Chinatown was the first film personally produced by Paramount studio production head Robert Evans, and marked the first time that he received an onscreen producer credit. Actor-stuntman Jim Burk's surname was erroneously spelled "Burke" in the cast credits at the end of the film. Although the surname of character "Jake Gittes" (Jack Nicholson) is pronounced as two syllables throughout the film, during his two meetings with "Noah Cross" (John Huston), Cross repeatedly mispronounces the name as one syllable.
       Many film historians have commented on the picture's title, which suggests more of a connection to Los Angeles' Chinatown than existed in the story. Only the film's final sequence is set in Chinatown (on North Spring Street), where the picture's iconic line of dialogue, "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown," was spoken by "Walsh" (Joe Mantell). However, throughout the film there are several oblique references to Jake's past as a policeman working for the District Attorney in Chinatown and a tragedy that occurred. The subject is given some explanation by Jake himself when he tells "Evelyn Mulwray" (Faye Dunaway) that he tried to prevent someone from being hurt, but ultimately caused her to be hurt. Later, when Jake asks "Lt. Lou Escobar" (Perry Lopez) to let him speak with Evelyn privately before she is arrested, Escobar, alluding to what happened years ago in Chinatown, says "You never learn, do you Jake."
       Early HR production charts list the film's director of photography as Stanley Cortez, but only John A. Alonzo is credited onscreen. According to director Roman Polanski, when speaking at a 1974 seminar at AFI's Center for Advanced Film Studies, as production started on Chinatown, he felt that the work of veteran cameraman Cortez did not match his own vision for the film. Polanski then replaced Cortez with Alonzo, who completed the picture. The offscreen camera crew credits included above were listed in a 26 Oct 1973 HR "Film Assignments" column, which also listed Cortez as the director of photography. It is possible that some of those camera crew members left the production when Cortez departed.
       In a letter to the editor in LAT in Apr 1974, Alonzo wrote that he replaced Cortez "during the first week's shooting schedule," while an editor's note added to an article by Alonzo in AmCin in May 1975, reported that Cortez left "after having completed the photography on approximately sixteen sequences of the feature during its first weeks of production." In an interview with GQ in Feb 1984, Polanski stated that Cortez was told he was being replaced "on the tenth day of shooting." An on-set photograph in the AmCin article confirms that Cortez shot the Echo Park Lake and the "El Macando Apartments" sequences, but the extent of other footage he shot that were retained in the released film is undetermined.
       Many contemporary and modern sources have indicated that Chinatown was shot entirely on location, but in the AmCin article, Alonzo confirmed that many interiors were shot at Paramount, writing that "approximately 65%" of the total footage, including Jake Gittes' office, "was shot on sets built inside Paramount sound stages." However, like Kiss Me Deadly (1955, see entry), Chinatown used locations all over Los Angeles County, and in some cases used actual addresses in the dialogue. Among principal locations verified from contemporary sources were the Spanish-style El Macondo Apartments at 1400 Havenhurst Drive in West Hollywood (where Gittes took photographs from a roof), Echo Park Lake, a bungalow court apartment building at 848 E. Kensington Road in Angelino Heights (where "Ida Sessions" was found murdered), the parking area of the California Club in downtown Los Angeles, the Olympic Blvd. Bridge (which stood in for The Hollenbeck Bridge), the Avalon Yacht Club on Santa Catalina Island, the Stone Canyon Reservoir in Beverly Hills, the 700 block of West Paseo del Mar at Point Fermin Park (where "Gittes" put the cheap pocket watches under automobile wheels) and other areas in San Pedro, Fillmore (where Gittes was chased through orange groves), 40 Narcissa Drive in Rancho Palos Verdes (the "Noah Cross" estate), 1315 South Molino Avenue in Pasadena (home of "Evelyn Murray"), and 1972 North Canyon Drive in Hollywood (the "Hahn" residence). Many of the period locations, which date back to the 1920s and 1930s, remain intact as of 2009. The Chinatown sequence, which in the story is supposed to take place on Alameda Street, was actually shot on the less commercial North Spring and Ord streets. According to various contemporary sources, modern street lights were turned off and period facades were placed over existing buildings to heighten its 1930s look. The iconic scene of the LA City Council hearing about the proposed aqueduct was filmed on location at the Los Angeles City Council Chambers of City Hall. 
