Screaming fans routinely line up outside Robert Towne's window, chanting, "We want more Gittes! More Gittes!"

Not actually. Chinatown ain't that kind of movie.

Chinatown doesn't have a cult of followers like Star Wars. No one's going to dress up like Jake Gittes on Halloween…because it's not an instantly recognizable costume, like, say, Chewbacca.

But cinema buffs pretty much universally love this movie. Screenwriting professors particularly let their fanboy out when it comes to Chinatown—they routinely assign Towne's script as one of the greatest examples of plotting and screenplay construction.