This MCU Star Outshined Denzel Washington in His Breakout Role 28 Years Ago (2024)

Denzel Washington is a totemic figure in Hollywood history, to the point that when a Denzel film comes out, it tends to garner excitement for his involvement alone. Nearly 70 years old, Washington is still starring in the hit action franchise The Equalizer, recently turned in a critical darling of a performance as the titular character in Joel Coen's 2021 Macbeth and is set to co-star in Ridley Scott's long-awaited Gladiator sequel. As one of this and last century's great leading men, Denzel is so famous that he even owns the name "Denzel" in the public mind, so it's no small thing to say that in 1995's Devil in a Blue Dress, Denzel Washington's performance ranks second to that of then-newcomer Don Cheadle.

Devil in a Blue Dress is a 90s take on the neo-noir from prolific actor/director Carl Franklin, who had a 20-year career acting in film and TV before moving to the director's chair. After critical success (but box-office failure) with 1992's One False Move, written and starred in by Billy Bob Thornton, Franklin followed up with Devil in a Blue Dress in 1995. In it, Denzel Washington finds himself in the middle of a missing persons case in 1948 that involves heavy amounts of racial conflict as well as the historical plight of World War II combatants on returning home. It's a classic 1940s noir story with a modern social angle, and while Denzel does great work in Devil, it's Don Cheadle as Denzel's partner in both crime and justice "Mouse" who lights up the screen.

Devil in a Blue Dress Is a Classic Neo-Noir from the Perspective of a Black World War II Veteran

• Devil in a Blue Dress plays on the classic noir trope of a man returning home from war to a complicated urban life.
• The film deepens its noir themes by focusing on the life of Black people in the late 40s.
• Both in its themes and its looks, Devil is a great example of 90s neo-noir.

The story of a veteran returning home after war is a classic one when it comes to the noir genre. The trope really solidified, however, in the writing of hard-boiled detective icon Raymond Chandler, whose characters were often drawn from Chandler's own experiences in WWI. When the genre of film noir came into being in the 1940s, it drew much of its source material from novels by authors including Chandler, Cornell Woolrich and others, marrying them with visual sensibilities learned in the horror films of German Expressionism and thrillers of the time. By the time World War II ended in 1945, the genre was burgeoning in film, and with so many people returning to "normal" life after being involved in combat, the dark mentality of the post-war era transferred not only to the vibe of noirs but also to the stories themselves.

It made perfect sense for conflicted men capable of violence and with a strange set of skills to get involved in either proliferating or preventing crime, and it's in this world that Devil in a Blue Dress sets its main character of Easy. Played by Denzel Washington, Easy finds himself home from war and needing money after being let go from his job, leading him to get involved in a search for the missing Daphne Monet. Devil is set in the classic noir year of 1948, and while it plays in many of the tropes of film noir such as the noir femme fatale, trench coats and fedoras and endless cigarettes over glasses of bourbon, director Carl Franklin injects the story with the social consciousness of 45+ years later.

This is a clearly segregated world still, and despite his status as a veteran, Denzel's Easy is constantly thrown up against the racism of the white people around him, even as they seek his help. Not really a private eye (yet), Easy is simply following his need for money and his internal compulsion to help a beautiful woman (and later himself), and he's quickly drawn into the criminal underworld of L.A., a place where his bravery, skills and willingness to skirt the law are welcomed. The idea of being back in culture but not really a part of it, having to return from war only to find a world of conflict at home, is straight out of legendary noirs like Key Largo (starring one of crime's best actors, Humphrey Bogart), but Devil adds another layer of depth to the story by focusing on the added difficulties facing veterans of color.

Alongside its depth of setting and themes, Devil continues the 80s and 90s trend of updating noir to contemporary aesthetics, keeping the deep shadows, smoke and frequent night scenes and adding rich color and modern framing. It's an attractive film, especially the sets, clothing and other period details, such as some absolutely gorgeous old modernist-inspired cars. The resulting film is solid all-around, and though its basic plot is fairly standard in its noir-ish twists and layers, the added perspective of the Black American, not to mention a Black American veteran, makes it stand out against its more traditional peers as a rich film with a worthy perspective, top-tier acting and a great look that owes a lot to the neo-noirs of the 80s.

When Don Cheadle Shows Up In Devil in a Blue Dress, He Owns the Screen

• Denzel Washington was in the middle of a superstar career already when Devil in a Blue Dress was released.
• While Denzel is good, the movie comes alive when Don Cheadle shows up halfway through.
• Cheadle plays his character Mouse with a stunning performance that makes a vicious person likable.

