Devil In A Blue Dress (1995) Monday, January 21 @ 02:30 AM (Monday Night)
This is one of those films that for some reason kind of flew under the radar. Even though it got good critical reception, it was a serious disappointment at the box-office, losing approximately $10,000,000.
It’s a neo-noir detective mystery set in 1948 Los Angeles. Denzel Washington is Ezequiel “Easy” Rawlins, who’s hired to find a missing dame. But we don’t find him sitting, feet up on a desk in a shabby office, the smoke curling up from his cigarette illuminated by the neon light blinking outside his dirty window. “Easy” is a WW2 vet who uses the G.I. Bill and a lot of hard work to buy a house and a foothold in the middle class. That foothold begins to slip when he loses his job, and he’s approaching desperation when he decides to grab an offer to play private eye for a shady guy whose line of business is “I do favors for guys.” Of course he gets caught up in a web of murder, brutal police interrogation, political corruption, pederasty and blackmail.
There are shades of Murder My Sweet as he’s hired to find a girl, and is then asked to retrieve a blackmail MacGuffin. This film touches many, but not all of the bases of film-noir. The color cinematography has that warm glow associated with period pieces, rather than the harsh chiaroscuro of noir. No deep shadows or harsh glare. The frame composition is straightforward, eschewing the odd angles and oblique point-of-view also associated with noir.
But the story is pure film-noir, with shifting identities, masked motives and the over-riding sense that Easy is playing a game whose rules he doesn’t know. Easy’s voice-over interior monologue is another noir technique used to great effect.
Tom Sizemore is appropriately creepy. Jennifer Beals does her best Joan Crawford imitation, and Don Cheadle is unforgettable as “Mouse” an endearing homicidal maniac. My favorite line: when he asks plaintively, “if you ain’t want him killed, why’d you leave him with me?”
If you’re sufficiently impressed with the film and feel like taking a ride up to Yonkers, it will be showing at the Alamo Drafthouse on Jan. 27.
The trailer can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVpZD8m2BTc
