Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

Director:

Carl Franklin

Writers (WGA):

Walter Mosley (book)
Carl Franklin (screenplay)

Release Date:

29 September 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Private detective Easy Rawlins has been caught on the wrong side of the most dangerous secret in town.

Plot:

An Afro-American private detective is hired to find a woman and gets mixed up in a murderous political scandal.

Plot Keywords:

African American | Detective | Jazz Club | Murder | Dress

Awards:

3 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Denzel Washington	...	Ezekiel 'Easy' Rawlins
Tom Sizemore	...	DeWitt Albright
Jennifer Beals	...	Daphne Monet
Don Cheadle	...	Mouse Alexander
Maury Chaykin	...	Matthew Terell
Terry Kinney	...	Todd Carter
Mel Winkler	...	Joppy
Albert Hall	...	Degan Odell
Lisa Nicole Carson	...	Coretta James
Jernard Burks	...	Dupree Brouchard
David Wolos-Fonteno	...	Junior Fornay
John Roselius	...	Detective Mason
Beau Starr	...	Detective Jack Miller
Steven Randazzo	...	Benny Giacomo
Scott Lincoln	...	Richard McGee

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, sexuality and language.

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR | SDDS (8 channels)

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #33509) | Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Denmark:16 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Clinica Estetico

Trivia:

Based on the book of the same name by Walter Mosley. Mosley wrote several Easy Rawlins books. All but two - "Gone Fishin'" and "Six Easy Pieces" - include a color in the title of the book.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The scene after Easy and Daphne are in McGee's house (where they find his body), Easy pulls into his driveway and gets out of the car. He looks left to see a gray convertible on the street. When he comes to his front door, the view changes and you see the same car with a (hard) top, over Easy's left shoulder. After the people in the house leave, the car is once again a convertible. Clearly they used two identical cars in this scene. One convertible, one not.

Quotes:

Kid: What do you want?
DeWitt Albright: What do I want?
[Produces gun]
DeWitt Albright: I want to see your brains.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Century of Black Cinema (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

ON A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA

A great crime film

If you are looking for a great crime film...this is the movie for you. It doesn't have all the complicated twists and turns of other movies such as "The Usual Suspects" but it still serves a movie that keeps your attention the old fashioned way, reveal a piece of information but don't tell all of it. Denzel does a good job and Don Cheadle gives a great performance as Mouse. I hope the rest of Walter Mosley's books become films because if this is any indication of how the rest will be made.