Mon 30 Jan 2023
Movie Trailers I’m Watching: CHINATOWN (1974).
Posted by Steve under Movie & TV Trailers[19] Comments
Is this the second best Private Eye movie ever made?
[19] Comments
[19] Comments
Mon 30 Jan 2023
Is this the second best Private Eye movie ever made?
January 30th, 2023 at 5:45 pm
No, Chinatown is second to none. The way movies are supposed to be and are so seldom.
January 30th, 2023 at 5:58 pm
OK, I’ll bite. What’s the first??
It’s not MY second but is certainly in my top ten.
I’ll still go with “The Maltese Falcon” #1,
“Big Sleep” #2 (Bogart version, of course), “Murder My Sweet” #3 (I do really like the Mitchum version
as well), the first “Thin Man” (second one as well,
with Jimmy Stewart as the murderer), “Out Of the Past” (which I consider a P.I. movie, as Mitchum IS one when hired***This is also my #1 Film Noir as well), “Lady in the Lake” (there again I think most don’t care for it because of the subjective camera work- It’s unique enough and the supporting cast is terrific! and also has my favorite Femme Fatale, Audrey Totter in some tight fitting colthes), “Kiss Me Deadly” (gotta get a Spillane in there somehow, and I do like the movie), well that’s seven so far. I’ll have to think about the rest but that should start a good conversation among all the regulars of this blog. Thanks Steve for posting. I ‘ll look forward to your top 10!!
January 30th, 2023 at 6:43 pm
I’m cool with calling Chinatown 2nd after Maltese Falcon. But it’s tied for 2nd with 8 others to form a top ten list of one #1 and 9 movies tied for #2:
Vertigo
Out of the Past
Big Lebowski
Night Moves
Big Sleep
The Conversation
The Long Goodbye
Angel Heart
January 30th, 2023 at 7:17 pm
Adding some others not already suggested–
HARPER
MARLOWE (the 1969 one; not the 2023 Liam Neeson, which I haven’t seen yet)
THE GIRL HUNTERS
GUNN
GONE BABY GONE
January 30th, 2023 at 8:38 pm
I’d go with CHINATOWN the best modern P.I. movie, FALCON the best classical.
I’m a little surprised DARK CORNER didn’t show up on anyone’s best list, not at the top, but certainly on the list.
January 30th, 2023 at 10:10 pm
“I’d go with CHINATOWN the best modern P.I. movie, FALCON the best classical.”
That’s cuts to the core the problem I was having, and solves it. Well said.
As for DARK CORNER, that’s why I don’t have a Top Ten List. I would have forgotten that one altogether. Thanks for reminding me. It’s an absolute favorite.
January 30th, 2023 at 9:10 pm
Agreed, David, and they both have references to John Huston. Not an accident.
January 30th, 2023 at 10:37 pm
Tony in comment #3: I was only talking about P. I. Movies. I don’t consider Vertigo, Lebowski, The Conversation, to be P. I. Category.
I haven’t seen Angel Heart in years so I won’t comment on it.
The Long Goodbye just sucks in every way possible. I saw it at the movies when it came out and several times since and it still sucks.
Comment #4. Fred, I agree with Harper. I should have mentioned it above, and I do like The Girl Hunters as well. Thanks for listing them.
January 30th, 2023 at 11:36 pm
FYI, everyone. CHINATOWN is currently streaming on HBO Max.
You’re on your own finding all of the other PI movies mentioned so far. (You can’t go wrong with any of the them.)
January 30th, 2023 at 11:49 pm
One PI movie I don’t believe has been mentioned yet is DEAD AGAIN, with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson from 1991. I’ve seen it once back then in the early 90s, and never since. I wonder if it holds up as well as I thought it did back then.
January 30th, 2023 at 11:55 pm
I remember being badly disappointed with THE TWO JAKES. Was I being overly critical? Is it time to give it another chance?
January 30th, 2023 at 11:57 pm
Overly generous towards Dead Again and dead on re The Two jakes. A major disappointment.
January 31st, 2023 at 9:00 am
Dick Lochte’s TOP 20 PRIVATE EYE MOVIES (in order of preference):
1. The Maltese Falcon (Huston/Bogart version)
2. Chinatown
3. Murder, My Sweet
4. Out of the Past
5. The Big Sleep (the original, not the Mitchum-Winner remake)
6. Twilight (with Paul Newman, not the vampire crap)
7. The Big Lebowski
8. Vertigo
9. Hickey and Boggs
10. Zero Effect
11. Kiss Me Deadly
12. Devil in a Blue Dress
13. Gumshoe
14. Farewell, My Lovely
15. The Thin Man
16. Harper
17. My Favorite Brunette
18. Night Moves
19. Tony Rome
20. PJ
via http://newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com/2010/08/dick-lochtes-top-20-private-eye-novels.html
January 31st, 2023 at 2:50 pm
Some of these, as I think Paul might have pointed out, may be only marginally PI movies, and IMHO some are only marginally good PI movies, but all in all, this is a Good List.
January 31st, 2023 at 9:52 am
I have always believed And Then There Were None, the 1945 variation with a script by Dudley Nichols and an all-star cast put through their paces by
Rene Clair belongs near the top of that list, just above. Vastly superior in every way to Agatha Christie’s original, and of course, the theatrical variation despite there being no official detective, Philip Lombard functions from the beginning as one.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:30 pm
Wow. What a dogfight. The boys in the back room are spoiling tonight. What goes on here?
I agree most firmly, with post #1.
And almost in the same breath, post #5. Just feels right.
Post #2: one item a resounding yes: the hilariousness of Jimmy Stewart playing a cold-blooded killer. What a hoot! Can’t even stand it. Look at the way he shifts his eyes from side-to-side like a hunted animal. Stewart also had fine lungs for a killer. Breathy, slightly husky voice. What a scream.
Post #2, 3,4, 6,7,8,9,10 and so on –all talking about flicks which are not (to me) strictly “private eye”, as stated in the OP.
Specifics count. These others …are all sorts of things. Comedy, noir, hard-boiled crime, etc. I feel ‘detective’ is a certain kind of thing of its own.
Boilerplate classic American detective: Sam Spade. Can’t imagine any better. Paul Cain’s stuff is as intense but, gamblers are not detectives.
Spade wasn’t first but seems like the first fully-formed mold from which everything else later sprang. Plymouth Rock.
Of the moderns, yep I gotta vote none better than Robert Towne and Chinatown. I lurv even just reading the script.
Very comfortable designating C-town as the most quintessential modern which reunites us with Spade.
Brand me for a horse thief. That’s how I call it.
February 1st, 2023 at 8:53 pm
CHINATOWN was made nearly fifty years ago. It’s closer to THE MALTESE FALCON than to us historically. Surely it’s classical now.
February 1st, 2023 at 9:21 pm
A timely observation, Roger, and looking back now, a scary one!
February 2nd, 2023 at 1:25 am
From screenwriter Robert Towne’s IMDb trivia page:
“Originally planned to write three films about detective Jake Gittes, each of which would deal with government corruption in setting up certain utilities to develop the city of Los Angeles. The first, Chinatown (1974), dealt with stealing water from nearby areas. The second The Two Jakes (1990), dealt with the oil industry. The third, Cloverleaf, was to be about the gutting of public transportation in favor of freeways. Though this was never filmed as a Jake Gittes vehicle, this same premise became the basis for Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), complete with Cloverleaf being the name of the holding company. Like Chinatown and The Two Jakes, it also begins with an adultery case.”