Not sure how I managed to never see this movie. I have read some of the books by Walter Mosley and definitely heard of Devil In A Blue Dress but never actually watched it. L. and I checked this out about a week ago and this was a damn good movie. Like, a really good one. L. likes just watching me react to movies and this movie stressed me the fuck out. This takes place in Los Angeles in 1948 and it started off in downtown LA which was cool because we were there that day or so. Looks very much the same. This dude named Easy Rawlins got laid off from his job and needs money to pay his mortgage. He is very proud of the fact that he owns a house and wants to keep it that way. His friend Joppy owns a bar and this dude named Albright shows up with a job for him. This lady named Daphne Monet is missing and her fiancé wants her to come back because he is running for mayor but is stressed she is missing so he drops out. Easy is told that she likes to hang out in Black places. Yeah...
Easy heads to the place and this guy named Junior is tossing this weird acting White dude out. Easy hangs out with his friend Dupree and is lady Coretta. He finds out that she is close to Daphne and tries to get information from her. And by get information I mean he bones down with her while Dupree is sleeping. By the way, this actress has been in like three movies I have seen recently! Coretta lets him know that Daphne hangs out with Frank Green who is known to cut a fool.
Easy meets up with Albright in Malibu which sounds great until you remember the year and what race Easy is. I was like, that is so damned crazy that a drive to Malibu could cost you your life because you Black. So he gets there and waits on a pier for Albright when this young White woman walks up to him. Her friends look for her and immediately think Easy is trying something with her. Albright shows up, boxes one with a gun, and threatens to shoot him if he doesn't mouthasize Easy's wang. Easy wants no part of this. Albright laughs and bops the guy in the face and they leave. Easy tells Albright about Green, gets more money, and to keep looking for Daphne. At this point my ass would be very much out of this investigation.
Easy gets home and the police arrest him for the murder of Coretta. The fuck?! They start beating on him for a confession. He lets them know when he left and how she was very much alive. He is released and picked up in the street by Matthew Terell who is also running for mayor. He has a kid with him he says he adopted and asks what Easy has found out about Daphne. Easy says he has found nothing and turns down an offer for a ride home. The dude is a creep. Easy is woken after receiving a phone call from Daphne herself. They meet up and she asks him to drive her to Mulholland to grab a letter from someone. They get there and find the dead body of that weird White dude from earlier! Daphne speeds away in the car. Easy sees a pack of cigarettes like the ones Junior smoked on the floor. Man, fuck this investigation. Like, everything keeps getting worse!
Every time Easy gets home someone is there to fuck with him. Albright threatens to kill Easy for withholding information about where Daphne is. He still ain't said why he is even looking for her. Easy calls his friend Mouse to come help him. Before that he heads to Joppy's place and starts fucking the place up for information. He meets with Daphne's fiancé Todd Carter and gets even more money to find out where she is. Easy gets home and is attacked again by Frank Green. This is when I found out that Mouse is a psychopath. Frank Green tries to cut Easy while he tries to reason with him. Mouse comes out of the shadows and just wants to kill something. As Easy tries to get information from Frank Mouse shoots him in the shoulder and he escapes. Daphne calls again but Easy misses the call and police show up again and give him till the next day to clear himself of the murder of Coretta and that weird White dude on Mulholland. This is not worth it!
Easy and Mouse find Junior and at gun point find out that he drove McGee (weird White dude) home and got a letter from Coretta to give to Daphne. They visit Dupree who is torn up about how Coretta was killed. They drink until Mouse and Dupree pass out. Easy is almost killed by a drunken Mouse and leaves him to watch Dupree. Easy gets Coretta's bible and inside finds some photos of that creep Terell with naked ass children. Easy heads home and Daphne is there. She tells Easy that Frank is not her man on the side but her brother and that she is secretly half Black. Oooooooooh. She says Terell found out about this and the fact that her fiancé is running for mayor would not look good if he married someone who is even kinda Black. Daphne bought the pictures from McGee, Coretta wanted to use them as blackmail to shut Terell up, Daphne sent Joppy to scare Coretta but he ended up killing her.
Albright and his dudes show up and kidnap Daphne and take out Easy. Easy calls Mouse and they kidnap Joppy and force him to take them to where Albright is in Hollywood Hills. Easy leaves Mouse to watch Joppy but not to shoot him. Easy takes out the goons and ends up putting some bullets in Albright who takes forever to die. Easy asks where Joppy is and Mouse killed him. He did managed to not shoot him though. He strangled him to death and left him in the bushes. Easy and Mouse get some more money from Daphne ($7,000 each) and tells Easy that Carter's family paid her $30,000 to leave. She meets with Carter and he doesn't want her, on account of the Black in her, so she leaves. Easy finds out that Daphne left town with Frank Green and that the police aren't coming for his ass anymore and he may start his own private investigator business. This was a cool ass movie. I couldn't tell where anything was going, who would live or die. I love seeing movies done in Los Angeles. Just everything about this was good.
Denzel Washington as Easy Rawlins
Tom Sizemore as DeWitt Albright
Jennifer Beals as Daphne Monet
Don Cheadle as Mouse
Maury Chaykin as Matthew Terell
Terry Kinney as Todd Carter
Mel Winkler as Joppy
Albert Hall as Odell
Lisa Nicole Carson as Coretta James
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