The Film Trilogy That Could’ve Been
After titles in my Unsung Heroes In Entertainment series about forgotten Star Trek writer-producer Gene L. Coon and lesser-known Marvel comic book creator and artist Jack Kirby did well, I decided to write about something different. A darker topic despite staying in the same lane. One about a character intended to age throughout three different phases of Los Angeles history.
Jake Gittes was a young private investigator and the title character in Chinatown, probing into an extramarital affair tied to a Depression era water and power scandal. The film also centers around the wife and daughter of the two powerful moguls and what secret she hides beneath the surface. One leading to a fatal blow neither this woman nor the private eye is prepared for.
Chinatown debuted in theaters on June 20, 1974, and became a box office hit, making Jack Nicholson a household name beyond the confines of films such as Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces. The movie also proved to be the apex of the film noir renaissance in the 1970s. On the exact same day, a year later, Jawsushered in a focus on larger-than-life blockbusters and franchises. As a result, the film industry never looked back.
Despite its success, it would be over a decade and a half before the Chinatown sequel came out. While planned to be filmed and released in this fashion, many behind-the-scenes squabbles delayed the second installment of the Jake Gittes trilogy from its initial attempt at filming in April 1985 to its eventual release more than five years later, on August 10, 1990.
The Two Jakes concerned the now middle-aged Jake Gittes investigating another extramarital affair. This time tied to a real estate development built over a gas line after World War II. He is also surprised to learn how the mogul’s wife is connected to the tragic woman from the first film. Unlike Chinatown, this installment was not a box office hit. Many reasons have been given and could be interpreted as to why it paled in comparison to its predecessor. One might be Jack Nicholson’s attempt at being both lead actor and director left the final presentation lackluster and odd, including random camera shots that didn’t make sense. Tastes in both the film industry and the detective or mystery genre changed a great deal in the fifteen or so years between Chinatownand its sequel.
Another reason has to do with friction between screenwriter Robert Towne, actor-director Jack Nicholson, and former Paramount executive Robert Evans over the latter’s desire to portray real estate developer Jake Berman, despite not acting in films since the late 1950s. This led to a lot of wrangling that kept the film in development hell for more than five years. Some feel the absence of disgraced filmmaker Roman Polanski may have contributed to the film’s failure. Even though he has no one to blame but himself for his own personal misdeeds.
This brings us to the final installment in the planned trilogy, the film that could’ve been. Gittes vs. Gittes, a film set between the late 1950s and late 1960s. It would’ve addressed California’s No Fault Divorce Law, revealing both an elderly Jake Gittes’ own divorce and how his career as a matrimonial investigator would end as a result. Another theme explored might be the ex-wife’s relationship with an eccentric aviator in the vein of Howard Hughes. All three installments intended to represent disparate yet unifying themes that may have given moviegoers the mystery or detective equivalent to the original Star Wars trilogy.
Not only did the three films intend to show the character of Jake Gittes at different stages of his life, it also tackled the four natural elements in different eras of Los Angeles with earth, air, fire, and water. Again, it began with a young investigator probing into a Depression era water and power scandal in Chinatown. It proceeded to the middle-aged detective looking into a postwar real estate boom hiding a potential gasoline hazard in The Two Jakes and would have ended in Gittes vs. Gittes with the elderly private eye’s ex-wife involved with an aviator.
While the entire trilogy didn’t get a chance to play out in full, it showed a great deal of promise. Again, the notion of “what could’ve been’’ will always cast a long shadow over the saga of Jake Gittes, one which moviegoers will never see finished, and we’re all a tad less fortunate as a result.
While there have been books written on the film Chinatown, there has never been one on the intended trilogy screenwriter Robert Towne envisioned regarding a Los Angeles detective’s life and career across three different periods. This work represents success, failure, and what could have been.
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