Devil in a Blue Dress 4K 1995

A very nice 'black noir', which includes the characteristic features of the genre. There is a willy-nilly hero who decides to make some extra money on an 'easy' case and almost loses his head, there are also shady customers, one nastier than the other, and, of course, the femme fatale over whom all the fuss is made. The voice-over and the excellent 'jazz' soundtrack give the film a memorable, thick atmosphere of twisted Los Angeles, with its division into black and white, underground clubs, corrupt cops and perverted bureaucrats.

Izzy Rawlins in Denzel Washington's consistently convincing performance is an unusual hero for noir. Frankly, it would be hard to think of another similarly interesting Negro private investigator on the spot. He'll go where a white man will get a knife in his liver in three seconds, on the other hand the police don't consider him human, even given his military background. That's where Izzy will have to work hard, not only to solve the case, but also to go to jail or to the bottom of the lake with a weight on his neck.

The slightly slow-moving first half of the film is more than made up for by the gripping second half, where passions run high and Rawlins calls on his pal Mouse for help, best exemplified by the following dialogue:

''I didn't have time to tie him up.

- И?

- Well, you said not to shoot. So I killed him.

In short, a good movie. Fans of the genre should take note.