MovieChat Forums > Chinatown (1974) Discussion > would Cross be charged with anything ???

would Cross be charged with anything ???


and would he get custody of Katherine ??

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With the passage of time since the event, and Evelyn being [spoiler]dead[/spoiler], charges would be unlikely. He could probably pull poliotical strings to get custody....though I don't remember her age. Is she 15?

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Evelyn was 15 when she was raped.

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I mean Katherine's age at the close of the film...since we're discussing custody.

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her age is never given late teens I would guess

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Maybe Cross will not even move for custody, if she's 18.

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his motivation may have been sexual who knows.

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The movie was meant to suggest that Cross, being as rich as he was and connected as he was..would get away with everything.

Murder and custody of Catherine.

Gittes looks pretty catatonic and out of it at the end, like he couldn't fight back.

Of course, we got a sequel 16 years later ("The Two Jakes") that explained how things turned out, but honestly, I can't remember a thing about THAT answer.

Still, let's say that Jake "snapped out of it" and went to the cops to press charges against Cross. By now, Cross has the glasses and knows his cover story and alibi -- and trying to PROVE he killed Hollis is going to require a lot of legal proving. The cops might not even arrest him. The DA might not even charge him. And as one of Jake's "operatives" says early on "the guy you arrest is probably gonna be best friends with the judge who gets the case."

"In real life," Hollywood around this time was rife with movie stars and directors and writers getting off on everything from rape to assault to murder. I think Noah Cross could have gotten away with it all, too.

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Evelyn wasn't raped. She said so herself.

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Doubt it, first of all with Evelyn dead Gitties doesn’t have any evidence and secondly with the connections Cross has no one is ever going to prosecute

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