1995 film by Carl Franklin
Devil in a Blue Dress
is a 1995
American
neo-noir
mystery
thriller film
written and directed by
Carl Franklin
, based on
Walter Mosley
's 1990
novel of the same name
and features
Denzel Washington
,
Tom Sizemore
,
Jennifer Beals
, and
Don Cheadle
.
[2]
Set in 1948, the film follows World War II veteran
Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins
who, desperate in need of a job, becomes drawn into a search for a mysterious woman.
Devil in a Blue Dress
received positive reviews, with many praising Cheadle's performance.
Plot
[
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]
In the Summer of 1948 in
Los Angeles
, Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is laid off from his job at Champion Aircraft and needs money to pay his mortgage. Easy's bartender friend Joppy introduces him to DeWitt Albright, a white P.I. looking for a missing white woman, Daphne Monet. Before meeting, Easy feels a little nervous meeting DeWitt, as it reminds him of someone from his past back in Houston, Mouse, a man who got him to go along with car theft, and a murder, which Easy denies he was a part of. Explaining that Monet's disappearance led her wealthy fiance, Todd Carter, to drop out of the
Los Angeles mayoral race
, Albright pays Easy to find Daphne, who is known to frequent the
juke joints
along
Central Avenue
.
Easy begins his search at an illegal club where he sees the bouncer, Junior Fornay, eject a white man. Learning that his friend Dupree Brouchard's girlfriend, Coretta James, is a confidant of Daphne, Easy spends the night with Coretta and discovers Daphne is involved with gangster Frank Green. Albright arranges a meeting at the Malibu pier, where Easy is accosted by racist white youths before Albright viciously humiliates one of the boys at gunpoint. Easy tells him about Green, and is given another payment to continue his search.
Returning home, Easy is arrested by
LAPD
homicide detectives, who reveal that Coretta has been murdered. Interrogated and beaten before being released, he is approached by Matthew Terell, the remaining mayoral candidate. Terell is with a young boy, supposedly his adopted son, and inquires about Daphne, but Easy divulges nothing. After a nightmare about Coretta, he receives a call from Daphne herself. They meet at the
Ambassador Hotel
, and they talk about Corretta, and how she died, but she called Daphne before she did. Daphne then asks him to drive her to meet Richard McGee - the white man from the club. They arrive to find McGee dead, with his house ransacked. Easy notices a pack of Mexican cigarettes, the same brand smoked by Junior. Traumatized after witnessing the grisly scene, Daphne panics and flees, driving off in McGee’s car and abandoning Easy.
Easy drives home, but is threatened again by Albright and his partners, who demand that he track Daphne down a second time or face murder charges. Easy sends for his old friend, Raymond 'Mouse' Alexander, and confronts Joppy for leading Daphne to him. He meets with Todd Carter, realizing that Albright actually works for Terell, and secures another payment to locate Daphne. From there, he goes to a bar where he knows Frank Green sells stolen liquor, but nobody knows who he is. Returning home, he is ambushed by Frank Green but rescued by Mouse. Frank escapes after the trigger-happy Mouse shoots him in the shoulder, and Easy misses a call from Daphne. Questioned again by the detectives, Easy is given until the following morning to clear his name.
Easy and Mouse confront Junior ? the owner of the cigarettes ? who admits to driving McGee home and being given a letter for Coretta to deliver to Daphne. They visit Dupree in
Compton
where, inside Coretta's Bible, Easy finds the contents of a letter and
incriminating photographs
of Terell
with naked children
. At home, Easy finds Daphne waiting, and she reveals that Frank is her half-brother: their mother was
Creole
, and Daphne's father was white while Frank's was Black. Terell learned of Daphne's heritage, and the potential scandal forced Carter to abandon his campaign, but Daphne bought the pictures from McGee to blackmail Terell into silence. Hunting for Daphne and the pictures, Albright murdered McGee. When Coretta threatened to sell the pictures to Terell, Daphne sent Joppy to intimidate her, but did not expect him to kill Coretta.
