Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

Starring: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, and Don Cheadle
Grade: B+

Denzel Washington in a neo-noir film?

You had me at Denzel Washington.

Summary

In 1948 Los Angeles, World War II veteran Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins (Washington) is hanging out at Joppy’s (Mel Winkler) bar trying to figure where to get a job, as he was just laid off three weeks ago. He has to pay his mortgage and is running out of options. Just then, the mysterious DeWitt Albright (Sizemore) walks in and offers Rawlins a job because Joppy told him about Easy’s situation. Easy asks what the job entails, but Albright walks around it, saying he does “favors for friends”. He gives Easy an address and time to meet up at. Since he’s already two weeks behind on his mortgage, Easy goes that night to meet up with Albright. Albright explains how he wants Easy to find Daphne Monet (Beals), the fiancée of mayoral candidate Todd Carter (Terry Kinney), who dropped out of the race after she went missing. All Easy has to do is get a location on her. To do so, he’s given $100 in advance. All Albright knows is that she was seen a few nights ago at an illegal night club called John’s, so Easy heads out there first. The entrance is through the back door of some convenience store. He’s taken in by the bouncer, and he gives Easy shit for his involvement with his friend Mouse (Cheadle) killing his stepfather. He even questions if Easy was involved in the death of Mouse’s stepbrother too. Easy insists he wasn’t involved and goes straight into the club to start questioning regulars about Daphne Monet. He runs into his friend Dupree (Jernard Burks) and his girlfriend Coretta (Lisa Nicole Carson). They come over and join Easy and another patron at a table. He asks if they know about Daphne. Though they have a noticeable freaked-out expression on their faces, they say they don’t. As the night ends, Coretta tells Easy she does know Daphne. As a result, Easy helps the very drunk Dupree home, so he can talk to Coretta. Immediately, Dupree goes to sleep, so Coretta starts flirting heavy with Easy.

Eventually, they have sex, with Dupree staying asleep in the other room.

In the morning, Easy heads out. Before he does however, Coretta tells him that not only was Daphne involved with Todd Carter, but also a gangster named Frank Green (Joseph Latimore). She also charges him $10 for said information. Regardless, Easy is now making some easy money to help pay some of his bills. Things are looking up! He tells Albright that he has some info, so Albright tells him to meet him at some pier in Malibu.

At this pier, Easy has a conversation with a random white girl, and a bunch of white guys harass him because they were looking for her. Albright shows up with a gun and threatens all of them, so they run away. Next, Easy tells him about Frank Green and all the other details and is given another $100. Upon getting home, Easy is immediately arrested by some asshole cops. They aggressively interrogate him and reveal to him that Coretta is dead, heavily implying they think he killed her. However, he is let go because they technically don’t have anything on him just yet. Even so, they definitely aren’t done with him. That night, he gets out of the station but is surprisingly picked up by mayoral candidate Matthew Terell (Maury Chaykin) and some boy he is with. Terell tells him the details of Coretta’s death and how she used to work for him. He also assures Easy that he will be the new mayor since Carter backed out of the race. Strangely enough, he then asks Easy if anyone was with him the night of Coretta’s death, even asking if Daphne Monet was there. Easy assures him there was no one else besides Dupree. Terell trusts him and drops him off right there on the street, per request of Easy.

Once he gets home and goes to sleep, he is awakened by a phone call: It’s Daphne.

She invites him over to the Ambassador Hotel to discuss Coretta’s death and why he’s looking for Daphne in general. Without hesitation, he goes. After some initial questions being answered, and Monet being very flirtatious along the way, she admits she wanted Easy there to drive her to some secret location to get a specific letter Richard McGee delivered to the wrong place. Afterwards, she wants to go to Todd’s place. Since she promises to pay him, he goes through with it. However, when they get to the first location, the house is trashed, and a dead McGee is on the floor. Freaking out, Daphne takes the car and drives away, leaving Easy at the house. The next morning, he is able to get back to his home. When he walks in the door, he finds Albright and a bunch of his goons waiting to pounce. Albright threatens Easy because of the bogus information he got from earlier and demands to know what happened last night. Once Albright holds a knife to his face, Easy tells him everything about Daphne. Following this, he demands Easy continue his job of finding Daphne. In addition, he has a new goal of finding Frank Green.

