Jake encounters a local character in the drought-ridden fields of Southern California.
amidst a hall of shimmering dust and heat, parched and
drying groves, narrower roads.
He passes a ramshackle home, next to a rotting orchard.
There is a "SOLD" sign on the collapsing barn.
Gittes stops -- checks it against the names he had taken from
the Hall of Records.
Gittes stops -- checks it against the names he had taken from
the Hall of Records.
156 OLD STUCCO BUILDINGS FURTHER ON.
and a few withered pepper trees. Gittes has paused at
this dried-up intersection. There is a "SOLD" sign on a
drug store. Gittes looks O.S.
Coming INTO VIEW above the arid fields is a spiraling
cloud of purple smoke. Gittes heads in that direction.
157 OMITTED
158 Gittes parks at the edge of the field. About twenty
yards away is a man mounted on a strange machine, holding
a lid off it -- billowing lavender clouds are belching forth.
Several CHILDREN are watching the man at work.
GITTES
(to one of the Children)
Say, pal, what's he doing?
CHILD
Making some rain.
busying himself with the intricacies of his machine.
He's aware of Gittes watching him.
Well, you're just the man I'm
looking for.
is immaculately dressed.
GITTES
Some associates and I are thinking
of buying property out here -- of
course, we're worried about the
rainfall.
The Rainmaker steps down.
RAINMAKER
No problem with me on the Job.
GITTES
-- Yeah.
(glancing around
at the desolate,
dry field)
Do you have any references?
159 RAINMAKER & GITTES
RAINMAKER
City of La Habra Heights -- filled
an 800,000 gallon reservoir with
sixteen inches of rain in two
days.
GITTES
(nods)
That's swell. But how about
here?
(pulling out names
from his pocket)
Ever worked for Robert Knox, Emma
Dill, Clarence Speer, Marian
Parsons, or Jasper Lamar Crabb?
RAINMAKER
Never heard of 'em... new owners?
GITTES
-- Yeah.
(climbing back up)
Lot of turnover these days.
Better tell them to get in touch
with me if they want to hang onto
their land.
GITTES
-- Yeah, I'll do that.
(Thanks to the edit room floor for a number of these photos of the Rainmaker scene - head on over to http://theeditroomfloor.blogspot.com.au/ for more rare and unseen pictures from Chinatown and other classic films)
Unless I'm very much mistaken, the Rainmaker was played by veteran character actor Royal Dano, whose credits include Gunsmoke, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Right Stuff and Twin Peaks.
Rainmakers, travelling showmen who claimed to be able to hold drought at bay, had their heyday in the early 20th century and re-emerged during the dust-bowl era of the 1930s. One of the most notorious, Charles Hatfield (right), was the inspiration for the 1956 film The Rainmaker, starring Burt Lancaster.
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