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Devil in a Blue Dress
Crisp and atmospheric direction and one of Denzel Washington's most underrated performances are the primary reasons to check out 1995's Devil in a Blue Dress, a stylish homage to the film noir genre that earns its credentials through a racial tension that provides a welcome layer to the slightly complex story without beating the viewer over the head with it.
Set in Los Angeles in the 1940's, this is the story of Easy Rawlins, an unemployed black man two months behind on his mortgage and afraid of losing his house. With an assist from his bartender/friend, Joppy, Easy gets hired by a gangster named Dewitt Albright to locate a woman named Daphne Monet, who is not only connected to Albright's boss, a big shot politician named Matthew Terrell, but to a connected millionaire named Todd Carter. It's not long before Easy finds himself waist-deep in a political/mob scandal where bodies are dropping around him like flies.
Director and screenwriter Carl Franklin (One False Move) has mounted a stunning recreation of 1940's Los Angeles that owes a lot to films like The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown, but this story is given a unique flavor with a central character who is African American, which is consistently addressed throughout as Easy and the viewer are never allowed to forget that, in 1941, this is still a black man in a white man's world and Franklin'ss screenplay carefully examines that concept without the sledgehammer intensity that pervades so many other racially motivated dramas.
It's fun watching what Easy goes through here...from the desperate unemployed guy to the guy with the detective sensibilities who has no idea what he has gotten himself into. Despite his reticence about the gravity of what is going on, it is almost halfway through the film before Easy even considers the fact that he may be in over his head, but by this time, several of the black hats involved are throwing enough money at him that he is unable to walk away, not to mention his watching people he really cares about die as part of this ugliness.
Franklin's recreation of 40's LA is flawless, utilizing authentic looking settings, automobiles, and costumes that give this film an authentic period feel. Denzel Washington is slick and sexy as Easy Rawlins, delivering one of his smoothest performances that somehow has not gotten the attention it deserves and mention should also be a made of a star-making, Oscar-worthy turn by Don Cheadle, as a partner of Easy's with a very itchy trigger finger, who gets to deliver my favorite line in the film: "If you didn't want him dead, why'd you leave him with me?" This one is a lot of fun and a must for Denzel fans.
Crisp and atmospheric direction and one of Denzel Washington's most underrated performances are the primary reasons to check out 1995's Devil in a Blue Dress, a stylish homage to the film noir genre that earns its credentials through a racial tension that provides a welcome layer to the slightly complex story without beating the viewer over the head with it.
Set in Los Angeles in the 1940's, this is the story of Easy Rawlins, an unemployed black man two months behind on his mortgage and afraid of losing his house. With an assist from his bartender/friend, Joppy, Easy gets hired by a gangster named Dewitt Albright to locate a woman named Daphne Monet, who is not only connected to Albright's boss, a big shot politician named Matthew Terrell, but to a connected millionaire named Todd Carter. It's not long before Easy finds himself waist-deep in a political/mob scandal where bodies are dropping around him like flies.
Director and screenwriter Carl Franklin (One False Move) has mounted a stunning recreation of 1940's Los Angeles that owes a lot to films like The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown, but this story is given a unique flavor with a central character who is African American, which is consistently addressed throughout as Easy and the viewer are never allowed to forget that, in 1941, this is still a black man in a white man's world and Franklin'ss screenplay carefully examines that concept without the sledgehammer intensity that pervades so many other racially motivated dramas.
It's fun watching what Easy goes through here...from the desperate unemployed guy to the guy with the detective sensibilities who has no idea what he has gotten himself into. Despite his reticence about the gravity of what is going on, it is almost halfway through the film before Easy even considers the fact that he may be in over his head, but by this time, several of the black hats involved are throwing enough money at him that he is unable to walk away, not to mention his watching people he really cares about die as part of this ugliness.
Franklin's recreation of 40's LA is flawless, utilizing authentic looking settings, automobiles, and costumes that give this film an authentic period feel. Denzel Washington is slick and sexy as Easy Rawlins, delivering one of his smoothest performances that somehow has not gotten the attention it deserves and mention should also be a made of a star-making, Oscar-worthy turn by Don Cheadle, as a partner of Easy's with a very itchy trigger finger, who gets to deliver my favorite line in the film: "If you didn't want him dead, why'd you leave him with me?" This one is a lot of fun and a must for Denzel fans.