Question for fans of the film "Chinatown" (contains plot spoiler)

[begin_within]

After watching this film 4 times, I still can't figure out why Mr. Mulwray had salt water in his backyard pond. They make a point of this and make it seem like it is significant - when the gardener says, "Salt water... bad for glass" Jack Nicholson stops in his tracks, as if a key plot twist had just been discovered. But what does it mean? Why did that pond have salt water in it?
Thanks

[Blue_Tires]

1. wouldn't he need the salt water for the fish?

i don't remember if there was any fish in there, but an asian garden-style pond usually would

[petronius]

2. There wasn't a particular reason for it to be saltwater,

except that it was the kind of landscaping that Mulwray had selected. Perhaps he wanted an artificial tidepool, or perhaps he disliked the idea of using fresh water for decoration.

It was significant because it was known that Mulwray had drowned in salt water - combined with the glasses the gardener's statement exposed where he had died...

[begin_within]

3. So who killed him? Evelyn Mulwray or Noah Cross or one of his henchmen?

[petronius]

4. Noah Cross did

The glasses in the pool belonged to him (Mrs. Mulwray tells Jake that they were not the kind that Mulwray wore).

[devilgrrl]

5. Weren't there saltwater fish in the pond?

And wasn't his (Mr. Mulwray) body found elsewhere with saltwater in his lungs? What I got from that was it tipped the Nicholson character off that he was most likely killed at his house and dumped? :shrug:

[henslee]

6. Chinatown. What a film.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

7. Here's your answer:

Mulwray had salt water in his backyard pond -- why he did is incidental.

However, when the Asian gardener says "bad for glass," (meaning "grass") the first time, Gittes thinks nothing of it. The second time the gardener says it (towards the end of the movie), he adds, "Salt water very bad for glass."

Nicholson hears "salt water" and is surprised, since Mulwray had salt water in his lungs when he died, which is unusual because Mulwray's body was pulled out of a fresh water reservoir.

Nicholson then looks into the pond and spots a pair of bifocals he thinks belonged to Mulwray, so when the gardener said "glass," he was technically, though unknowingly, correct.

When Nicholson confronts Faye Dunaway, Dunaway said Mulwray didn't wear bifocals. But Noah Cross does, and Nicholson presents them to Noah Cross later, when Cross gives him "The future, Mr. Gittes, the future" speech.

Ergo, Noah Cross killed Mulwray in Mulwray's backyard pond.

[nytemare]

10. I need to watch that movie again.

It has been about 10 years. I have Cuckoo's Nest on DVD. Time to get Chinatown.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. Sorry, Gittes = Nicholson.

I'm sure you realized that, but reading it again, my post may seem to indicate it was two different people.

[begin_within]

15. That makes sense - thanks. Some people claim that Evelyn killed Mulwray

in her backyard then had his body dumped at the reservoir - but that doesn't seem likely to me

[Starbucks Anarchist]

17. No problem.

Evelyn kept quiet because of her (literally) incestuous relationship with Noah Cross.

[sarge43]

8. One of the subtle marks of the super rich ....

Salt water fauna and flora are much more difficult to maintain in an artificial environment than the fresh water kind. It would take constant care and an expert to do so. Plus, Mulwray seemed fascinated by anything to do with water.

FWIW

[bridgit]

9. that is correct, in addition, Mulwray had married into the fictional...

equivalent of the Wrigley family http://www.coastwalk.org/Hikes/06Walks/LA.Catalina.html

Imagine the Chicago Cubs in spring training on Catalina for the pleasure of their owners and the island’s owners, the Wrigley family; or Zane Grey or Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright’s son) rubbing elbows with intellectuals and celebrities of the day.

[petronius]

12. Doesn't Cross talk about the pool in his confrontation with Gittes?

I think he says something about how Mulwray was always fascinated by tidepools, since they are where all life began (which is a bit ironic for Mulwray).

[sarge43]

14. Bingo, petronius

That's exactly what Cross said.

[Sequoia]

13. Because he was drowned in the ocean first.

[Lisa]

16. what others mentioned earlier -- I think it was an artifical tidepool

It's relatively shallow, and there seem to be anemones or other creatures visible in it, amongst the rocks. (I'll have to look at the scenes in the film again, to be sure.)

I seem to recall someone in the movie (petronius says Cross, and that's most likely true) mentioning that Mulwray was fascinated by sea life -- there's that scene where Jake observes him lingering at the seaside, not just because he's waiting to see whether the water outflow is being diverted there -- and I think at one point he's looking at a starfish or something?

Because the body had been recovered from the reservoir, the fact that the water in Mulwray's lungs was saltwater was somewhat significant (he had been drowned somewhere else so the body had been moved). Jake had assumed he was killed at the seaside -- but he hadn't realized the thing about the pool at Mulwray's house being saltwater until the gardener mentioned it. When he saw the glasses in the pool, he realized that must have been where the struggle took place ... logical to assume that they were Mulwray's glasses, but the film puts in an additional twist.

By the way, I had to watch the movie 3 times too, before I picked up on the thing about whose glasses were really in the pond (and therefore, who the murderer must be). I'd got the initial crime scene right, but not the culprit.

Oh, something else -- the gardener seems to be scraping up dead grass, some distance away from the pool. Leakage of salt water into the soil could be causing the damage -- but it might also have been due to water splashing out of the pool during a struggle. (More evidence of the murder, perhaps?)

[NNadir]

18. Noah Cross gives the answer.

When he's telling Jake how he killed Hollis he says (I'm paraphrasing) "Hollis was obsessed with tide pools. He always said 'that's where life begins.'"

Hollis was a techno-nerd. He was pure engineer and scientist. He was about the only purely decent person in the entire film.