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Devil in a Blue Dress (film)
Encyclopedia
Devil in a Blue Dress is a 1995 American neo-noir
film directed by Carl Franklin
and photographed
by Tak Fujimoto
.
The film was based on Walter Mosley
's novel of the same name
, was executive produced by Jonathan Demme
, and starred Denzel Washington
, Tom Sizemore
, Jennifer Beals
, and Don Cheadle
.
In 1948 Los Angeles, Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is a World War II veteran who has been unfairly laid off at the inner tube factory. He becomes a private investigator
to make ends meet, despite having no training.
) says "A man once told me that when you step out of your door in the morning, you're already in trouble. The only question is, are you on top of that trouble or not?"
In the summer of 1948, Easy Rawlins is recently laid off from his job at Douglas Aircraft, and needs money urgently to pay his mortgage. Easy recounts how he moved to Los Angeles after serving in WW-II when his friend Joppy (Mel Winkler
), who runs a bar
, introduces him to a white man named DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore
). Albright is looking for someone to help him find a missing white woman, Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals
), assumed to be hiding somewhere in the Black
community; he also learns she is the girlfriend of wealthy Todd Carter (Terry Kinney
), who was the favorite in the Los Angeles mayoral race before dropping out. Albright, who says Carter dropped out because he couldn't find Monet, offers Rawlins $100 to take the job. Easy accepts but is immediately suspicious of Albright. Monet is known to spend time in the black juke joint
clubs in South Central Los Angeles and Easy begins his search at an illegal club on 89th and Central.
While waiting to enter, he sees a commotion with a bizarre white man, Richard McGee, and the club's bouncer, Junior Fornay. After entering, he meets with his friends Degan Odell, Dupree Brouchard, and his girl Coretta James. He learns that Coretta is a confidant of Daphne and after spending the night with her, he learns Daphne was involved with a South Central gangster named Frank Green.
He is called by Albright the following afternoon to set up a meeting at the Malibu pier. While waiting, Easy is accosted by several local white youths after a casual conversation with one of their girlfriends. Easy, trying to calm the situation, is nearly overtaken when Albright appears from the darkness. He viciously humiliates and beats one of the punks for his actions. Easy, uncomfortable with the situation, gives his information to Albright who retains him with another payment and demands he continue his search.
When Easy gets home, he is arrested by two LAPD
homicide detectives. They take him into custody where he learns that Coretta was savagely murdered after his night with her. He is released later after rough treatment. While walking home, he is followed by Mathew Terrell, the other candidate in the mayoral race. He gets into the car where he finds Terrell with a young boy, supposedly his adopted son. Terrell makes it clear that he is also very interested in finding Daphne Monet. Easy, careful of Terrell's motives, asks to be dropped off and walks home.
After a nightmare about Coretta, he receives a call from Daphne Monet. She instructs him to meet her at the Ambassador Hotel where she asks for his help. She needs to go into the Hollywood hills and meet a person with information vital to her and Todd Carter. Easy reluctantly agrees to help and nervously drives her to her destination. When they arrive at the house, they find it ransacked and the occupant, Richard McGee, dead. Easy finds a clue to his murder. Monet flees in a panic leaving Easy behind.
The next morning, Easy returns home to find Albright and his goons waiting for him; his connection to the murder of Coretta now used to force him to resume his search for the girl. After the exchange, Easy enlists the help of his sadistic and trigger-happy friend, Mouse Alexander (Don Cheadle
), from Houston, Texas
. Easy's goal is to uncover why Monet is so important to so many people and, in the process, keep himself out of jail, which is not an easy task for a black man living in post-World War II Los Angeles.
He meets with Todd Carter, where he secures money to locate Daphne. Easy, learning that Albright is not employed by Carter at all, returns home. Before he enters, he is warned by his neighbor, (Barry Shabaka Henley
), that an ambush awaits. Easy turns around in time to grab Frank Green. The two men fight in the house. Green gets the upper hand, cutting into Easy's throat, but Mouse comes to the rescue. Easy tries to reason with Frank but Mouse shoots him in an attempt to extort information, letting Frank escape. Easy and Mouse meet up with Dupree, get him intoxicated and find out that Coretta had been in possession of a package that was vital to the mayoral race–-pictures of Terrell with "innocent, helpless, naked children." Easy finds the pictures hidden in Coretta's Bible.
