Daily Dialogue — October 16, 2010

Noah Cross: Well, Mr. Gittes, you don’t look too much the worse for wear, I must say! Now where’s the girl?
Jake Gittes: I’ve got her.
Noah Cross: Is she alright?
Jake Gittes: She’s fine.
Noah Cross: Well, where is she?
Jake Gittes: With her mother… Got something I’d like to show you, Mr. Cross.
Noah Cross: What is it?
Jake Gittes: An obituary column. Can you see all right in this light?
Noah Cross: I guess I can manage…What does it mean?
Jake Gittes: That you killed Hollis Mulwray — right here — in that pond. You drowned him, and you left these [the bifocals]. Coroner’s report shows Mulwray had saltwater in his lungs.
Noah Cross: Hollis was always fascinated by tidepools. You know what he used to say?…That’s where life begins. Sloughs, tidepools. When he first come out here, he figured if you dumped water into the desert sand and let it percolate down to the bedrock, it would stay there instead of evaporate the way it does in most reservoirs. You only lose 20% instead of 70 or 80. He made this city.
Jake Gittes: That’s what you were going to do in the valley.
Noah Cross: That’s what I am doing. If the bond issue passes Tuesday, there’ll be eight million dollars to build an aqueduct and reservoir. I’m doing it.
Jake Gittes: Gonna be a lot of irate citizens when they find out that they’re paying for water that they’re not gonna get.
Noah Cross: Oh, that’s all taken care of. You see, Mr. Gits. Either you bring the water to LA or you bring LA to the water.
Jake Gittes: How you gonna do that?
Noah Cross: By incorporating the valley into the city. Simple as that.
Jake Gittes: How much are you worth?
Noah Cross: I have no idea. How much do you want?
Jake Gittes: I just wanna know what you’re worth. More than 10 million?
Noah Cross: Oh my, yes!
Jake Gittes: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can’t already afford?
Noah Cross: The future, Mr. Gittes! The future. Now, where’s the girl? I want the only daughter I’ve got left. As you found out, Evelyn was lost to me a long time ago.
Jake Gittes: Who do you blame for that? Her?
Noah Cross: I don’t blame myself. You see, Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place, they’re capable of ANYTHING.

 — Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), Noah Cross (John Huston), Chinatown (1974), written by 
Robert Towne

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is exposition, suggested by The Unknown Lyricist. Chinatown suggested by DeafEars.

Trivia: Roman Polanski has said that the dark ending to the film was a result of his own despair following the murder of his wife, actress Sharon Tate.
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