       The Pig 'n Whistle restaurant, which is only seen in a photograph, but mentioned as the site where "Hollis Mulwray" and Cross had an argument, was a restaurant on Hollywood Blvd., adjacent to the famed Egyptian Theatre. After opening in 1927, the Pig 'n Whistle was a popular Hollywood hangout from the late 1920s through 1949. According to a 1988 article on the film's locations, the Pacific Dining Car restaurant stood in for the Pig 'n Whistle.
       In an interview given to LAT at the time of a 30th anniversary screening of Chinatown at AMPAS' Samuel Goldwyn Theatre, screenwriter Robert Towne recounted that he wrote the script for Nicholson while waiting for The Last Detail (See Entry), another script he wrote for Nicholson, to go into production. Towne also stated in the interview that he was inspired to write Chinatown because of two events that happened around the same time: his unsuccessful attempt to "fight city hall" by stopping a housing development in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles and his reading of the 1970 non-fiction book Southern California Country. The book, by noted California historian Carey McWilliams, included a chapter on the Owens Valley Aqueduct that brought water to Los Angeles.
       Although Gittes is a completely fictional character, Mulwray was, according to many reviews and other contemporary sources, loosely based on William Mulholland (1855--1935), who became head of the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles in the late 1880s. Mulholland, who was instrumental in bringing water from the Owens River Valley to Los Angeles, left the department in disgrace in 1928, shortly after the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in Mar 1928. That disaster, which is alluded to when Mulwray refers to the disasterous mistakes of the "Vanderlip Dam," resulted in the loss of almost 500 lives.
       The plot point within the film that bringing water to the San Fernando Valley would lead to its annexation by the city of Los Angeles is anachronistic. By 1937, when the story of Chinatown takes place, most of the San Fernando Valley had already been incorporated into the city through several annexations in the 1910s and 1920s. References are made in the film to the dry Los Angeles River which, in past centuries was an alluvial river that periodically flooded the Los Angeles basin and eventually was directed into the flood control system that is still in existence.
       As stated in the film, there was a serious drought in Southern California in the mid-1930s, which lasted until late 1937. In Mar 1938, the area experienced what was termed a "fifty year flood" that effectively broke the drought. Bolstering its prominent theme of Los Angeles' need for water, within the films there are numerous references to different types of water. For example, when Jake first goes to the Mulwray house, the camera lingers on the backyard pond and waterfall as a Japanese gardener tends to it. Later, when Jake discovers a pair of broken glasses in the pond, it leads to his eventually solving Mulwray's murder.
       According to a LAHExam article on 20 Jul 1974, members of an organization called Asian Americans for Fair Media marched in front of Mann's Chinese Theatre, where the film opened in Los Angeles, to protest the film. Representatives of the group singled out racist comments, and in particular a joke about "a Chinaman" that Jakes laughingly relates just before meeting the real Evelyn.
       Chinatown was the second and final American film directed by the Polish-born Polanski, who appears in the picture as the man wearing a white suit and bowtie who cuts Jake's nose. Polanski's previous U.S.-based film was the highly successful Rosemary's Baby (1968, see entry). On 9 Aug 1969, Polanski's personal life was struck by tragedy when his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, become one of the victims of the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders by followers of cult leader Charles Manson. For additional information on the murders, consult the entries below for The Other Side of Madness (1971) and Manson (1973).
       After Tate's murder, Polanski made The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971, see entry) and Che? (1972) in Europe before returning to the U.S. to work on Chinatown, which was the first film he directed that he was neither credited as writer or co-writer (although he severely edited Robert Towne's script). Following Chinatown, Polanski's next film was The Tenant (1976), which also was shot in Europe. In 1977, while staying at the Los Angeles home that Nicholson shared with actress Anjelica Huston, Polanski was charged with statutory rape of a thirteen-year-old girl. He eventually pled guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, but on 1 Feb 1978, while awaiting sentencing in the highly publicized and controversial case, Polanski left the U.S. to live in Europe.
       Friends and lawyers of Polanski attempted to reach an agreement with American authorities for many years, most prominently in the time period surrounding his nomination and subsequent win of an Academy Award for Best Director for the 2002 film The Pianist. Events surrounding the rape charge, Polanski's flight from the U.S. and attempts to close the case, were the subject of the 2008 documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.
