J.J. 'Jake' Gittes (Jack!) is a private detective in Depression-era Los Angeles. Hired by a rather plain middle-aged woman who insists that her husband is unfaithful, he is quickly drawn into a bewildering and dangerous trail of deceit, murder, politics, sabotage and sex that revolves around Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway), stunningly beautiful daughter of ruthless tycoon Noah Cross (Huston), who aims to remake the city to his own advantage. Stylish, self-assured, fond of dirty jokes, Gittes is part cynic, part dupe and always willing to match wits and trade blows with a variety of foes in order to resolves his case.

Nicholson provides an uncharacteristically understated performance as Gittes and Dunaway's femme fatale is the full equal of Stanwyck or Davis at their best.

Very loosely inspired by the seizure of the water resources of the Owne River Valley in 1908, Chinatown is much more than a stereotypical detective story. It is a serious re-interpretation of the film noir of the 1930s and 40s, which is not only evoked aesthetically through the imaginative use of light and shade, but ethically through the revelation of the amorality that lies at the foundations of Los Angeles itself