DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Walter Mosely's Easy Rawlins
detective stories come to the screen in a
moderately complex mystery about a missing woman
who figures into an election. Denzel Washington is
likable as an L.A. factory worker who gets pulled
into the search and involved in murder. The film
is strong on atmosphere and paints an appealing
picture of the post-war black community. Rating:
high +1 (-4 to +4)
It's a hot summer night in L.A. Somewhere across town Philip Marlowe is getting too close to the truth. And he is also getting a mouthful of knuckles for his trouble. But that doesn't matter here because this story is about Easy Rawlins. And Easy isn't even a private dick. Not yet anyway. Right now Rawlins is just another factory worker from Texas who likes to go around in a sleeveless undershirt. In fact, he is not even that. He's had a little hard luck so Douglas Air is building their airplanes without his help, and he is trying to get by without their paycheck. With a bank account that's crawling under a duck, perhaps Easy is getting a little careless about whom he lets pay him and what he has to do for the money. In 1948 L.A. that just isn't Einstein-caliber thinking. So maybe his job tonight does smell like yesterday's fish, but at least it is easy enough and pays enough. Too much, in fact. Easy is looking for the mayor's missing girlfriend. Losing her is making the mayor feel so bad he's not even going to run for reelection. That's what the newspaper says. But somebody thinks she has a taste for black men and is hanging out in Easy's part of town. Easy is getting a C-note just for the looking for her. But the next few days are going to get tough as a one-dollar steak for Easy. He is going to be involved in murder and gunplay and crooked politicians. And he isn't even a private dick. Yet.
Holding the megaphone was Carl Franklin of ONE FALSE MOVE. That film showed Franklin had a taste for the rough stuff. But this job didn't call for quite so much. Maybe some gunplay. What it called for was late '40s atmosphere. For that he got Tak Fujimoto, a good man with a camera. And Fujimoto lathered the '40s feel on like he had to use it up. He had shot Denzel Washington before on the PHILADELPHIA job. Washington slipped into the role of Easy like it was a suit cut just for him. But muscling in on his scenes is Tom Sizemore, whose creepy panache grabs the eye like a zoot suit at a monastery. Lagging behind is Jennifer Beals as a femme fatale, playing it stiff as a rusty gate hinge.
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS was the first of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels, and Franklin wrote the script as if the series was a meal ticket he was expecting to punch again. While Franklin's telling of the story gives it some twists, they seemed not so much after seeing THE USUAL SUSPECTS with a plot that's tangled like a five-year-old's first fishing line. But Franklin is playing the first Easy Rawlins story with just some easy-to-take twists and some openings like he is hoping to be invited back. Easy is not just a black Philip Marlowe. Mosely and Franklin give him a simple charm and the sly smarts to make him a character worth seeing again. Not so welcome is Rawlin's sidekick Mouse, played by Don Cheadle. Mouse is a loose cannon with a looser gun and has all the appeal of green mold on a stick of butter.
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS was a likable piece of noir and racks up a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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