Devil in a Blue Dress
Directed by:
Carl FranklinScreenplay:
Walter MosleyCinematography:
Tak FujimotoComposer:
Elmer BernsteinCast:
Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, Don Cheadle, Maury Chaykin, Terry Kinney, Albert Hall, Lisa Nicole Carson, Beau Starr, L. Scott Caldwell (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
The bone-deep disillusionment of postwar film noir becomes a powerful vehicle to explore America’s racial injustices in Carl Franklin’s richly atmospheric Devil in a Blue Dress, an adaptation of the hard-boiled novel by Walter Mosley. Denzel Washington has charisma to burn as the jobless ex-GI Easy Rawlins, who sees a chance to make some quick cash when he’s recruited to find the missing lover (Jennifer Beals) of a wealthy mayoral candidate in late-1940s Los Angeles - only to find himself embroiled in murder, political intrigue, and a scandal that crosses the treacherous color lines of a segregated society. Featuring breakout work by Don Cheadle as Rawlins’s cheerfully trigger-happy sidekick, this stylish mystery both channels and subverts classic noir tropes as it exposes the bitter racial realities underlying the American dream. (Criterion)
(more)Reviews (2)
Denzel Washington usually doesn't disappoint, and surprisingly, he doesn't disappoint in this noir film either, which feels a bit too contrived to have the right dark yet masculine atmosphere with explosive scenes. It's too contrived and not gritty enough. Still, I like the fact that in the 90s they made films like this.
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It's unusual in the context of the leading role of the African American community and related bidirectional barriers of segregation, but otherwise, the genre conventions remain unchanged. The man on the trail of a mysterious woman is used to be exploited, and amid a pile of questions and corpses, he gradually realizes that from the start, it was about something different. Something involving sex, shooting, and a few broken hearts. Carl Franklin could have delivered it more compellingly, but some details are worth noting. The impressive Denzel Washington, various types of Cadillac wrecks, the cynical Tom Sizemore, the unrelated involvement of an overly active neighborly lumberjack, and last but not least, the crazy Texan Mouse Cheadle, in whose vicinity it’s not safe. “If you ain't want him dead, why you leave him with me?”
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