Devil in a Blue Dress

(Carl Franklin, US 1995, 102 min., DCP)

Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins mystery series finally got a film adaptation with a little help from Denzel Washington. Washington plays the post-World War II detective and served as a producer on the film, shepherding the book to the screen. Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, laid off from his aircraft manufacturing job and looking for money to pay his mortgage, accepts a job to determine the whereabouts of Daphne Monet, whose disappearance has forced her fiance to drop out of the mayoral race. What seems like a straightforward objective leads Easy down a path that includes corruption, politics, and organized crime. The cast also includes Jennifer Beals, Tom Sizemore, and Maury Chaykin, but it’s Don Cheadle’s role as “Mouse” Alexander that steals every scene he’s in. Washington chose Carl Franklin to direct the film after he had made a splash with the spare, tense One False Move in 1992.