This week’s mystery movie was the 1990 Paramount picture The Two Jakes, with Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Wallach, Ruben Blades, Frederic Forrest, Joe Mantell, Perry Lopez, David Keith, Tracey Walter, James Hong and Richard Farnsworth.

Casting by Terry Liebling.

Costumes by Wayne A. Finkelman.

Music by Van Dyke Parks.

Associate Producer Alan Finkelstein.

Edited by Anne Goursaud.

Production design by Jeremy Railton and Richard Sawyer.

Photography by Vilmos Zsigmond.

Written by Robert Towne.

Directed by Jack Nicholson.

A Robert Evans, Harold Schneider production.

Further information on The Two Jakes is available from the AFI Catalog.

The Two Jakes is available on Blu-ray from Critics’ Choice Video.

::

Continuing the theme of the oil business, I opted for The Two Jakes, the slow-moving and troubled sequel to Chinatown, responding to requests for more recent films and assurances that people don’t use Google’s reverse image search.

Most of the film was shot on a closed set, except for a courtroom sequence filmed at the Ventura County courthouse, and I was able to talk my way onto the set for a day. Jack Nicholson was extremely busy in the actor-director role, but took a moment to acknowledge a young fan who was wearing sneakers covered with Batman emblems as the hit movie had just come out. I had high expectations for The Two Jakes and was disappointed at the result. The film seemed to have all the elements – possibly too many – but nobody to put them together. And Richard Farnsworth was simply too nice a guy to ever seem malevolent.

We are in Vincent Canby territory. (The New York Times, August 10, 1990):

Anybody can begin a movie. It’s what happens from the midpoint on that separates the men from the boys. Jack Nicholson’s Two Jakes, the long-gestating sequel to Roman Polanski’s 1974 hit Chinatown, starts off with a lot of style and promise of period fun….

…There is a certain amount of musing about the effect of the past on the present. “Time changes things,” says Gittes with a good deal of solemnity. “You can’t forget the past any more than you can change it.” …  Gittes has also become tamer, less of a loose cannon, less riveting to watch. He might even subscribe to Reader’s Digest…. The hold of the past on the present is more clearly evident in the way that The Two Jakes appears to be inhibited by the memory of Chinatown.

For Monday, we have a mysterious woman.

Update: This is Meg Tilly, with whom I had a pleasant chat during a break in filming on a very warm day.

For Tuesday, we have an enigmatic mystery guest.

Update: This is Joe Mantell.

Brain Trust roll call: Matt Berger (Monday’s mysterious woman), Sylvia (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery woman), Roget-L.A. (Monday’s mystery woman) and Benito (Monday’s mystery woman).

For “Hm Wednesday,” we have a mysterious fellow.

Update: This is Ruben Blades.

We also have this mysterious fellow and Back of the Head Guy.

Update: This is James Hong with Jack Nicholson as Back of the Head Guy.

Brain Trust roll call: Megan and Thom (Monday’s mystery woman), Sylvia (Tuesday’s mysterious fellow), Roget-L.A. (mystery movie and Tuesday’s mystery gent) and Stacia (mystery movie and Monday’s and Tuesday’s mystery guests).

For “Aha Thursday,” we have a mysterious fellow.

Update: This is Perry Lopez at City Hall with some period-incorrect brass railings.

And another mysterious fellow.

Update: This is Eli Wallach.

Finally, a third enigmatic gent.

Update: This is Richard Farnsworth.

Brain Trust roll call: Sylvia (Wednesday’s mystery guests and Back of the Head Guy), Mary Mallory (mystery movie, Monday’s and Wednesday’s mysterious guests), L.C. (mystery movie and mysterious cast), Mike Hawks (Wednesday’s mystery guest No. 2), B.J. Merholz (Wednesday’s mystery guest No. 2), Megan and Thom (mystery movie and Wednesday’s mysterious guest No. 1), Boebert (Wednesday’s mystery guest No. 2) and Suz N Chaz (Wednesday’s mysterious guest No. 2).

For Friday, we have a mysterious woman.

Update: This is Madeleine Stowe.

And these mysterious gents.

Update: This is Harvey Keitel, left, and Jack Nicholson.

Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Tuesday’s and Thursday’s mysterious guests), B.J. Merholz (mystery movie), Benito (mystery movie and Thursday’s mysterious man No. 2), Mike Hawks (mystery movie and Monday’s and Thursday’s mysterious guests) and Sylvia (Thursday’s mystery guests).