CHINACLOWN

CHINATOWN (1974)
dir: Roman Polanski

CHINACLOWN
MAD #173, March 1975
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker

Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a private investigator in the 1930s, mostly handling infidelity cases.


Curly is character actor Burt Young, though he wasn't famous enough from Rocky yet to get the full Drucker treatment. There are all sorts of set decorations exclusive to the 1930s, such as this portrait of Adolph Menjou, so you'll know that's when it's supposed to take place.

Evelyn Mulwray comes in asking to have her philandering husband Hollis (Darrell Zwerling) investigated. He works for the city water department.

Jake goes to a town meeting, pokes around, and finds the man and his girlfriend. With his assistant, Duffy (Bruce Glover), he solves the case. It gets in all the papers. And just when it looks like the case is closed, the real Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) comes in and says she's suing him for defamation of character.

In the actual movie, she walks in on him telling a dirty ethnic joke to his co-workers.

Jake realizes he's been set up and that Hollis was the real target, so now re-opens the case. When he looks around the dam some more, he runs into people he knew at his old beat in Chinatown such as Lt. Escobar (Perry Lopez), and finds Hollis has drowned.

There's a reference or two in the movie about how he doesn't like to be reminded of Chinatown, but it's not really that essential to the plot until later. From this parody, you'd think it was brought up all the time, because MAD uses it to get racial jokes out of this when they can. Wondering how Hollis could have drowned in a bone-dry reservoir, Jake investigates further and when a surge comes through a pipe he almost drowns himself.

He escapes but is caught by two goons (one of whom is played by director Roman Polanski) who cuts his nose. He spends the rest of the picture bandaged or in stitches, for which he was nominated for Best Actor with Bandaged Nose.

After further investigation, it turns out Hollis had a partner, Noah Cross (John Huston) who also happens to be Mrs. Mulwray's father. The case is now tied to a Water Works scandal, based on what was actually going on in Los Angeles in the early part of the century. Looking at town records, Jake sees that the water works department has been buying up land in the valley and diverting water to the city. Hollis was killed because he knew too much. Further, it is discovered names of residents from an old age home have been used to buy up land. Mrs. Mulwray is now involved in the case and helps Jake scam his way into the old age home.

The manager of the home suspects something and calls Mulvihill (Roy Jenson), Water Department security chief who had Jake's nose cut off. Jake hides in Mrs, Mulwray's house and they become romantically involved. She gets a mysterious phone call and has to leave in the middle of the night, says she has to go, and asks him to stay there. He leaves anyway and snoops around, seeing her with a younger woman. He then confronts her and demands to know who it is.

She confesses her father raped her as a teenager, which is probably why Polanski liked this script.

They flee town considering how dangerous he is. When they get to Chinatown, she's shot, and it's out of his hands, leading to the most famous line in the movie.
But MAD couldn't resist slipping in a couple Chinese laundry jokes.

MAD printed a letter a couple issues later, asking how Mort Drucker's likeness of Jack Nicholson was so accurate.

Cracked also called their version
CHINA CLOWN
Cracked #123, February 1975
a: Sururi Gumen

Mr. Yelburton (John Hillerman), who replaced Mulwray as head of the city's water works department, is not used in MAD's parody.

Neither specifically is Walsh (Joe Mantell).

Crazy #9, February 1975
a: Vance Rodewalt

Knife in the Water was Polanski's first feature.
Not sure how 'Noah Cross' became 'Carl Conduit'.

UPDATE:
There was the spoof Polynesiantown on SCTV.