Robert Evans Week: Chinatown

Howdy boys and girls and welcome back to Robert Evans Week.  This time around I thought we would go more into a neo film noir if you will.  A story of a private detective that gets in over his head, get muscled by some local talent, falls for the female client and in general get caught in a land grab scheme and did I mention a certain blonde bombshell happens in this film?  So keep a watch handy, know your street contacts and never sleep with the lady client.  This is Chinatown.

Alright, what or who is the Joker?

Noah Cross: Course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and spoilers all get respectable if they last long enough.







Directed by Roman Polanski (The Fearless Vampire Killers, Rosemary’s Baby, Macbeth, The Tenant, Tess and Pirates) and written by writer Robert Towne (Bonnie and Clyde, The Last Detail, The Yakuza, Orca, Heaven Can Wait and 8 Million Ways to Die) comes a story of private detective J.J. or Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson of Easy Rider, 5 Easy Pieces, The Shining, As Good as It Gets and The Departed) fresh from a cheating wife case and the client while not thrilled settles most of the bill.  Gittes is asked to do a surveillance gig on a potential cheating husband by a woman that identifies herself as Evelyn Mulwray.  Jake follows Mr. Mulwray around a reservoir, a nearby oceanfront and finally back to a ritzy apartment snapping pics of Mulwray and a  pretty, young blonde girl.  The pictures end up in the newspaper the next day.

Back from his shave and haircut (two bits!!) he is confronted by a stunning woman who exclaims they have never met and tells Jake she is the actual Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway of The Towering Inferno, Three Days of the Condor, Network, Voyage of the Damned and Mommy Dearest) who then threatens a major lawsuit.  Realizing he has been left holding the bag, Gittes wants to know who wants to get at Mulwray but before he can get with the man he is found drown in a freshwater reservoir.   Jake looks into Mulwray’s death and find thousands of gallons of water are being dumped in the middle of a drought and the head security of Water and Power along with a hobbit with a knife work Jake over.
Mrs. Mulwray convinced that Jake will get himself killed wants to simply pay Jake off and call things square but Jake is looking to finding out the bigger picture around her husband’s death, why the water is being wasted and who stands to gain from this.

Another UFO sighting missed!

I had just a few comments about the flick.   The Chinatown screenplay is widely regarded as one of the most perfect write ups and as used as a teaching point in screenwriting seminars and classes all over the states.  Robert Towne wrote this screenplay with Nicholson in mind as the lead.
The movie line” Forget it, Jake it’s Chinatown.” was voted as the #71st of the 100 Greatest Movie Lines by Premiere.   A dark, gritty classic full of murder, romance and everything in between as Ms.Dunaway woos the crowd with her demeanor and attitude.

Towne and Polanski went round and round on the production of Chinatown.  Polanski is said to be a perfectionist demanded that he and Towne go over the script page by page and touch up everything.  As the writer, Towne was offended and snapped back.  Evans looked forward to Polanski taking the director's chair again and tackling a rough and tumble story in a city where everyone has secrets.

The story around the campfire is the role of Evelyn Mulray was intended for Evans' wife at the time Ali McGraw but she ultimately lost the role divorcing Evans for Steve McQueen.

This was to be the first part of a trilogy as Robert Evans and Jack Nicholson saw it.   At one point Towne and Nicholson wanted Evans to step away from the producer's chair and get into make-up for the sequel The Two Jakes in 1989 but they hit a snag or two in the greenlight.

Begone you little, repugnant man!

Dunaway Week: The Towering Inferno

And a fine hello and how do you do my readers and enjoy this last day of Dunaway Week and I thought we would end this one in a blaze of glory.  A star studded cast of the likes that 20^th Century Fox liked cramming together to leave us wondering and guessing, “What the heck was their estimated budget on this flick?”  With enough man’s man actors that happen to be pretty to keep the ladies’ attention coupled with some danger, excitement and really wild things, this movie is guaranteed to pull on the heart strings, make your stomach flip flop and ensure your disdain in most politicians.  This is The Towering Inferno.

Now ladies, the fire is actually upstairs.

James Duncan: Everything under control?

Chief O’ Hallorhan: You’ve gotta move all these people out of here.

James Duncan: Aw, now, just how bad is it?

Chief O’ Hallorhan: It’s a spoiler, mister, all fires are bad.

Architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman of The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting) get back after an lengthy vacation in time to see his creation, a towering skyscraper nearly complete and there is to be a shindig like no other to pat some backs on its completion. The owner James Duncan (William Holden of Sunset Blvd., The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Bunch and Network) is holding court with the Mayor and several up and comers in San Francisco when a small fire breaks out on the 81^st floor due to faulty wiring.   Roberts and the engineer Giddings go to the 81^st floor and attempt to stop a security guard from getting curious when he opens a door causing a flash fire to break out killing the guard and burning Gidding so badly he could die.  Roberts rushes back to Duncan and tries to get this party evacuated and Duncan dismisses it as not really an issue. 

Ugh, wish that guy would catch on fire.

