Movies

The Avocado Movie Club #52: Devil In a Blue Dress (1995)

Welcome to the Movie Club! Today’s movie is Carl Franklin’s neo-noir Devil in a Blue Dress.

Criterion Collection cover

Devil in a Blue Dress stars Denzel Washington as Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, an out of work machinist who gets hired to find a missing woman, Daphne, the wife of a mayoral candidate who has recently dropped out. As Ezekiel investigates and things get out of hand, he ends up calling in help from his past, a violent figure named Mouse, played by Don Cheadle. 

Devil in a Blue Dress is an adaptation of a novel by the same name, written by Walter Mosley, who was also an associate producer on the film. Shot for a budget of $22 million, it only made a reported $22 million in the box office (according to an issue of Planet Hollywood sourced on Wikipedia), but was a critical success, earning a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and some smaller awards for acting and cinematography.12

Trivia:34 

  • Jonathan Demme attained the rights, originally intended to direct, but after seeing Carl Franklin’s One False Move, he hired him to direct instead.
  • Carl Franklin deeply researched the time period for the film, through both photographs and by interviewing jazz musicians and other people who lived in LA during the time period. 
  • ABC had plans to develop a pilot based on the film in 1999, but it seems like nothing came of that.

Up Next: Our next film will be Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie! We’ll meet to discuss it on July 24 at 12PM. After that, we’ll start the next round of selections. The thread is still open if you’ve missed it: https://the-avocado.org/2026/07/03/the-avocado-movi3-club-s3l3ctions-part-3d-1-3/ 

Otherwise, check out the trailer for Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie and where it’s playing below (my apologies in advance to anyone not in North America. I delayed this move for a while hoping it would get a digital release across the pond, although the theatrical release in the UK was just last Friday):

USA

  • Stream: Nada!
  • Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Fandango At Home, Plex (rental only), Letterboxd Video Store (rental only)

Canada

  • Stream: Crave (also via Prime Video)
  • Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Prime Video, Cosmo GO, Plex, Letterboxd Video Store

UK 

  • Stream: Nada! 
  • Rent or Buy: Nada!
  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_in_a_Blue_Dress_(film)#cite_note-SI-1 ↩︎
  2. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/devil_in_a_blue_dress ↩︎
  3. https://www.tcm.com/articles/133222/devil-in-a-blue-dress ↩︎
  4. https://variety.com/1999/tv/news/abc-pilots-blue-dress-black-detective-skein-1117755708/ ↩︎