Best Films of 1974: Roman Polanski’s classic neo-noir Chinatown
“You may think you know what you’re dealing with,” one character admonishes sleazy private detective Jake Gittes, “but believe me, you don’t.” Released shortly after the end of the Watergate hearings, Chinatown is Roman Polanski’s masterpiece and arguably the best mystery thriller ever filmed, a ruthless amorality tale about a putrid society in which corruption, violence, and degradation lurk under a veneer of wealth and respectability. Jack Nicholson, hardly the most subtle of actors, underplays his part-jaded, part-naive private eye to the low-key point of sedate grandeur.
Forget Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Warren William, William Powell, and all other trench-coated gumshoes. Nicholson’s Jake Gittes is the apex of movie sleuthdom. And if John Huston (director of one of the first films noir, the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon) overacts and Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde, Network) delivers the usual Dunaway performance, these are mere scratches in the thriller’s overall brilliance.
The hopeful ending of Robert Towne’s screenplay was changed by Polanski, who felt the movie deserved a downbeat finale on a par with the story itself – and with the world out there. Towne wasn’t pleased, but I ardently side with Polanski. Chinatown with a “happy” ending would not have been Chinatown, but that other corrupt, dishonest, debased Everywhereland, Hollywood.
A sort-of sequel, The Two Jakes (1990), written by Robert Towne and directed by Nicholson himself, sank without a trace.
Best Film
Chinatown – Dir.: Roman Polanski; Scr.: Robert Towne
The Conversation – dir. & Scr.: Francis Ford Coppola
Conversation Piece / Gruppo di famiglia in un interno – Dir.: Luchino Visconti; Scr.: Luchino Visconti, Suso Cecchi D’Amico & Enrico Medioli
The Godfather Part II – Dir.: Francis Ford Coppola; Scr.: Francis Ford Coppola & Mario Puzo
Harry and Tonto – Dir.: Paul Mazursky; Scr.: Paul Mazursky & Josh Greenfield
Hearts and Minds – Dir.: Peter Davis
Phantom of the Paradise – dir. & Scr.: Brian DePalma
The Sugarland Express – Dir.: Steven Spielberg;
Young Frankenstein – Dir.: Mel Brooks; Scr.: Mel Brooks & Gene Wilder
Best Actor
Dirk Bogarde – The Night Porter / Il portiere di notte
Jeff Bridges – Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Art Carney – Harry and Tonto
Gene Hackman – The Conversation
Burt Lancaster – Conversation Piece
Alessandro Momo – Scent of a Woman / Profumo di donna
Jack Nicholson – Chinatown
Al Pacino – The Godfather Part II
Best Actress
Ellen Burstyn – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Goldie Hawn – The Sugarland Express
Brigitte Mira – Fear Eats the Soul / Angst essen Seele auf
Elizabeth Montgomery – A Case of Rape
Charlotte Rampling – The Night Porter
Best Supporting Actor
Peter Boyle – Young Frankenstein
Dom DeLuise – Blazing Saddles
Allen Garfield – The Conversation
Gerrit Graham – Phantom of the Paradise
Best Supporting Actress
Geraldine Fitzgerald – Harry and Tonto
Jessica Harper – Phantom of the Paradise
Madeline Kahn – Blazing Saddles
Madeline Kahn – Young Frankenstein
Diane Ladd – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Silvana Mangano – Conversation Piece
Elizabeth McRae – The Conversation
Miou-Miou – Going Places / Les Valseuses
Valerie Perrine – Lenny
Best Cinematography
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – Kent L. Wakeford
Buster and Billie – Mario Tosi
Cat’s Play / Macskajáték – János Tóth
Conrack – John A. Alonzo
Conversation Piece – Pasqualino De Santis
Murder on the Orient Express – Geoffrey Unsworth
The Parallax View – Gordon Willis
Phantom of the Paradise – Larry Pizer
The Voyage / Il viaggio – Ennio Guarnieri
A Woman Under the Influence – Mitchell Breit (“additional photography” by Caleb Deschanel)
Best Original Score
Chinatown – Jerry Goldsmith
The Conversation – David Shire
The Godfather Part II – Nino Rota
Scent of a Woman – Armando Trovajoli