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WHAT IT'S ABOUT:

Hired by glamorous Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) to snap incriminating photos of her husband, private dick J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Nicholson) thinks he's on a routine investigation of spousal infidelity. It turns out Evelyn is actually the daughter of powerful baron Noah Cross (Huston), and the seamy revelations only mount from there, drawing Jake deeper into a hornet's nest of incest, betrayal, and corruption in seedy 1930's Los Angeles.

WHY I LOVE IT:

Cynical, brooding, and knotted with mystery, Polanski's "Chinatown" is not just one of the best films ever made about the City of Angels, earning a dozen Oscar nominations--it's also one of the most superbly crafted, post-"40s noirs you'll ever see. The cast, of course, can't be beat: Dunaway is at one jittery, seductive and impenetrable, Nicholson is at the top of his game as the Chandleresque former cop Jake, and Huston delivers a titanic performance as the arrogant Cross. Watch for Polanski himself as a knife-wielding thug with a grudge against nosy people.

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