Browse: Home / Film on the Internet: DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Celebrating the Living: Conan O'Brien
  • Attention Must Be Paid: Ninón Sevilla
  • Disney Byways: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY
  • The Friday Article Roundup: For Your Consideration
  • A Quick and Cheap Summary of Roger Corman's 1963

Film on the Internet: DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS

Posted By ZoeZ on August 24, 2022 in Reviews | Leave a response

Devil in a Blue Dress is now on Tubi, allowing me to finish off my triptych of Carl Franklin recommendations.

All three of Franklin’s top films demonstrate his deft and versatile use of noir, evocative settings, and clever plotting; One False Move may be the best and most surprising of them, but Devil in a Blue Dress is undeniably the most significant. Like the Walter Mosley novel series it’s based on, it fills a dramatically under-served niche; by exploring Los Angeles’s post-war tensions and opportunities from a Black perspective, it manages to both nail classic noir style and concerns and bring something new to the table.

Denzel Washington stars as Easy Rawlins, a newly unemployed war vet–sociable but full of coiled intensity, a man keeping a tight grip on the ordinary-but-tenuous happiness he knows he’s earned.

Joppy, a bartender friend of Easy’s, introduces him to a white man, DeWitt Albright, who might have some work for him. The job is simple: unearth the elusive Daphne Monet, the fiancée of wealthy local stalwart Todd Carter, who just dropped out of the mayoral race. Daphne’s known for crossing the color line, so Albright suspects she’s vanished into a demimonde of Black-owned nightclubs; if he starts asking questions there, he won’t get any answers, but Easy will.

Already behind on his mortgage, Easy can’t afford to decline. And hey, it’s just pointing a lovesick man towards his wayward girlfriend, right? If it’s not … well, when he starts out, he can still make himself believe that that’s what it is, and he can believe that if it’s not, it’s not any of his business. One of the questions of Devil in a Blue Dress is who and what you owe your allegiance to, and to the extent that it poses any answers, they aren’t simple ones that relieve all your worries.

Nothing is too easy, and almost nobody is all that innocent. Easy moves through an LA where everybody has an angle and an agenda. Ask a question, and you pay $10 for the answer–at least. Blackmail, murder, illicit sex, scandal, prejudice, horror, and injustice all run rampant, and the police aren’t a solution but only a brutal additional complication.

While Devil in a Blue Dress could easily coast on its atmosphere, historical niche, and performances, it really grounds itself in a quartet of memorable performances. The first is from Washington, whose sense of presence has rarely been used better than it is here; he makes Easy instantly believable and iconic, someone both archetypal and grounded in his own time and place.

Then there’s Don Cheadle’s Mouse: Easy’s old friend, electric and loyal and utterly comfortable with his own propensity for violence. He’s Easy without the conscience or inhibitions or desire for the trappings of a settled, ordinary life, and like Easy, he falls nicely into a detective genre archetype–the sidekick who ensures the protagonist’s hands stay clean. Cheadle arguably steals the picture, proving yet again how supporting roles are often more vivid than their lead counterparts.

Mouse’s opposite number is Tom Sizemore’s Albright, the professional go-between. He’s a sketchy, mercenary figure, and Sizemore plays him like his superficial friendliness is just a steadily slipping mask over a vast amorality and dangerous unpredictability. He feels more psychologically realistic–and more dangerous–than most noir henchman.

The final piece of the puzzle is Jennifer Beals as Daphne, the woman in question, and Beals gives her a breathtaking sensuality, secrets, and heart. She’s a little hamstrung by having to be both damsel and femme fatale, both archetype and revisionist take, and you can feel that the film is a little less comfortable with her than it is with, say, Easy and Mouse. Beals embodies the part–and its mystery–so thoroughly that it’s easy to overlook that, however.

Devil in a Blue Dress is a sophisticated, well-acted, and handsomely shot film; it’s traditionally satisfying, and you can watch it as straight genre fare and have a great time. The lingering mark of it, though, comes less from its high level of technical craft and more from its ambivalence and messiness, something all the main actors channel perfectly. In a way, Devil in a Blue Dress is more cynical–yet more relaxed about its cynicism, and more confident about how to move forward–than most of its predecessors. Jake Gittes had to be told to forget it, it was Chinatown. Easy already knows the limits of his world and its justice; he’s had to. It’s still worth using what power he has.

 

Devil in a Blue Dress is streaming on Tubi.

Posted in Reviews | Tagged Carl Franklin, Denzel Washington, Film Noir, Film on the Internet

About the Author

lamijames@gmail.com'

ZoeZ

Related Posts

Film on the Internet: THE VERDICT→

Film on the Internet: SMILE→

Film on the Internet: STRANGE DAYS→

Film on the Internet: EEGA→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    33203 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    27253 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    24545 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    19931 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • Yvonne, or: CASABLANCA In One Character and Three Scenes

    10895 views / Posted August 21, 2014
  • In the year 2000 . . . .

    Celebrating the Living: Conan O’Brien

    January 29, 2023 / Gillianren
  • I mean, shame about the rest of the movie, though.

    Attention Must Be Paid: Ninón Sevilla

    January 28, 2023 / Gillianren
  • Wilderness travelers

    Disney Byways: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

    January 27, 2023 / Gillianren
  • The Friday Article Roundup: For Your Consideration

    January 27, 2023 / The Ploughman
  • The buffet table should be this long at lunch, no longer.

    A Quick and Cheap Summary of Roger Corman’s 1963

    January 26, 2023 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

  • Celebrating the Living: Conan O’Brien - https://t.co/JUXtIery4k, 9 hours ago
  • Attention Must Be Paid: Ninón Sevilla - https://t.co/NimFiOk7QW, Jan 28
  • Disney Byways: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY - https://t.co/CdEiRVrbHc, Jan 28

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!