They find Junior Fornay, the bouncer at the 89th and Central club, and learn that after Junior's altercation with McGee, he drove him home to the Hills to pick up money. He is cornered when Easy reveals the clue, a pack of Mexican Zapata cigarettes smoked only by Junior. Junior pleads with Mouse and Easy that he isn't the killer. Now involved in two murders, Easy then travels to Joppy's, where he vents his rage at Joppy for getting him into such a mess. Joppy explains that all he wanted to do was set him up with some work. Easy is disgusted at Joppy's answer and leaves.
When he returns home, he gets a visit from Daphne. Easy learns that Daphne hid from Carter because of her association with Frank Green, her half-brother. Daphne's Creole
mother from New Orleans had given birth to two children by different fathers, and although Daphne's own father was white, her half-brother's father was black. Being the fiancée of a mayoral favorite with partial African-American heritage would ensure a loss for Carter. Terrell's knowledge of this fact is the reason Carter dropped out of the race. Naturally, pictures of Terrell with children would cause him to drop out, bringing Carter victory.
Daphne says McGee sold the pictures to her, and Easy infers Albright killed McGee while looking for the pictures, then Junior gave them to Coretta, who hid them in her Bible. Daphne reveals that Coretta was killed accidentally by Joppy although Daphne had only asked him to scare her into silence.
Albright and his men burst into Easy's house, subduing Easy and abducting Daphne. When he regains consciousness, Easy calls Mouse and they race to Joppy's to get a fix on Albright's location. At the bar, Easy abducts Joppy at gunpoint. He learns where Albright is, although Mouse nearly shoots them both in the process. Easy only calms Mouse down by telling him they could be rewarded $7,000 that Daphne will pay for photographs that Easy has obtained.
In the Hollywood hills, they set up an ambush, shooting Albright and his goons while rescuing Daphne and the photographs. When Easy returns to the car he finds Joppy dead, killed by Mouse. Easy hands over the photographs that prove that Matthew Terrell is a pedophile
. Carter promises Easy there will be no more trouble with the police.
Easy finds out the money Daphne paid him and Mouse for the photographs came from a large sum originally given to her by Carter's family as a bribe to get out of town. She had only stayed because she believed they would change their minds and allow Carter to marry her if he won. Although Carter is now certain to become mayor, he refuses her pleas, despite saying that he loves her. She leaves in tears.
The film closes with Easy and Odell relaxing on his porch, enjoying life, contemplating events and wondering what their future would hold.
wrote and directed the neo-noir because he liked Walter Mosley's novel (Mosley served as an associate producer on the film). He thought the work was more than a detective story
. Franklin said that author 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 wasn't needed to convey the story.
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
.
The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 16, 1995. In the United States it opened in wide release on September 29, 1995.
The first week's gross was $5,422,385 (1,432 screens) and the total receipts for the run were $16,004,418. The film was in wide release for 12 weeks (87 days). In its widest release the film was featured in 1,432 theaters across the country.
format on April 2, 1996. It was released on laserdisc
in June 1996 and included the original theatrical trailer.
A DVD
version was released on 9 March 1999 and includes an audio commentary by director Carl Franklin.
discusses the film from a sociological
viewpoint, especially a 1990s one. 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."
The Chicago Sun-Times
film critic, Roger Ebert
, did not like the story much but did like the look and tone of the film, and wrote, "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."
Yet, 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."
Many critics applauded Don Cheadle's performance. Jerry Renshaw said, "Cheadle steals every scene where he appears as Mouse..." Although he was disappointed by Jennifer Beals' lackluster, vanilla performance.
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
reported that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on forty-six reviews.
. 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.).
Nominated
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
film directed by Carl Franklin
Carl Franklin
Carl Franklin is an American actor, screenwriter and film and television director. Franklin is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and continued his education at the AFI Conservatory, where he graduated with an M.F.A. degree in directing in 1986...
and photographed
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
by Tak Fujimoto
Tak Fujimoto
Tak Fujimoto , A.S.C. is an American cinematographer. A graduate of the London Film School, he has worked with filmmakers Jonathan Demme, M. Night Shyamalan, John Hughes, Howard Deutch and Terrence Malick. Early in his career, he worked on the second unit of the first Star Wars film...
.
The film was based on Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley
Walter Ellis Mosley is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los...
's novel of the same name
Devil in a Blue Dress
Devil in a Blue Dress is a 1990 hardboiled mystery novel by Walter Mosley.The text centers on the main character, Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, and his transformation from a day laborer into a detective. The story begins with Easy out-of-work and unable to pay his mortgage...