Typical trusting in sprinklers I guess.  The fire department is alerted and Chief O’ Hallorhan (Steve McQueen of Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Great Escape, Bullit and Junior Bonner) demands evacuation begins now as the building is slowly being engulfed in flames.   At the party, Susan Franklin (Faye Dunaway of Little Big Man, Midnight Crossing, The Gamble and Up to Date) is helping to evacuate the VIPs and herself with an orderly fashion.  Most of the party members have managed to disembark but eventually even the express elevators become too dangerous and there is no easy way out of this now blazing deathtrap in the sky.

I had a few points I wanted to make about this film now.  This hails from the disaster genre producer Irwin Allen whose is known mostly for TV like: Land of the Giants, Swiss Family Robinson, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space.  The common factor in this was people were made almost extraordinary due to insurmountable dangers and how they performed under the pressure.  With his production of The Posiedon Adventure getting less than great input it was a bit of a gamble to put this top notch cast in a film but Allen wanted this to be big.  With amazing scale model work, John Williams’ score to provide scope and no less than 57 separate sets this film is a work up of good story, great cast and some brilliant direction.

Free donuts for firefighters??!!!

Dunaway Week: The Thomas Crown Affair

Welcome back again fans of the written text to Day 3 of Dunaway Week and I find this particular film to be enjoyable, clever and well-written.  The oddest thing is I actually enjoy the remake of this movie a tad bit more than its original but of course it did lack our leading lady of the week in a more substantial role.  What happens when a billionaire and sportsman gets bored with the daily grind of the 9 to 5?  How about a multi-million dollar heist for the kicks?  If I have tickled your fancy, grab those schematics, keep your safecracker tools at the ready and prep your getaway.  This is The Thomas Crown Affair.

Hey, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar...pervs.

Thomas Crown: What a funny, dirty little spoiler!

Vicki Anderson: It’s a funny, dirty little job!  So shoot me in the leg!

Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen of The Great Escape, Bullit, The Getaway, Papllion and The Hunter) is a millionaire businessman, a man’s man and a go getter plotting a heist to having five guys lift 2.6 million from a bank in Boston and hide it in a trash can in a cemetery.  Brilliant hiding spot to be certain, Thomas does not have any interaction during ore before the crime and these men do not even know one another.  Thomas scoops up the money and sends the deposit to a Geneva account.

With the local law enforcement baffled an insurance investigator, Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway of Casanova, Barfly, Midnight Crossing, Burning Secret, Double Edge, Albino Alligator and Last Goodbye) has a contract to look into this heist, receive 10% of the money that was taken if she can managed to recover it.  With a bit of instinct and know how she suspects Crown as the mastermind behind the swindle.

Don't look up her skirt, don't look up her skirt. Crap, I just looked.

She profiles Crown as one of those playboy millionaires that bore easily and sky diving or golf is just not enough to end boredom.  Maybe he should consider martial arts and an elaborate bat costume but not sure if it would help.  The two begin the mating dance i.e. cat and mouse that Anderson will figure out how she will prove Crown the thief.  Shockingly enough Vicki starts to fall for Crown and he as well with her but she aids Detective Eddie Malone (Paul Burke of Naked City, 12 O’Clock High, Valley of the Dolls, Hot Shots and Dynasty) crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s but will she reveal her findings to the cops in spite of her feelings for Crown?

I just had a few minor nitpicks and observations at this time for the movie.  I saw in the robbery scene that the robbers had quite a few revolvers with silencers that somehow snapped on and off easily, I am no expert in this but commonly unless it is a custom job a silencer will not work on a revolver.  From three angles I witnessed the character Carl put his glove ( I think his left one) on three times.  Now this could be a matter of dramatic build up but more likely a continuity error.   Written by the talented Alan Trustman (Bullitt, They Call Me Mister Tibbs!, Lady Ice, Hit! and Crime and Passion) this is a diverting and leisurely film with a good build up of suspense and very character driven with a kicky soundtrack.

Girl on the move, ladies and gents.

Dunaway Week: Chinatown

Howdy boys and girls and welcome back to Dunaway Week.  This time around I thought we would go more into a neo film noir if you will.  A story of a private detective that gets in over his head, get muscled by some local talent, falls for the female client and in general get caught in a land grab scheme and did I mention a certain blonde bombshell happens in this film?  So keep a watch handy, know your street contacts and never sleep with the lady client.  This is Chinatown.

I'm here for the Barbershop quartet audition.

Noah Cross: “Course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and spoilers all get respectable if they last long enough.

Directed by Roman Polanski (The Fearless Vampire Killers, Rosemary’s Baby, Macbeth, The Tenant, Tess and Pirates) and written by writer Robert Towne (Bonnie and Clyde, The Last Detail, The Yakuza, Orca, Heaven Can Wait and 8 Million Ways to Die) comes a story of private detective J.J. or Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson of Easy Rider, 5 Easy Pieces, The Shining, As Good as It Gets and The Departed) fresh from a cheating wife case and the client while not thrilled settles most of the bill.  Gittes is asked to do a surveillance gig on a potential cheating husband by a woman that identifies herself as Evelyn Mulwray.  Jack follows Mr. Mulwray around a reservoir, a nearby oceanfront and finally back to a ritzy apartment snapping pics of Mulwray and a young blonde girl.  The pictures end up in the newspaper the next day.

