Chinatown (1974)

Chinatown

Roman Polanski's 1974 neo-noir, written by Robert Towne around the Los Angeles water wars of the early twentieth century, follows private investigator J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) from a routine adultery job into a conspiracy over the city's water, opposite Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray and John Huston as her father Noah Cross. Paramount released it in June 1974, Towne's screenplay won the Academy Award, and it was Polanski's last American film. (IMDb)

Watches

Ingersoll watch

Worn by Jack Nicholson as J.J. 'Jake' Gittes. Heritage Auctions' Profiles in History: Icons & Legends of Hollywood sale (June 2018, lot 1720) sold the pocket watch Gittes gives up to clock Hollis Mulwray: a "Prop silver-metal plated Ingersoll brand pocket watch" with a "Face with Deco-style numbers and hands", about 2.25 inches across, most of its crystal gone and its body gouged in a way "suggesting that this is a version of the watch crushed by 'Hollis Mulwray's' car, which allows Jake to establish a timeline on the doomed water commissioner." Gittes wedges the watch under a rear tyre so that the dial stops at the moment Mulwray drives away, a trick that costs him a watch and no more, which is the point of an Ingersoll: the Waterbury-built dollar watch was the cheapest timepiece a 1930s detective could buy, and the Deco numerals suit the film's 1937 setting. The essay names the maker only; no Ingersoll model resolves. (Heritage Auctions)

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