Movie Description
The year is 1948, the place is Los Angeles, and Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins (Denzel Washington) is a black man who has just lost his job and is in dire need of money. So, despite having no experience as a private eye, Easy accepts an assignment from a seedy man (Tom Sizemore) to find the missing Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals), the mistress of a powerful mayoral candidate. As Rawlins conducts his search, he unexpectedly becomes drawn into a complex racially-charged web of intrigue involving political machinations, double-crossings, blackmail, and mysterious deaths. With the aid of his trigger-happy friend Mouse (Don Cheadle), Easy must rely on his instincts and neophyte detective skills, not only to solve the case, but also to save his life. African-American director Carl Franklin (ONE FALSE MOVE) brings Walter Mosley's crime series to life with this dense thriller, aided greatly by Tak Fujimoto's sun-soaked photography and an electric soundtrack reflecting the music of the times. As Easy Rawlins, an everyman who finds himself an unwilling pawn in a dangerous game of mystery and murder, Washington delivers an intense performance. It is Don Cheadle, however, who steals the show, giving his hot-tempered Mouse a comic humanity that is at once menacing, hysterical, and unforgettable.
| Credits | | Producer: | Gary Goetzman, Jesse Beaton | | Cast: | Brendan Kelly, Don Cheadle |
Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. Carl Franklin - Director
Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailers
Screen Test - 1. Don Cheadle
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Selections, Released theatrically in the USA on September 29, 1995, DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS grossed $15.9 million at the domestic box office.
Don Cheadle was voted Best Supporting Actor of 1995 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for his performance. He won a similar award from the National
Society of Film Critics, who also garnished the film with a Best Cinematography award.
President Bill Clinton once declared that novelist Walter Mosley was his favorite author.
Editorial Reviews
"...[A] whip-smart and sexy film....Denzel Washington is flat-out perfection..."
Rolling Stone - p.75-6 - Peter Travers (10/05/1995)
"...A potboiler overflowing with possibilities..." - Recommended
Premiere - p.130 - Josh Rottenberg (04/01/1996)
"An engrossingly atmospheric dip into the dark waters of postwar urban intrigue....Washington's performance is alert and subtle..."
Variety - Todd McCarthy (09/18/1995)
"...A major accomplishment, a fluid, persuasive piece of movie-making graced with the considerable sophistication of Tak Fujimoto....This is a film in smooth control of its ways and means..."
Los Angeles Times - Kenneth Turan (09/29/1995)
"...[Franklin] creates a rich atmospheric style, a mood; the characters do not stand on their own so much as inhabit places within a traditional frame....Washington's warmth at the center of it is like our own bemusement..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (09/29/1995)
"...Set in a beautifully evoked late-'40s LA, it features an outstanding performance from Denzel Washington..."
Total Film - Stephen Applebaum (08/01/2000)
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