Devil in a Blue Dress ****½ (1995, Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals) – Classic Movie Review 1954

Writer-director Carl Franklin’s Chandler-esque 1995 neo-noir whodunit provides a perfect role for Denzel Washington, who is great as 40s LA private eye Easy Rawlins. Based on the novel by Walter Mosley, this is a superbly crafted, old-style mystery thriller, filmed with fantastic brio on the authentic locations still remaining from the time.

World War II veteran Rawlins is hired by DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore) to find Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals), the fiancée of wealthy Todd Carter (Terry Kinney), favourite in the city’s mayoralty race. Searching in the LA jazz clubs she’s known to frequent, Rawlins soon finds himself mixed up with murder, political scandal, crooked cops, ruthless politicians and hoodlums.

The production in Gary Fritkoff’s set designs, score by Elmer Bernstein and Tak Fujimoto’s cinematography are just dazzling, and so are Franklin’s writing and direction, with their brilliant sense of pace, period and atmosphere. Don Cheadle and Maury Chaykin also star.

And Mel Winkler, Albert Hall, Lisa Nicole Carson, Jernard Burks, Beau Starr, John Roselius, Steven Randazzo, Scott Lincold and Nick Corello also appear in support.

It’s stupendous stuff, and it should by rights have led to a movie franchise, but it just didn’t catch on with the public, despite all the great work and great reviews. However, it’s become something of a cult classic as audiences have discovered it at home. This remains the only screen appearance of Rawlins, though Mosley has featured the character in at least 10 novels. NBC developed a TV series based on the novel but eventually passed on it. In July 2014 Mosley revealed that he is adapting his novel for Broadway in a production to be scored by jazz master/composer Branford Marsalis.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1954

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