, was executive produced by Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
, and starred Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
, Tom Sizemore
Tom Sizemore
Thomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
, Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former...
, and Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle
Donald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
.
In 1948 Los Angeles, Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is a World War II veteran who has been unfairly laid off at the inner tube factory. He becomes a private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
to make ends meet, despite having no training.
Plot
The film begins in noir fashion when Easy Rawlins (Denzel WashingtonDenzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
) says "A man once told me that when you step out of your door in the morning, you're already in trouble. The only question is, are you on top of that trouble or not?"
In the summer of 1948, Easy Rawlins is recently laid off from his job at Douglas Aircraft, and needs money urgently to pay his mortgage. Easy recounts how he moved to Los Angeles after serving in WW-II when his friend Joppy (Mel Winkler
Mel Winkler
Mel Winkler is an American film and TV actor. Though he mostly takes on minor live-action roles, he is probably best known as the voice of the guardian mask Aku Aku in the Crash Bandicoot series, and Johnny Snowman in the TV series Oswald....
), who runs a bar
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
, introduces him to a white man named DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore
Tom Sizemore
Thomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
). Albright is looking for someone to help him find a missing white woman, Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former...
), assumed to be hiding somewhere in the Black
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
community; he also learns she is the girlfriend of wealthy Todd Carter (Terry Kinney
Terry Kinney
Terry Kinney is an American actor and theatre director, and is a founding member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry.-Early life:...
), who was the favorite in the Los Angeles mayoral race before dropping out. Albright, who says Carter dropped out because he couldn't find Monet, offers Rawlins $100 to take the job. Easy accepts but is immediately suspicious of Albright. Monet is known to spend time in the black juke joint
Juke joint
Juke joint is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. The term "juke" is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly...
clubs in South Central Los Angeles and Easy begins his search at an illegal club on 89th and Central.
While waiting to enter, he sees a commotion with a bizarre white man, Richard McGee, and the club's bouncer, Junior Fornay. After entering, he meets with his friends Degan Odell, Dupree Brouchard, and his girl Coretta James. He learns that Coretta is a confidant of Daphne and after spending the night with her, he learns Daphne was involved with a South Central gangster named Frank Green.
He is called by Albright the following afternoon to set up a meeting at the Malibu pier. While waiting, Easy is accosted by several local white youths after a casual conversation with one of their girlfriends. Easy, trying to calm the situation, is nearly overtaken when Albright appears from the darkness. He viciously humiliates and beats one of the punks for his actions. Easy, uncomfortable with the situation, gives his information to Albright who retains him with another payment and demands he continue his search.
When Easy gets home, he is arrested by two LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
homicide detectives. They take him into custody where he learns that Coretta was savagely murdered after his night with her. He is released later after rough treatment. While walking home, he is followed by Mathew Terrell, the other candidate in the mayoral race. He gets into the car where he finds Terrell with a young boy, supposedly his adopted son. Terrell makes it clear that he is also very interested in finding Daphne Monet. Easy, careful of Terrell's motives, asks to be dropped off and walks home.
After a nightmare about Coretta, he receives a call from Daphne Monet. She instructs him to meet her at the Ambassador Hotel where she asks for his help. She needs to go into the Hollywood hills and meet a person with information vital to her and Todd Carter. Easy reluctantly agrees to help and nervously drives her to her destination. When they arrive at the house, they find it ransacked and the occupant, Richard McGee, dead. Easy finds a clue to his murder. Monet flees in a panic leaving Easy behind.
The next morning, Easy returns home to find Albright and his goons waiting for him; his connection to the murder of Coretta now used to force him to resume his search for the girl. After the exchange, Easy enlists the help of his sadistic and trigger-happy friend, Mouse Alexander (Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle
Donald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
), from Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. Easy's goal is to uncover why Monet is so important to so many people and, in the process, keep himself out of jail, which is not an easy task for a black man living in post-World War II Los Angeles.
He meets with Todd Carter, where he secures money to locate Daphne. Easy, learning that Albright is not employed by Carter at all, returns home. Before he enters, he is warned by his neighbor, (Barry Shabaka Henley
Barry Shabaka Henley
Barry Shabaka Henley is an American character actor. Henley is a fixture in many films, most often the films of director Michael Mann, having worked with the director four times....