       On 26 Sep 2009, Polanski was arrested by Swiss authorities when he arrived in Zurich to attend the Zurich Film Festival, where he was to be given a tribute. According to numerous news reports in Sep and Oct 2009, Polanski maintains a second home in Switzerland and has visited many times over the years. Polanski's supporters, particularly within the film community on both sides of the Atlantic, expressed outrage that the Swiss authorities chose that time to honor an extradition treaty with the U.S. Polanski later was allowed to leave confinement and move to monitored house arrest in his Swiss home. On 12 Jul 2010, Swiss authorities officially denied the U.S. request for extradition, citing technical issues with the case, and Polanski was free to leave his home.
       Critics had high praise for Chinatown, citing not only the direction, screenplay and acting, but also Richard Sylbert's art direction and Anthea Sylbert's period costumes. Dunaway's costumes and 1930s look received particular attention in fashion magazines, such as W, which devoted a 28 Dec 1973 multipage feature to her clothes. According to studio publicity notes, the production used sixty-five vintage cars, highlighted by Evelyn's cream-colored Packard convertible. The overall look of the film, according to several contemporary articles, began with Evans, who wanted the picture to emulate a classic Hollywood film noir. The original key art for Chinatown, highlighted that image, depicting a stylized drawing of Nicholson wearing a pinstripe suit and fedora, smoking a cigarette with smoke that floats up to a sketch of Dunaway.
       Several critics pointed out that Jake was a classic Hollywood detective in the tradition of "Philip Marlowe" and "Sam Spade," although more financially successful and better dressed. One aspect of Gittes that differed from traditional Hollywood detectives, and was written about by many critics, was that, following the knife attack, the character's nose is completely covered by a large bandage for several scenes, after which his nose remains partially obscured by heavy stitches. As noted in reviews, audiences were shocked by the sudden violence of the nose-cutting scene and, according to Polanski in the GQ interview, he and Nicholson had received more questions about it over the years than any other aspect of the film.
       Chinatown received one Academy Award, which went to Towne for Best Original Screenplay. The picture also received additional Academy Award nominations in the following categories: Actor (Nicholson), Actress (Dunaway), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume design, Directing, Film editing, Music--Original Dramatic Score, Sound and Best Picture. Although the picture was a success at the box office and critically well received, most of the major Academy Awards that year went to The Godfather Part II (See entry).
       Critical appraisal of Chinatown has remained strong through the years. It has been on numerous "best films" lists, and in 1991, was selected by the National Film Preservation Board to be included in the National Film Resistry. The picture was ranked 21st on AFI's 2007 100 Years…100 Movies--10th Anniversary Edition list of the greatest American films, moving down from the 19th position it held on AFI's 1997 list. In 2008, it was ranked 2nd on AFI's 10 Top 10 list of the ten greatest American film mysteries of all time.
       Jerry Goldsmith's score, highlighted by its haunting trumpet solo, has been celebrated by both contemporary and modern critics as one of the best, most recognizable film scores of all time, and frequently has been included in concert repertoires devoted to film music. In the 1984 GQ interview, Polanski mentioned that he initially had mixed music by classical composer Phillip Lambro "for one scene." Polanski added that Evans had insisted Goldsmith be brought onto the project to compose a new score after a preview of the film with Lambro's music proved unsuccessful. At a 1995 Los Angeles Film Critics Critic's Choice program in honor of Chinatown, Goldsmith, Towne and others revealed that time constrictions forced Goldsmith to finish the score in eight to ten days.
       At the 1995 event, Towne discussed the ending of the picture, which was changed by Polanski from Towne's original screenplay. As described in a 24 Apr 1995 HR article on the event, Towne's script ended with a drought-breaking rainstorm, during which Evelyn kills her father and is allowed to be with her daughter. In addition to "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown," another line of the film's dialogue that has become famous is "She's my daughter. She's my sister...She's my sister and my daughter," spoken by Dunaway when it is finally revealed that "Katherine" (Belinda Palmer), is her daughter, born after Evelyn was raped by her father.
       For many years after Chinatown, there were attempts by Nicholson, Towne and Evans to follow-up the story with a sequel. The result was finally released in 1990 as The Two Jakes, co-produced by Nicholson, Evans and several others. That film picked up the story of Jake Gittes in 1948. Because Polanski was by then in exile in Europe, he could not work on the picture, which was directed by Nicholson and written by Towne. In addition to Nicholson, actors Mantell, Lopez and James Hong reprised their roles from Chinatown. Although a third film had been intended to complete a Los Angeles trilogy, the critical and box office failure of The Two Jakes effectively killed the final project.