Chinatown Page #3

AT THE OUTFALL:

Gittes spots Mulwray just below him, kicking at the sand.

Mulwray picks up a starfish. Brushes the sand off it. Looks

absently up toward Gittes.

11.

GITTES:

backs away, sits near the outfall, yawns.

BEACON LIGHT AT POINT FERMIN

flashing in the dust.

CLOSE - GITTES

sitting, suddenly starts. He swears softly -- he's in a puddle

of water and the seat of his trousers is wet.

MULWRAY:

below him in watching the water trickling down from the

outfall near Gittes. Mulwray stands and stares at the water,

apparently fascinated. Even as Gittes watches Mulwray

watching, the volume and velocity seem to increase until it

gushes in spurts, cascading into the sea, whipping it into a

foam.

AT THE STREET - GITTES' CAR

There's a slip of paper stuck under the windshield wiper.

Gittes pulls it off, gets in the car and turns on the dash

light. It says:
"SAVE OUR CITY! LOS ANGELES IS DYING OF

THIRST! PROTECT YOUR PROPERTY! LOS ANGELES IS YOUR INVESTMENT

IN THE FUTURE!!! VOTE YES NOVEMBER 6......CITIZENS COMMITTEE

TO SAVE OUR CITY, HON. SAM BAGBY, FORMER MAYOR - CHAIRMAN."

Gittes grumbles, crumples it up and tosses it out the window.

He notices other flyers parked on a couple of cars down the

street. Gittes reaches down and opens his glove compartment.

INT. GLOVE COMPARTMENT

consists of a small mountain of Ingersoll pocket watches.

The cheap price tags are still on them. Gittes pulls out

one. He absently winds it, checks the time with his own

watch. It's 9:
37 as he walks to .Mulwray's car and places

it behind the front wheel of Mulwray's car. He yawns again

and heads back to his own car.

GITTES:

arrives whistling, opens the door with "J.J. GITTES AND

ASSOCIATES - DISCREET INVESTIGATION" on it.

GITTES:

Morning, Sophie.

Sophie hands him a small pile of messages. He goes through

them.

GITTES:

Walsh here?

12.

SOPHIE:

He's in the dark room.

Gittes walks through his office to Duffy and Walsh's. A

little red light is on in the corner, over a closed door.

Gittes walks over and knocks on the door.

GITTES:

Where'd he go yesterday?

WALSH'S VOICE

Three reservoirs -- Men's room of a

Richfield gas station on Flower, and

the Pig 'n Whistle.

GITTES:

Jesus Christ, this guy's really got

water on the brain.

WALSH'S VOICE

What'd you expect? That's his job.

GITTES:

Listen, we can't string this broad

out indefinitely -- we got to come

up with something.

WALSH'S VOICE

I think I got something.

GITTES:

Oh yeah? You pick up the watch?

INT. DUFFY & WALSH'S OFFICE - GITTES

WALSH'S VOICE

It's on your desk. Say, you hear the

one about the guy who goes to the

North Pole with Admiral Byrd looking

for penguins?

Gittes walks to his office.

ON HIS DESK:

is the Ingersoll watch, the crystal broken -- the hands

stopped at 2:
47.

GITTES:

He was there all night.

Gittes drops it, sits down. Walsh comes in carrying a series

of wet photos stuck with clothes pins onto a small blackboard.

GITTES:

(continuing; eagerly)

So what you got?

13.

Walsh shows him the photos. He looks at them. They are a

series outside a restaurant showing Mulwray with another man

whose appearance is striking. In two of the photos a gnarled

cane is visible.

GITTES:

(continuing; obviously

annoyed)

This?

WALSH:

They got into a terrific argument

outside the Pig 'n Whistle.

GITTES:

What about?

WALSH:

I don't know -- the traffic was pretty

loud. I only heard one thing -- apple

core.

GITTES:

Apple core?

WALSH:

(shrugs)

Yeah.

INT. GITTES' OFFICE

Gittes tosses down the photos in disgust.

GITTES:

Jesus Christ, Walsh -- that's what

you spent your day doing?

WALSH:

Look, you tell me to take pictures,

I take pictures.

GITTES:

Let me explain something to you,

Walsh -- this business requires a

certain finesse -

The PHONE has been RINGING. Sophie buzzes him.

GITTES:

Yeah, Sophie?

(he picks up the phone)

Duffy, where are you?

Duffy's VOICE can be HEARD, excitedly -- "I got it. I got

it. He's found himself some cute little twist - in a rowboat,

in Echo Park."

14.

GITTES:

(continuing)

Okay, slow down -- Echo Park -(

to Walsh)

Jesus, water again.

WESTLAKE PARK (MCARTHUR PARK)

Duffy is rowing, Gittes seated in the stern. They pass

Mulwray and a slender blonde girl in a summer print dress,

drifting in their rowboat, Mulwray fondly doting on the girl.

GITTES:

(to Duffy, as they

pass)

Let's have a big smile, pal.

He shoots past Duffy, expertly running off a couple of fast

shots. Mulwray and the girl seem blissfully unaware of them.

DUFFY:

turns again and they row past Mulwray and the girl, Gittes

again clicking off several fast shots.

CLOSE SHOT - SIGN:

"EL MACANDO APARTMENTS" MOVE ALONG the red tiled roof and

down to a lower level of the roof where Gittes' feet are

hooked over the apex of the roof and Gittes himself is

stretched face downward on the tiles, pointing himself and

his camera to a veranda below him where the girl and Mulwray

are eating.

Gittes is clicking off more shots when the tiles his feet

are hooked over come loose. Gittes begins a slow slide down

the tile to the edge of the roof -- and possibly over it to

a three-story drop. He tries to slow himself down. The loose

tile also begins to slide.

Gittes stops himself at the roof's edge by the storm drain

and begins a very precarious turn - this time hooking his

feet in the drain itself. The loose tile falls and hits the

veranda below. He stops as it's about to slide over the edge.

He carefully lays it in the drain. But a fragment off the

cracked edge of the tile falls.

WITH MULWRAY AND THE GIRL

Mulwray staring at the fragment at his feet. He looks to the

girl. He's clearly concerned. He rises, looks up to the roof.

FROM HIS POV:

The roof and the sign topping it betray nothing. He slowly

sits back down, staring at the tile fragment.

15.

CLOSE SHOT - NEWSPAPER DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER BLOWS

FUSE OVER CHIEF'S USE OF FUNDS FOR EL MACANDO LOVE NEST.

In the style of the Hearst yellow press, there is a heart-

shaped drawing around one of the photos that Gittes had taken.

Next to it is a smaller column, "J.J. Gittes hired by

suspicious spouse."

INT. BARBERSHOP - GITTES

holds the paper and reads while getting his haircut and his

shoes shined. In fact, almost all the customers are reading

papers.

BARNEY:

(to Gittes)

-- when you get so much publicity,

after a while you must get blas

about it.

A self-satisfied smile comes to Gittes' face.

BARNEY:

(continuing)

Face it. You're practically a movie

star.

In b.g., customers can be 0VERHEARD talking about the drought.

Interspersed with above, someone is saying, "They're gonna

start rationing water unless it rains."

Someone else says, "Only for washing your cars." Third says,

"You're not going to be able to water your lawn either, or

take a bath more than once a week." First says, "If you don't

have a lawn or a car, do you get an extra bath?"

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