Albright and his men arrive, subduing Easy and kidnapping Daphne. Joined by Mouse, Easy abducts Joppy at gunpoint, forcing him to take them to Albright's cabin in
Malibu
. Easy and Mouse kill Albright and his men and rescue Daphne; returning to the car, Easy learns Mouse killed Joppy due to him being a liability. Daphne pays Easy and Mouse $7,000 for the pictures, and Mouse returns home to
Houston
with his share. Daphne reveals that Carter's family paid her $30,000 to leave town, but she believes that the pictures will ensure Carter's victory and their marriage. Driving Daphne to meet Carter, who rejects her, Easy receives the rest of his payment in exchange for the pictures. Daphne and her brother leave town, while Carter's election is assured. No longer in trouble with the police, Easy considers starting his own business as a
private investigator
.
Cast
[
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Production
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]
Development
[
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]
Carl Franklin
wrote and directed the neo-noir because he liked the novel by Walter Mosley, who in turn served as an associate producer on the film. Franklin thought the work was more than a
detective story
; he said that Mosley was able to transform an everyday guy into a detective. In the editing process, Franklin had to cut a steamy love scene between Beals and Washington because he believed the scene was not needed to convey the story.
[3]
Don Cheadle
originally did not want to audition for Mouse because he thought he was too young for the role.
[4]
Locations
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The film was shot mostly in
Los Angeles, California
. The pier shot where Easy Rawlins gets in trouble with local youths was filmed at the
Malibu, California
pier. Other locales in Los Angeles include the
Griffith Park Observatory
and the famed
Ambassador Hotel
on
Wilshire Boulevard
.
Distribution
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The producers used the following tagline to market the film:
- In a world divided by black and white, Easy Rawlins is about to cross the line.
Devil in a Blue Dress
premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival
on September 16, 1995. In the United States, it opened in wide release on September 29, 1995. In its widest release the film was featured in 1,432 theaters across the country.
[5]
Home media
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]
Devil in a Blue Dress
was released on
VHS
in April 1996, and then on
laserdisc
in June. A
DVD
version was released in 1999.
Twilight Time
released on the film on
Blu-ray
on 2015. The Criterion Collection re-released the film in 2022 on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray and Blu-Ray with a new restoration.
Reception
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Critical response
[
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]
Kenneth Turan
, film critic for the
Los Angeles Times
and
NPR
, liked the film, and wrote: "Hard-boiled fiction is a been-around genre about done-that individuals, so the pleasant air of newness and excitement that
Devil in a Blue Dress
gives off isn't due to its familiar find-the-girl plot. Rather it's the film's glowing visual qualities, a striking performance by Denzel Washington and the elegant control Carl Franklin has over it all that create the most exotic crime entertainment of the season."
[6]
Roger Ebert
, writing for the
Chicago Sun-Times
, did not like the story much but enjoyed the look and tone of the film: "I liked the movie without quite being caught up in it: I liked the period, tone and look more than the story, which I never really cared much about. The explanation, when it comes, tidies all the loose ends, but you're aware it's arbitrary ? an elegant solution to a chess problem, rather than a necessary outcome of guilt and passion."
[7]
In a positive film review, critic
James Berardinelli
discussed
Devil in a Blue Dress
from a
sociological
viewpoint, especially one involving the 1990s. He concludes, "The most interesting element of
Devil in a Blue Dress
is not the whodunit, but the 'whydunit.' Finding the guilty parties isn't as involving as learning their motivation, which is buried in society's perception of racial interaction. By uncovering the truth behind this mystery, Franklin illustrates that some attitudes have indeed changed for the better over the last forty years."
[8]
Many critics applauded Don Cheadle's performance, for which he won multiple awards. Jerry Renshaw said, "Cheadle steals every scene where he appears as Mouse ..." but he was disappointed by Beals' performance.
