![]() Then there’s Don Cheadle’s Mouse: Easy’s old friend, electric and loyal and utterly comfortable with his own propensity for violence. 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. 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. 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. Ask a question, and you pay $10 for the answer–at least. Easy moves through an LA where everybody has an angle and an agenda. Nothing is too easy, and almost nobody is all that innocent. 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. ![]() 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. 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.Īlready behind on his mortgage, Easy can’t afford to decline. 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. Joppy, a bartender friend of Easy’s, introduces him to a white man, DeWitt Albright, who might have some work for him. ![]() 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.ĭenzel 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. Devil in a Blue Dress is now on Tubi, allowing me to finish off my triptych of Carl Franklin recommendations.Īll 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. ![]()
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