Devil In A Blue Dress

Carl Franklin, USA 1995, 102 minutes

Although director Carl Franklin was considered a good prospect after the success of his debut feature One False Move, he had trouble getting the green light for Devil In A Blue Dress, a neo-noir based on the novel by Walter Mosley. That was until Denzel Washington came on board.

Set in late `40s LA, Devil follows Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins (Washington), an ex-GI who's moved out to California after the war, along with lots of others, to make a new life for himself. One of the few blacks to have bought his own home, Rawlins finds himself stuck when he is fired and has a mortgage to pay with no income. He is offered a job by a friend-of-a-friend (Tom Sizemore) of locating Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals), the missing girlfriend of a local mayoral candidate, who has a liking for the company of black men, and blues clubs. As the job pays good money, and seems legitimate, Easy accepts.

What starts out as some easy nosing around quickly turns dangerous, and before long Rawlins has become involved with two murders, and is being hassled by the local cops who are very willing to let him take the blame if no real suspects turn up.

Without throwing too many unexpected surprises into the mix, Devil manages to be enjoyable to watch. Although some of the supporting characters seem to have been created purely for light relief - Easy's friend Mouse (Don Cheadle) can't be trusted not to kill someone if left to guard them - and as such don't really fit in with the mood of the film, most of the cast, especially Washington, give fine performances.

Along with the cool jazz soundtrack, very fine attention has been paid to the period detail of the new and optimistic parts of the city, all freshly-painted houses and neatly mown lawns, where all the recent immigrants to the state have settled. The same houses will turn up again in a somewhat different light as the run down locations in more contemporary films such as Boyz N The Hood, and Menace II Society.

"Elegantly assured detective drama" - Premiere

Review by Jonathan Caryl
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97