Number 43 on IMDb's Top 250
Hollis Mulwray is a chief engineer of the water department. Ida Sessions, pretending to be his wife Evelyn, asks Private Investigator J.J. "Jake" Gittes to investigate his adulterous ways. Jake takes photos of Hollis with a young lady. Hollis then turns up murdered, which Jake decides to investigate. Jake finds more than he was looking for. He discovers a plot to buy cheap, unwatered land for low prices, water the land, and sell it for millions of dollars. The plot is masterminded by one Noah Cross, who is Evelyn's father and Hollis' one-time business partner. His investigation leads him to an affair with Evelyn and a discussion with Noah Cross, both of whom seem curiously interested in the girl Hollis was seen with. Hilarity ensues.
Trivia: The scene where Roman Polanski slits Jack Nicholson's nose was extremely complex to film, and the two men involved got so tired of explaining how it was done that they began to claim Nicholson's nose was actually cut. Screenwriter Robert Towne based his famous exchange--Evelyn: "What did you do in Chinatown?" Jake:"As little as possible."--on a joke a LAPD officer friend told him. This was because there were so many different Chinese dialects floating around that an Anglo cop would only get himself into trouble by misinterpreting anything said by the Chinese residents.
This movie is considered Film Noir although it was filmed a long time after the golden age of Noir. There are some differences from Noir though. Most Noir detectives seem to be ahead of the audience, like they know more then they are saying. Nicholson learns the clues at the same time as the audience. As a detective story it is very good with a dark ending that you aren't expecting but I think that is just part of the theme behind the movie that some things are just inevitable. Like they say at the end of the movie, "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
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