This week Michael and Nakea are revisiting an under-seen, under-appreciated film noir, Carl Franklin's Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month.

The world of 1940s Los Angeles is a familiar one from countless private-eye movies, but Devil in a Blue Dress—based on the first of Walter Mosley's best-selling detective novels about Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins—made both the story and the setting fresh by centering a Black protagonist, and lovingly recreating neighborhoods of L.A. long overlooked by Hollywood. Featuring a strong lead performance by Denzel Washington, and a scene-stealing turn from Don Cheadle, Devil in a Blue Dress should have been the start of a long-running franchise. Instead, the movie sadly underperformed at the box office, and remains a solitary, overlooked gem of '90s neo-noir.

Can The Unenthusiastic Critic—our resident femme fatale—get to the bottom of this mystery?

Program

0:00: Prologue: Walter Mosley on Easy Rawlins
00:38: Cultural Osmosis: Pre-Viewing Discussion
12:12: Original Trailer for Devil in a Blue Dress
14:04: The Verdict: Post-Viewing Trailer
50:09: Outro and Next Week's Movie

For show notes, links, contact info, and additional episodes, please go to unaffiliatedcritic.com.