[9]
In
Variety
, film critic
Todd McCarthy
wrote, "Entering the main flow of the story relatively late, Don Cheadle steals all his scenes as a live-wire, trigger-happy old buddy of Easy’s from Texas, while Sizemore and Mel Winkler, as colorful underworld figures, make strong impressions."
[10]
Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
would later rate
Devil in a Blue Dress
at an approval of 92% based on reviews from 118 critics, with an average score of 8.80/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: "Humor, interesting characters, and attention to details make the stylish
Devil in a Blue Dress
an above average noir."
[11]
On
Metacritic
the film would achieve a score of 88 out of 100, based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
[12]
Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore
gave the film a grade A? on scale of A to F.
[13]
Box office
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]
The first week's gross was $5,422,385 from 1,432 screens and the total receipts in the United States and Canada were $16,004,418.
[14]
The film grossed $22 million worldwide
[1]
against a budget of $27 million.
Accolades
[
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]
Wins
Nominated
Others
In 2008, the
American Film Institute
nominated
Devil in a Blue Dress
for its
Top 10 Mystery Films list
.
[15]
Music
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]
The original score for the film was written and recorded by
Elmer Bernstein
. The original music soundtrack was released on September 12, 1995, by
Sony
. The
CD
included 14 tracks, three of them written by Bernstein (theme, etc.).
- "West Side Baby" -
T-Bone Walker
- "
Ain't Nobody's Business
" -
Jimmy Witherspoon
- "Hy-Ah-Su" -
Duke Ellington
- "Hop Skip And Jump" -
Roy Milton
- "
Good Rockin' Tonight
" -
Wynonie Harris
- "
Blues After Hours
" - Pee Wee Crayton
- "I Can't Go On Without You" -
Bull Moose Jackson
- "
'Round Midnight
" -
Thelonious Monk
- "
Chicken Shack Boogie
" -
Amos Milburn
- "Messin' Around" -
Memphis Slim
- "Chica Boo" -
Lloyd Glenn
- "Theme From 'Devil In A Blue Dress'" -
Elmer Bernstein
- "Malibu Chase" - Elmer Bernstein
- "End Credits" - Elmer Bernstein
See also
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
a
b
"Planet Hollywood".
Screen International
. August 30, 1996. pp. 14?15.
- ^
Devil in a Blue Dress
at the
AFI Catalog of Feature Films
.
- ^
Tornquist, Cynthia
.
CNN
, "Showbiz Tonight", September 28, 1995.
- ^
"
'You are going to die. You can be terrified, or you can live': Don Cheadle on mortality, White Noise and that cockney accent"
.
the Guardian
. 2022-12-02
. Retrieved
2022-12-03
.
- ^
The Numbers
box office data. Last accessed: December 5, 2007.
- ^
Turan, Kenneth
Archived
2007-09-29 at the
Wayback Machine
.
The Los Angeles Times
, film review, September 29, 1995. Last accessed: February 11, 2011.
- ^
Ebert, Roger
. The
Chicago Sun-Times
, September 29, 1995. Accessed: August 10, 2013.
- ^
Berardinelli, James
.
Reel Views
, 1995.
- ^
Renshaw, Jerry
Archived
2006-05-06 at the
Wayback Machine
.
The Austin Chronicle
, film review, October 12, 1998.
- ^
McCarthy, Todd (1995-09-18).
"Devil in a Blue Dress - Variety"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
2020-09-18
.
- ^
"Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) - Rotten Tomatoes"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
. Retrieved
2022-05-13
.
- ^
"Devil in a Blue Dress"
.
Metacritic
.
- ^
"Cinemascore"
. Archived from
the original
on 2018-12-20.
- ^
"Devil in a Blue Dress"
.
Box Office Mojo
. Retrieved
September 30,
2017
.
- ^
"AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees"
(PDF)
. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16
. Retrieved
2016-08-19
.
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External links
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