A story about race and corruption in post-WWII Los Angeles
Devil In A Blue Dress was a film adaptation of Walter Mosley’s first book of the same name. The movie featured Denzel Washington as Easy Rawlings, Don Cheadle as his friend Mouse, Tom Sizemore as DeWitt Albright, and Jennifer Beals as Daphne Monet. The first part of the film sticks closely to its literary source. The second half was new and unnecessarily made the plot far more complicated than it had to be. DeWitt Albright hires Easy to find a woman named Daphne. During his investigation dead bodies start showing up and Easy is afraid he’ll be blamed because he’s black and would make a perfect scapegoat for the police. That brings up the themes of of African Americans after World War II and the corruption in Los Angeles.<br /><br />The story is good but goes through too many twists at the end. At first, it’s a straightforward detective job as Easy goes around to different locations and talking to people looking for Daphne. The two eventually find each other but she tries to manipulate him, hence she is the Devil In A Blue Dress. After that however things get twisted around so much many people might get lost as to what happened. I blame this solely on the screenwriter Carl Franklin. If he’d just stuck to the book more the plot would have been much better.<br /><br />The message about blacks in postwar LA uses a lot of subtle symbolism but is very important. Easy came to the city from Houston, Texas in what was called the Second Great Migration as African Americans left the south for the West Coast to get war jobs during WWII. Easy fought in the war, got out, worked in an aircraft factory and used the G.I. Bill to buy a house, which was his pride and joy. He represented the black middle class that was formed in the state during the war. When the conflict ended however, blacks were the first fired. That’s shown as Easy gets laid off from his plane job, which is why he goes to work for Albright, he needs the money to keep his house and maintain the California Dream. A man in Easy’s neighborhood keeps on trying to cut down people’s trees including Easy’s. That represents cutting down the dreams of African Americans. They came to California, found success, but afterward many of them took a step backwards as they got laid off, their kids were segregated, their children went to inferior schools as a result, and many of their neighborhoods turned into ghettos. Daphne also has a message, but to reveal her symbolism would be to spoil the story.<br /><br />Finally, Devil In A Blue Dress is a neo-Film Noire. Easy finds that Daphne is connected to all kinds of powerful people in Los Angeles who are corrupt and racist. They try to hush up their crimes and maintain their images as the fathers of the city. Easy is caught between them in what seems an unwinnable situation which is a hallmark of Noire films. Daphne Monet is also a femme fatale a beautiful woman who causes nothing but trouble for the women that get involved her with. It also has some of the sharp and short dialogue Noir's are known for.<br /><br />Overall, Devil In A Blue dress is a very good mystery. While the story gets complicated it actually might be better than the book, and the messaging about race and Los Angeles are stronger in the film than the original novel.<br />C
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 {"Content advisory": ["Violence", "alcohol use", "smoking", "foul language", "sexual content"], "Audio languages": ["English Dialogue Boost: High", "English", "English Dialogue Boost: Medium"], "Subtitles": ["English [CC]"], "Directors": ["Carl Franklin"], "Producers": ["Jesse Beaton", "Gary Goetzman"], "Starring": ["Denzel Washington", "Don Cheadle", "Tom Sizemore"], "Studio": ["Sony Pictures Entertainment Co"]}

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