Denzel Washington is excellent in Devil in a Blue Dress, which was released right in the middle of what could be seen as Denzel's first golden age. Washington was a household name already at that point, getting major recognition with his roles in films like Glory, Malcolm X, Philadelphia and many more, and in fact Devil is his third major film of 1995 after Crimson Tide and Virtuosity. Denzel, major star of action and drama, had already won a Best Supporting Actor award for Glory and was seven years from his Training Day Best Actor win, and he's absolutely firing on all cylinders in the lesser-known Devil. Despite what Denzel's doing, though, when Don Cheadle shows up suddenly about halfway through Devil in a Blue Dress, he steals every scene right out from under the Oscar winner.

Cheadle's "Mouse" is the definition of an explosive character, literally coming into the movie in a moment of violence which he promptly escalates by pulling a gun. It's almost the opposite of Cheadle's role in the MCU, and with Mouse carrying not one but two guns and no hesitation to pull and use them. Mouse's specter shadows over the film from the beginning, as he's referenced well before his entrance as a former compatriot of Easy's from his Texas days, always with an implication that the pair got up to some very shady business. While Easy has tried to portray himself as level-headed and mostly moral through most of the film, there's obviously something more going on with him, and when he gets in trouble, it doesn't take him long to decide to bring Mouse into the situation, despite knowing what that likely means.

Cheadle plays the half-co*cked, probably unhinged Mouse to a tee, bouncing around the screen with an energy that adds an edge of manic "anything could happen" energy to the already solid base built by Denzel and bad dude Tom Sizemore, who plays Easy's boss-turned-enemy in gangster DeWitt Albright (and who sadly passed in 2023). What was already a dangerous situation gains the possibility to explode into chaos anytime Cheadle is onscreen, and it often does, with Mouse using his gun quickly and regularly. Yet, Cheadle somehow manages to make Mouse feel genuine in his loyalty to Easy and even likable, with his gold-plated grin and fast-talking, ultra-enthusiastic manner, despite his menace.

Devil in a Blue Dress Is a Great Anti-Detective Film That Sparkles when Cheadle and Washington Play Off Each Other

• The on-screen pair of Washington and Cheadle works incredibly well, elevating the film.
• The film's ending subverts expectations in major and interesting ways.
• Though the film works without him, it's Don Cheadle's performance that makes it into a must-watch.

It's an incredible trick that works partly because of Franklin's writing, but mostly it's Cheadle's undeniable charisma and deft hand with a complex character that make the balance work (Cheadle often playing a film's best character). Together, Washington's Easy and Cheadle's Mouse play off each other's energy perfectly. Though the screen crackles with energy any time both are on it, the dynamic is encapsulated in one particular scene where, after drinking to the point where Mouse is almost comatose, Easy wakes him only to have Mouse pull a gun right into Easy's chest. With barely any fear, Easy takes the gun and starts talking Mouse down, not surprised at all when Mouse pulls his second gun right away, as clearly this is a path the two have walked down many times before.

In almost any other movie, this dynamic would result in some form of tragedy between the two, whether that be betrayal, a break-up, or, as often happens, the wilder character ending up dead or in jail because of their impulsiveness, but not here. In its final, masterfully subtle twist, Easy and Mouse get away alive, with friendship intact and money in their pockets. This subversion feels poignant in that two complex Black characters survive where they often haven't in film history, a point underlined in the closing scenes soon after.

As the movie winds down, it's revealed that even though Daphne Monet has all the pieces to solve the problem for her white fiancé that the whole film is based around, she is rejected by the man for her mixed race. It's a mixed bag of emotions at the end, summing up the racial situation in America perfectly: While Daphne is forced to leave town and loses her fiancé due to racism, Denzel's Easy ends the film with a literal smile as he stares at the thriving black neighborhood where he's happy to live, walking off through the L.A. palm trees with money, a house of his own and a promising career. There's nothing subtle about the end and its messages, but by packaging its important themes within a time and a genre not known for their positive treatment of people of color, Devil in a Blue Dress elevates above the genre that it works within.

And though the film would be good without him, it's Don Cheadle's role here that takes a good story and injects it with must-see energy. While Devil in a Blue Dress wasn't Don Cheadle's first role in a film, it was one of the first to give him a major role, and it would only be two years later that Cheadle would be working with some of film's top directors and making waves in huge film events like Volcano and Boogie Nights. Today, Cheadle has been nominated for over 30 major arts awards, and as one of the earliest main roles in the career of one of Hollywood's best talents, Devil in a Blue Dress represents a rare chance to see a talent launching to fame nearly fully formed at the beginning of his career almost 30 years ago.

Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

R

Crime

Drama

Mystery

A Black war hero is hired to find a mysterious woman, and gets mixed up in a murderous political scandal in 1948 Los Angeles.

Director

Carl Franklin

Release Date

September 29, 1995

Cast

Denzel Washington , Tom Sizemore , Jennifer Beals , Don Cheadle , Maury Chaykin , Terry Kinney , Mel Winkler , Albert Hall

Writers

Walter Mosley , Carl Franklin

Runtime

102 Minutes

Main Genre

Crime