Chinatown/Trivia


 * Creator Breakdown: Roman Polanski's pregnant wife was murdered by the Manson Family. He was also a Holocaust survivor. His bleak, bleak worldview led him to change Robert Towne's Bittersweet Ending into a big ole Downer Ending. Robert Towne ultimately conceded that it made the movie better.
 * Enforced Method Acting: Jack Nicholson was genuinely nervous during the nose-cutting scene because the knife being used could actually have hurt him badly if not held correctly. In the end, Roman Polanski did the scene himself to get it right.
 * During the infamous scene where Evelyn reveals that, the slaps that Jake gave her were apparently genuine. Faye Dunaway mentioned that the fake smacks weren't leaving their intended impact in the scene, so she told Nicholson to actually slap her.
 * What Could Have Been: Anjelica Huston, John's real life daughter, as Evelyn Mulwray. Squick. It was pretty awkward as it was, given that Jack Nicholson had just started dating Anjelica in real life, making the scenes where John's character asks "Mr. Gittes, do you sleep with my daughter?" just...uncomfortable.
 * Chinatown was meant to be one of three Jake Gittes movies. Nicholson never played another detective character, so that Gittes would remain his iconic PI. When the first sequel (The Two Jakes) finally got made, the results were underwhelming, torpedoing the chances of a third movie. Bizarrely enough, many elements of what would have been the third sequel turned up in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, notably the freeway arc.
 * Robert Towne originally wrote the screenplay with a (comparatively) happy ending, in which make a successful getaway. Only after a long and bitter debate with Polanski was it changed - at the last minute - to the infamous Downer Ending. Towne later conceded that the film was better that way.