Since he can now be implicated in two murder cases, has to continue his work for Albright, and with danger looming from every corner because of the circumstances he finds himself in, Easy realizes he needs some help in pursuit of solving this gigantic mystery. It’s time to call in his good friend Mouse. With his help, Easy can finally get to the bottom of all this.

My Thoughts:

Oddly enough, the mystery plot is the least interesting thing of Devil in a Blue Dress. It’s not that it’s boring or anything, it’s just basically what you would expect out of a neo-noir detective story. It’s not the driving force of the film. The reason Devil in a Blue Dress succeeds is because everything else is done so well. From the music to the tone, to the 1940s Los Angeles time period, we are drawn to the narrative and become entrenched in the story because of some great character work, a stylish look, and solid direction from Carl Franklin.

With his very 1940s mustache and natural coolness unmatched by almost any movie star, Denzel Washington is the perfect choice to play war hero Easy Rawlins, a laid off man looking to do anything to get out of his financial situation because he hasn’t found any luck. As Joppy says, he’s one of the very few African Americans to own a house in the area. Easy realizes his situation and he’s not going to let these outside forces, his own financial troubles, or the racist people around him ruin it for him. He loves how far he’s come since the war. He’s worked his ass off to get where he’s at. Naturally, Easy wants to keep his status as a homeowner too because he’s worked too hard to lose it. The problem is work. No one else is helping him in this situation. He doesn’t have a wife and no other income to speak of. He only has himself to rely on, and it’s not going well right now. With desperation setting in, in walks DeWitt Albright. Played surprisingly well by a menacing Tom Sizemore, who only amps up his villainous tendencies as the story gets deeper, Albright hears the trouble Rawlins is having and offers him a simple job.

That’s how it starts, isn’t it? Just do this and you’ll get paid. Here’s a $100. Find this girl. That’s it. This seems easy enough, right?

However, with any character Denzel Washington plays, he’s going to do what’s right. What is initially a simple job, opens up the can of worms that is the corrupt underworld of Los Angeles, which goes straight to the down and dirty details regarding the mayoral race between two powerful candidates and the proxy war it becomes involving dozens of shady criminal figures working to take down the other candidate. The web becomes seriously tangled, but as Easy learns more from his target Daphne and gets into contact with the more powerful people involved, he realizes he’s on the wrong side and has to find a way to navigate through it without getting implicated in anything himself. This becomes a lot tougher than you think because once Easy starts to show his true colors when faced with people like the murderous maniac Albright, these seedy individuals will work hard to get him in trouble for anything. Again, before Mouse gets there, he’s already being implicated in two murders. Being an African American in a racist landscape in the 1940s is already difficult enough because he’s automatically a target before things even begin. Now, he’s fighting the most powerful people in the city in the name of what’s right on top of that. Easy is also an everyman in every sense of the word. Though he finds himself trying to solve this rather difficult mystery plot, he’s not a private investigator. He just accepted the initial job from Albright and found himself thrust upon the role purely because he’s trying to do what’s right. Sure, he could have avoided fucking Dupree’s wife because this causes him to become a suspect in Coretta’s murder by the racist cops who are after him and want to pin everything on him, but this only adds another level of tension and conflict to the already layered plot.

Despite the lack of evidence that they have on him, Easy (and the audience for that matter) knows that even with this lack of evidence, this is still a legitimate threat because we know how easily the racist public could move in on him if he gives them the opportunity to arrest him. It’s bullshit, but this is why we want him to succeed. He’s still a decent guy facing a lot of unfair circumstances regarding his surroundings, making things that much harder. Even though, again, he probably could have avoided fucking Coretta.

Then again, it’s Denzel. I found myself making excuses for him, even though we all know it was wrong the wrong move like, “Oh, come on! She kept pressing Easy. It’s not like him and Dupree are that good of friends”.

