1974 Hit Film, Given a Darker Ending After Bitter Feud, Ranked Among Greatest Films of All Time
In 1974, director Roman Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne famously battled over the ending of Chinatown, but the darker conclusion they ultimately landed on helped turn the neo-noir into one of the most acclaimed films in Hollywood history.
Released in June 1974, Chinatown starred Jack Nicholson as private investigator J.J. "Jake" Gittes alongside Faye Dunaway and John Huston. Set against a backdrop of corruption, greed and water-rights scandals in 1930s Los Angeles, the film became a critical sensation and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made. The American Film Institute ranked it No. 19 on its list of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time, while AFI also named it the second-greatest mystery film ever made, second only to the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo.
But two of the movie's defining elements nearly looked completely different.
Towne originally envisioned a far more hopeful ending in which Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) survived and the villains faced consequences; he also didn't think Mulwray and Gittes should become romantically involved. Polanski strongly disagreed on both counts, believing the film needed a bleaker conclusion to stand apart from a more traditional Hollywood thriller. According to Turner Classic Movies, the dispute became one of the most famous creative clashes of 1970s filmmaking.
Polanski later explained exactly why he fought for the darker ending
"I was alone in wanting Gittes and Evelyn Mulwray to go to bed together, and Towne and I couldn't agree on an ending. Towne wanted the evil tycoon to die and his daughter, Evelyn, to live. He wanted a happy ending; all would turn out okay for her after a short spell in jail. I knew that if Chinatown was to be special, not just another thriller where the good guys triumph in the final reel, Evelyn had to die."
The disagreement went beyond the ending itself. Polanski reportedly felt Towne's original screenplay was too sprawling and demanded major cuts and rewrites before filming began. In his autobiography, Polanski said the script "simply couldn't have been filmed as it stood."
Towne eventually acknowledged that Polanski's instincts had been correct, even though the darker ending initially frustrated him. The devastating final scene, which ends with the now-iconic line "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown," became central to the film's legacy and helped cement its cynical, morally ambiguous tone.
The screenplay itself had already attracted attention long before production began. Towne loosely based the story on real corruption scandals connected to California water rights during the early 20th century, blending political greed with deeply personal tragedy. Producer Robert Evans reportedly purchased the screenplay based only on Towne's one-line story pitch before the writer spent roughly 18 months developing the script into a finished screenplay.
Production on the film was often tense. Polanski clashed repeatedly with cast and crew members, including Dunaway and even Nicholson at times. Nicholson later admitted of the director, "He's an irritating person whether he's making a movie or not making a movie."
Despite the friction behind the scenes, the finished movie earned 11 Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Towne's screenplay. Critics praised the film's haunting atmosphere and bleak worldview, which many felt reflected the growing distrust and Watergate-era cynicism of the 1970s.
More than 50 years later, Chinatown continues to influence crime thrillers and neo-noir films, while its unforgettable ending remains one of the most discussed conclusions in movie history.
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This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 7:05 AM.