Author Walter Mosley has written 14 novels featuring private detective Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, but only one of them has ever made it to the screen. Even though I didn’t watch the 1995 Mosley adaptation “Devil in a Blue Dress” for the first time until decades after it was initially released in theaters, my immediate reaction was major disappointment that the movie starring Denzel Washington didn’t kick off an entire Easy Rawlins franchise.
Because it wasn’t a box office success, writer-director Carl Franklin’s film never got the follow-up it deserved, but it stands now as a classic piece of hard-boiled noir, expertly mixing complex social commentary into the style of its vintage 1940s counterparts.
"Devil in a Blue Dress" is currently streaming on Hulu, where anyone can experience its brilliance and share my frustration over the iconic franchise that could have been.
‘Devil in a Blue Dress’ is a classic noir with a modern sensibility
Easy Rawlins is groundbreaking both on the page and onscreen as an assertive, independent Black man working within a deeply racist system. “Devil in a Blue Dress” is set in 1948 Los Angeles, which is theoretically a more progressive place than other areas of the United States during the same time period, but is still full of constraints and dangerous pitfalls for a man like Easy, if he ventures even slightly beyond the places and activities expected of him.
Mosley and Franklin don’t shy away from the ugliness that Easy faces, but they also don’t let it constrain him. “It was summer 1948, and I needed money,” he says in the opening narration, and he’s willing to take risks that other people would avoid in order to maintain the relatively privileged place he’s carved out for himself. A World War II veteran, Easy is a homeowner at a time when that was rare for Black men, and he’s unwilling to grovel to a condescending boss in order to get his job back at a local aircraft manufacturer.
That leaves Easy vulnerable to the offer from the obviously sleazy DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore), a white man who draws uncomfortable stares when he walks into Easy’s local bar and offers him $100 to locate a woman named Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals).
“I do favors for friends” is all Albright will say about his profession, and there’s clearly more going on with Daphne than the desire of her lovesick boyfriend to make sure that she’s okay. But Easy’s options are limited, and he’s intrigued by the prospect of this mysterious, possibly illicit mission.
Denzel Washington leads a top-notch cast
With his mix of swagger and vulnerability, Washington is perfect for the role of Easy, who is sometimes too trusting but is still always underestimated by people who are stronger and more powerful than he is.
He’s polite but firm when standing up for his rights with the police — even if he knows it may be futile — and calm and collected when trying to de-escalate a confrontation with some drunk white men at the Malibu pier. He’s as suave and seductive as Washington has ever been when bantering with Daphne or her friend Coretta James (Lisa Nicole Carson), and his confidence and skill make him even sexier.
Sizemore plays a perfect scumbag, who pretends to be Easy’s friend when he needs something but shifts instantly into threats of violence when he doesn’t get the result or answer he wants. He’s the kind of villain who never raises his voice, and he radiates contempt for everyone around him just in the way he eats a sandwich or smokes a cigarette.
Albright may be Easy’s biggest enemy, but Easy’s friends put him in nearly as much danger, and “Devil in a Blue Dress” gets a jolt of energy an hour in, with the arrival of Don Cheadle as Easy’s volatile buddy Raymond “Mouse” Alexander, just in time to protect Easy from one of his many attackers.
It’s no surprise that this was Cheadle’s breakout role, and he makes Mouse mesmerizing to watch even as he’s clearly deranged, eager to kill everyone in his path regardless of what will actually help Easy stay out of trouble.
‘Devil in a Blue Dress’ deserves its place in the film noir canon
Although it wasn’t a hit when it was first released, “Devil in a Blue Dress” has deservedly built up a cult following in subsequent years, and it has even recently been added to the Criterion Collection. Mosley continues to write Easy Rawlins novels, and there are periodic efforts to produce an Easy Rawlins TV series, although none have panned out.
No matter how good a show like that might be, it still won’t capture the unique approach that Franklin and Washington bring to the material. Watching “Devil in a Blue Dress” immediately immerses you in a shadowy, moody world of corruption, violence, and the imperfect quest for justice.
Even if Washington’s Easy never got to take on another case, he made an indelible mark on an entire genre.
“Devil in a Blue Dress” is now streaming on Hulu.