), that an ambush awaits. Easy turns around in time to grab Frank Green. The two men fight in the house. Green gets the upper hand, cutting into Easy's throat, but Mouse comes to the rescue. Easy tries to reason with Frank but Mouse shoots him in an attempt to extort information, letting Frank escape. Easy and Mouse meet up with Dupree, get him intoxicated and find out that Coretta had been in possession of a package that was vital to the mayoral race–-pictures of Terrell with "innocent, helpless, naked children." Easy finds the pictures hidden in Coretta's Bible.
They find Junior Fornay, the bouncer at the 89th and Central club, and learn that after Junior's altercation with McGee, he drove him home to the Hills to pick up money. He is cornered when Easy reveals the clue, a pack of Mexican Zapata cigarettes smoked only by Junior. Junior pleads with Mouse and Easy that he isn't the killer. Now involved in two murders, Easy then travels to Joppy's, where he vents his rage at Joppy for getting him into such a mess. Joppy explains that all he wanted to do was set him up with some work. Easy is disgusted at Joppy's answer and leaves.
When he returns home, he gets a visit from Daphne. Easy learns that Daphne hid from Carter because of her association with Frank Green, her half-brother. Daphne's Creole
Louisiana Creole people
Louisiana Creole people refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French and Spanish descent. The term was first used during colonial times by the settlers to refer to those who were born in the colony, as opposed to those born in the Old World...
mother from New Orleans had given birth to two children by different fathers, and although Daphne's own father was white, her half-brother's father was black. Being the fiancée of a mayoral favorite with partial African-American heritage would ensure a loss for Carter. Terrell's knowledge of this fact is the reason Carter dropped out of the race. Naturally, pictures of Terrell with children would cause him to drop out, bringing Carter victory.
Daphne says McGee sold the pictures to her, and Easy infers Albright killed McGee while looking for the pictures, then Junior gave them to Coretta, who hid them in her Bible. Daphne reveals that Coretta was killed accidentally by Joppy although Daphne had only asked him to scare her into silence.
Albright and his men burst into Easy's house, subduing Easy and abducting Daphne. When he regains consciousness, Easy calls Mouse and they race to Joppy's to get a fix on Albright's location. At the bar, Easy abducts Joppy at gunpoint. He learns where Albright is, although Mouse nearly shoots them both in the process. Easy only calms Mouse down by telling him they could be rewarded $7,000 that Daphne will pay for photographs that Easy has obtained.
In the Hollywood hills, they set up an ambush, shooting Albright and his goons while rescuing Daphne and the photographs. When Easy returns to the car he finds Joppy dead, killed by Mouse. Easy hands over the photographs that prove that Matthew Terrell is a pedophile
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
. Carter promises Easy there will be no more trouble with the police.
Easy finds out the money Daphne paid him and Mouse for the photographs came from a large sum originally given to her by Carter's family as a bribe to get out of town. She had only stayed because she believed they would change their minds and allow Carter to marry her if he won. Although Carter is now certain to become mayor, he refuses her pleas, despite saying that he loves her. She leaves in tears.
The film closes with Easy and Odell relaxing on his porch, enjoying life, contemplating events and wondering what their future would hold.
Cast
- Denzel WashingtonDenzel WashingtonDenzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
as Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins - Tom SizemoreTom SizemoreThomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
as DeWitt Albright - Jennifer BealsJennifer BealsJennifer Beals is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former...
as Daphne Monet - Don CheadleDon CheadleDonald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
as Mouse Alexander - Maury ChaykinMaury ChaykinMaury Alan Chaykin was an American-born Canadian actor. Best known for his portrayal of detective Nero Wolfe, he was also known for his work as a character actor in many films and on television programs.-Personal life:...
as Matthew Terell - Terry KinneyTerry KinneyTerry Kinney is an American actor and theatre director, and is a founding member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry.-Early life:...
as Todd Carter - Mel WinklerMel WinklerMel Winkler is an American film and TV actor. Though he mostly takes on minor live-action roles, he is probably best known as the voice of the guardian mask Aku Aku in the Crash Bandicoot series, and Johnny Snowman in the TV series Oswald....
as Joppy - Albert Hall as Degan Odell
- Lisa Nicole CarsonLisa Nicole CarsonLisa Nicole Carson is an American actress. She is best known for her work on U.S. television, including supporting roles in NBC's ER and Fox's Ally McBeal...
as Coretta James - Jernard Burks as Dupree Brouchard
- David Wolos-Fonteno as Junior Fornay
- John Roselius as Detective Mason, LAPD
- Beau StarrBeau StarrBeau Starr is an American actor who has starred in movies and on television. He is known for his film role as Sheriff Ben Meeker in the 1988 hit horror movie Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers; he reprised his role in the 1989 sequel Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.Starr was born...