Regardless, Easy is in too deep, so he has to become a detective with no experience and do things by himself until Mouse is called in and that is what makes this as intriguing as it is. He’s making it up as he goes along. Essentially, Easy is the viewer, trying to uncover the plot to the best of his ability while acting like he’s done this before for the sake of the people he gets involved with and for his own confidence. This is why the danger feels more real. There’s less action than you may want, but the scenes where the characters find themselves in a shootout or fight becomes that much more serious because it shows the mortality of our hero. He’s a vulnerable character that is far from the “Dirty Harry” you want him to be. Though it’s true Easy is not afraid of a fight, he’s not the badass he may need to be because again, this isn’t the life he wanted. He just found himself in it and has to react accordingly. Because of this, we see the character struggling, dealing with racism, getting beaten by cops and gangsters, and being threatened at every corner. It’s all by design though. When it’s time for Easy to lose it on occasion and the action gets intense, the viewer sits forward in their seat because we see Easy has had enough, giving us some wonderful moments that really make the movie what it is like when he finds out Joppa screwed him in the third act, and he takes Mouse’s gun and starts acting reckless. So, though you crave more action throughout, especially because we see how well it’s done in the third act, you have to understand that this is how they wanted to tell the story. They wanted to form this slow build of Easy, so he explodes into more of a discernible hero later on.

When considering this, the perspective of this different hero in Easy adds a nice twist to the narrative when it could have easily just been Denzel being the experienced detective and going about things Chinatown-style.

For the record, and this is something I say a lot, I would still watch this movie if that’s what it was. It’s Denzel! Do you blame me?

Of course, I love the badass Denzel Wahington can be and wished at times for him to be a little tougher earlier in the movie in the face of danger (just because it would raise the entertainment value enormously), you do see what they were trying to do when you look at the final product, though it may not cross your mind until a day after you watch it. Plus, in terms of realism, considering all the factors a poor, African American male would have to face during this time period, Easy cracking heads left and right wouldn’t really work because it would give the bad guys easy fodder to put him away for good. Additionally, the other half of this decision regarding who Easy is as a person is directly related to the characterization of Mouse, played by the scene-stealing Don Cheadle in one of his best and most underrated roles to date. As soon as Mouse joins the film an hour in, the whole movie changes. He instantly makes it better, especially when the story started to look like it was about to meander through the second act with plot details. Instead, Mouse shows up and the entertainment skyrockets, with the character playing the “kill now, ask questions later” polar opposite friend of Easy. He’s the “muscle” our protagonist desperately needs to shake things up. Though the Houston native is brutal and prone to violence, he’s exactly what Easy needs to show everyone they aren’t to be fucked with anymore. Because of Mouse’s confidence and fearlessness, Easy gets tougher with people as a result, and they are such a great tandem to watch interact. Literally any scene he has with Easy, or any other character for that matter, becomes the most entertaining part of the film. There’s a good chance you may NEVER hear me say this again, but Don Cheadle was the best part about Devil in a Blue Dress, even over Denzel!

Yes, Easy is the driving force behind the plot and Denzel is the reason we’re tuned in, but you will walk away saying Cheadle “made” this movie. Cheadle plays with the unpredictability of the character very well, doing so with a wit and charm that even matches Denzel as Easy, only with a tinge of “loose cannon-ness”. He’s really funny too. Constantly, he will screw something up because he’s so quick to react, but you can’t help but laugh because of how fun Don Cheadle is in the role. With the injection of life that he brings into the story and the action he brings along with it, you wish Mouse came into the movie sooner.

*The randomness of that guy cutting down trees in Easy’s neighborhood was pretty funny. It’s actually worth the mention, despite its lack of significance regarding the story.*

Truthfully, we needed a bigger, defining villain instead of 2-3 mid-level bad guys. This was the key here. With the way things played out, the film would have felt like a much bigger deal in the end had they had one more “larger” personality to deal with. If not, the politicians needed more screen time to establish their roles in everything because the final chunk of the movie, even with the reveal, didn’t feel as big as it should of just because of their lack of involvement onscreen. On a lesser note, the film could have benefitted with more action, or just more substantial events in general. It didn’t feel as active as it could have been even if this was the intention. Until Mouse shows up, it’s not as memorable as you want it to be. Of course, once he does show up, it gets very good, and everything starts to click. It just takes a bit to get there and truly engage you.

With a steamy role from Jennifer Beals (the “devil” the title suggests), an always good Denzel Washington as our hero, a very cool 1940s LA landscape, a scary good Tom Sizemore, and a fantastic Don Cheadle, Devil in a Blue Dress‘s appeal is rooted directly in our cast of characters and the atmosphere they find themselves in. Though it’s not without its faults, with noticeable improvements needed towards the team of antagonists, eventfulness in general, and the somewhat average/disappointing ending to boot, it’s still a very solid mystery film worth the time if you’re on a neo-noir kick.