Sheesh, more barren than a politician's promise

Back from his shave and haircut he is confronted by a stunning woman who exclaims they have never met and tells Jake she is the actual Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway of The Towering Inferno, Three Days of the Condor, Network, Voyage of the Damned and Mommy Dearest) who then threatens a major lawsuit.  Realizing he has been left holding the bag, Gittes wants to know who wants to get at Mulwray but before he can get with the man he is found drown in a freshwater reservoir.   Jake looks into Mulwray’s death and find thousands of gallons of water are being dumped in the middle of a drought and the head security of Water and Power along with a hobbit with a knife tune Jake up.  

Mrs. Mulwray convinced that Jake will get himself killed wants to simply pay Jake off and call things square but Jake is looking to finding out the bigger picture around her husband’s death, why the water is being wasted and who stands to gain from this.

I had just a few comments about the flick.   The Chinatown screenplay is widely regarded as one of the most perfect write ups and as used as a teaching point in screenwriting seminars and classes all over the states.  Robert Towne wrote this screenplay with Nicholson in mind as the lead.

The movie line” Forget it, Jake it’s Chinatown.” was voted as the #71^st of the 100 Greatest Movie Lines by Premiere.   A dark, gritty classic full of murder, romance and everything in between as Ms.Dunaway woos the crowd with her demeanor and attitude.

Sorry doll but I don't look for black birds. Try Spade.

Dunaway Week: Bonnie and Clyde

Welcome to Dunaway Week as we look through Faye’s collection of greats and maybe to see her range of emotions as she plays a poor and bored small-town girl that manages to link up with a small-time thief getting up in their necks in trouble.   In the capable hands of director Arthur Penn (The Miracle Worker, The Chase, Flesh and Blood, Little Big Man, Night Moves and Target) a director known to break through the cinema taboos showing sex and violence in an A List film.   So clean up them gats, keep the jalopy fueled and devil may care what the authorities say.  This is Bonnie and Clyde.

Bet this could sell some Coke.

C.W. Moss: I spent a spoiler… I spent *A YEAR* in reformatory!

Bonnie Parker: Whooee! A man with a record!

With what is considered ground breaking film brings us into the middle of the Great Depression, Connie Parker (Faye Dunaway of Hurry Sundown The Happening, The Thomas Crown Affair, Little Big Man and Midnight Crossing) leaving her restaurant bored to tears as a waitress find a young man named Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Lilith, Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Reds and Bugsy) trying to still her mother’s Ford Coupe and rather than ratting him out she joins him in a drive off and presents the idea being Clyde’s stickup partner.  They manage to pull off some holdups but in spite of the efforts brought a thrill but didn’t exactly make the greenbacks.

You eyeballin' me?

As the daring duo crime spree is getting into high gear they join up with a gas pump man C.W. Moss (character actor Michael J Pollard of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Window on Main Street, Summer Magic, Caprice, Roxanne, Scrooged and Tango & Cash) and later attempt to link up with Clyde’s brother Buck (Gene Hackman of Ride with Terror, Lilith, First to Fight, Marooned, The French Connection, The Poseidon Adventure and Superman) and his mousey wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons of Rachel,Rachel, Don’t Drink the Water, Watermelon Man, I Walk the Line and Two People) join the insanity but the duo’s bank robberies get violent and more than a few tellers had been shot creating a level of notoriety, local law enforcement, a Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Denver Pyle of Gunsmoke, Hog Wild, Welcome to L.A., The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, The Dukes of Hazzard and Maverick) are hot on their trail.

I had just a few goofs on the film itself.   Bonnie’s hairdo was more prevalent to 1960’s rather than the 1930s.  I noticed the mystery of Blanche’s disappearing and reappearing donut between shots but my favorite of continuity issue was CW’s replenishing hamburger.  Now admittedly that is fairly petty observations.  The violence of the movie is worthy of that of the Wild Bunch but the overall tone of the film makes it light and funny with Bonnie’s extensionality poetry and Clyde’s snide ambivalence and almost philosophical standing on life was intriguing.  This film of course broke some serious ground to giving mild sexual content and a fair amount violence and even a level of gore that it did show a newer level of realism to it.

A snake gave me this apple...want some?

Dunaway Week

Howdy readers!  I have recently been through several of my posts and I realized I have not given leading ladies of Hollywood their due and am a bit ashamed on that.  Starting this week I felt I would pay homage to a sultry siren of the silver screen from her resonant voice to the amazing set of eyes she has worked with the likes of Jack Nicholson, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford as well as the likes of Christopher Lee, Michael York, Oliver Reed and Gary Sinse.

Dishy, ain't she?

Her lasting power in the industry she has managed to produce, write and even direct.  Tinseltown can be merciless to starlets but this lady has persevered in a town that had the standing that any woman over 30 has a limited shelf life Faye Dunaway has ranked at #32 in 100 years of Heroes and Villains for Bonnie and Clyde as well as #41 for her portrayal of Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest.

So pilgrimage with me and see this actress throughout the ages and hopefully you will enjoy.