as Detective Jack Mille, LAPD - Steven Randazzo as Benny Giacomo
- Scott Lincoln as Richard McGee
- L. Scott CaldwellL. Scott CaldwellLaverne Scott Caldwell is an American actress known for her role as Rose on Lost.This Chicago native started her career in 1978 as a member of the famed Negro Ensemble Company, making her Broadway debut two years later in the Tony Award nominated play Home...
as Hattie May Parsons - Barry Shabaka HenleyBarry Shabaka HenleyBarry Shabaka Henley is an American character actor. Henley is a fixture in many films, most often the films of director Michael Mann, having worked with the director four times....
as Woodcutter
Background and production
Carl FranklinCarl Franklin
Carl Franklin is an American actor, screenwriter and film and television director. Franklin is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and continued his education at the AFI Conservatory, where he graduated with an M.F.A. degree in directing in 1986...
wrote and directed the neo-noir because he liked Walter Mosley's novel (Mosley served as an associate producer on the film). He thought the work was more than a detective story
Detective Story
Detective Story is a film noir which tells the story of one day in the lives of the various people who populate a police detective squad. It features Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O'Donnell, Lee Grant, among others. The movie was adapted by Robert Wyler and Philip Yordan...
. Franklin said that author 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 wasn't needed to convey the story.
The film was shot mostly in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern 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
Griffith Observatory
Griffith Observatory is in Los Angeles, California, United States. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.'s Griffith Park, it commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin, including downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest...
and the famed Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire , an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. Henry Wilshire initiated what was to become Wilshire...
.
Distribution
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.
The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 16, 1995. In the United States it opened in wide release on September 29, 1995.
The first week's gross was $5,422,385 (1,432 screens) and the total receipts for the run were $16,004,418. The film was in wide release for 12 weeks (87 days). In its widest release the film was featured in 1,432 theaters across the country.
Video and DVD releases
The film was released in videoVideo
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
format on April 2, 1996. It was released on laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
in June 1996 and included the original theatrical trailer.
A DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
version was released on 9 March 1999 and includes an audio commentary by director Carl Franklin.
Critical reception
In a positive film review, critic James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
discusses the film from a sociological
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
viewpoint, especially a 1990s one. 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."
The Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
film critic, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, did not like the story much but did like the look and tone of the film, and wrote, "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."
Yet, Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is an American film critic and Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...
, film critic for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
and NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, 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."
Many critics applauded Don Cheadle's performance. Jerry Renshaw said, "Cheadle steals every scene where he appears as Mouse..." Although he was disappointed by Jennifer Beals' lackluster, vanilla performance.
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on forty-six reviews.
Soundtrack
The original score for the film was written and recorded by Elmer BernsteinElmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
. The original music soundtrack was released on September 12, 1995 by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
. The CD included 14 tracks, three of them written by Bernstein (theme, etc.).
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- Amos MilburnAmos MilburnAmos Milburn was an African American rhythm and blues singer and pianist, popular during the 1940s and 1950s... - Messin' Around - Memphis SlimMemphis SlimMemphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other...
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- Theme From 'Devil In A Blue Dress' - Elmer BernsteinElmer BernsteinElmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
- Malibu Chase - Elmer Bernstein
- End Credits - Elmer Bernstein
Awards
Wins- Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards: LAFCA Award; Best Supporting Actor, Don Cheadle; 1995.
- National Society of Film Critics AwardsNational Society of Film CriticsThe National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
: NSFC Award; Best Cinematography, Tak Fujimoto; Best Supporting Actor, Don Cheadle; 1996.
Nominated
- San Sebastián International Film Festival: Golden Seashell Award, Carl Franklin; 1995.
- Edgar Allan Poe Award: Best Motion Picture, Carl Franklin; 1996.
- Image Awards: Image Award; Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture, Jennifer Beals; Outstanding Motion Picture; Outstanding Soundtrack Album; utstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, Don Cheadle; 1996.
- Screen Actors Guild AwardsScreen Actors Guild AwardsA Screen Actors Guild Award is an accolade given by the Screen Actors Guild to recognize outstanding performances by its members. The statuette given, a nude male figure holding both a mask of comedy and a mask of tragedy, is called "The Actor"...
: Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, Don Cheadle; 1996.
External links
- Devil in a Blue Dress trailer at Turner Classic MoviesTurner Classic MoviesTurner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...