’re gonna get killed.’ I really didn’t expect the movie to work.”
It certainly wasn’t a conventional crime drama. Set in the 1930s, “Chinatown” follows private eye Jake Gittes (Nicholson) as he tries to solve the murder of a utility executive and stumbles into a huge conspiracy. In an effort to cement the desert city’s future, Los Angeles movers and shakers are stealing water from the surrounding communities.
The plot twists and turns and becomes knotted. Gittes thinks he is on top of things but in reality is in way over his head. He has an affair with the new widow (Faye Dunaway), only to discover she is wrapped up in a sick relationship with her ruthless wheeler/dealer father (John Huston).
“By the time of the screening, I hadn’t talked to Roman for weeks. He and I were fighting ... about the end of the movie, about lots of things,” Towne said.
“We were nervous because it was a very expensive movie. And lots of people at Paramount complained that they couldn’t figure out the script. We were very lucky that our producer, Robert Evans, was also the head of the studio, and he made everyone leave us alone. Otherwise, who knows what kind of movie we’d have ended up with?”
Towne sat in on some of the “Chinatown” editing sessions.
“We were struggling to bring the various threads of the story together and, frankly, I just didn’t see how it was ever going to work. And very late in the game, Roman rejected the truly awful score by the original composer and gave Jerry Goldsmith 10 days to write and record a new one.”
Even after seeing the film for the first time, Towne wasn’t sure what they had.
“My thought was, ‘Jeez ... we might just barely get away with it.’ That was my feeling.
“And then a writer — I’m not sure if he was from Variety or the Hollywood Reporter — came up to me and said, ‘I know I’m not supposed to say this, but I cannot get over the magnificence of this film.’
“Well, I wrote that off as an aberrant opinion. But then the reviews started coming out ... and they were all raves.”
And that has been the verdict of critics and moviegoers ever since.
For the new DVD release of “Chinatown,” Towne sat down with director and “Chinatown” aficionado David Fincher (“Seven,” “Fight Club,” “Zodiac,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) to record a commentary track for the film. He also participated in the making of a feature-length documentary about the creation and enduring impact of the film.
“Chinatown” had its birth in Towne’s reading of Carey McWilliams’ 1946 book “Southern California: An Island on the Land.”
“I was reading a chapter called ‘Water Water Water,’ about how this consortium of businessmen built a pipeline to carry water from one community hundreds of miles to the San Fernando Valley. And I realized, this is how the city was formed. It was basically a criminal operation. And I thought that would be a great crime for a detective to get involved in.”
Towne recalled he spent several months “just noodling around, trying to decide what direction the story would go.” The writing took almost a year.
The writer remains particularly proud of his conception of Jake Gittes, who provides a novel twist on the usual hard-boiled private eye.
“You enjoy Jake because he’s a cynical smart-(aleck) with a streak of idealism he can’t quite get rid of. What’s seductive about the story, I think, is that you start out thinking he’s a tough guy, but in fact Jake is sort of a naive adolescent. He’s not prepared for the enormity of the scandal he uncovers or the dark secrets he trips over.”
Though he’s one of Hollywood’s most in-demand screenwriters, with credits that include “Shampoo,” “The Last Detail,” “Days of Thunder,” “The Firm” and two “Mission: Impossible” films, Towne acknowledges that “Chinatown” represents a high point of his career.
“Today, the movie would never be made. No studio would approve a big-budget period piece as unconventional as this.
“It was a case of the right people at the right time.”
