When people think of the film noir genre the usual suspect of films include the following. There is The Maltese Falcon, Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, and of course The Usual Suspects. What makes the genre so unique is the sense that story and script are essentially the same from movie to movie.
Many fail to pass the Bechdel Test and most of the side characters are one dimensional and static serving only to move the plot forward. We also know that the hero ( usually a detective) will almost never get the girl and that ulterior motives will drive the villains of the film to do what they do.
So why do we bother?
If we already know the story and the arcs of the characters why do people continue to make noir inspired films and why do we keep watching them?
The answer is simple, its in the subtlety.
What Devil in a Blue Dress does is make the subtle aspects of the story and characters reflect a much different time period and way of seeing the world. Like most noir films we already know how it will probably end but just because we know that doesn’t diminish our enjoyment of the film.
For starters the film takes place in 1940’s Los Angeles and shows us how racism, segregation, and poverty were not only limited to the South. It also shows us just how vibrant and metropolitan the nightlife of old Central Avenue and South Central were before the crack epidemic of the 80’s.
It is against this backdrop that our protagonist “Easy” Rawlins sets out on an unlikely quest to find a girl named Daphne Monet (and yes it turns out she wears a blue dress). From there the plot unveils itself in a stereotypically noir fashion. We have gangsters corrupt policemen and politicians, a murder mystery, everything you would expect.
Though I don’t want to spoil the ending it is predictable and inline with what other noir movies have given us before. Yet Devil in a Blue Dress rises above the simplicity of its plot on the backs of great performances by Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle, and the immersive experience the film gives us.
This comes from the small things and questions the film shows us to keep us engaged in its classic narrative.
The clothes, soundtrack, and dialogue of the film all immerse us into the life of Easy and his compatriots. Everything in the film happens for a reason and everything is neatly tied up and resolved at the films end. So the subtlety helps to add to the satisfaction we receive by the films end while also showing us a world filled with both the good and bad aspects of the 1940’s.
So in closing it is due to how the film handles the little things that make it so great. Solely focusing on the small things in a film with no plot is terrible and boring ( looking at you Doctor Zhivago . But when it is done well, even with a predictable plot attention to detail and craftsmanship in film will always shine through.
The fact that you wrote about this film this week is quite ironic as we just watched it in my film studies class, COMM 150H. However, I never thought of the movie as a film noir, considering it was presented to the students as a classical narrative film, because that is the genre we were covering this week. However, the detail you are providing about “Devil in a Blue Dress” aligns exactly with what my Professor explained to us. The requirements of a classic narrative include that characters have certain traits, are affected by cause and effect events and employ a plot that is comprehendible for the audience. In this film, Denzel Washington has characteristics that many viewers can identify with, such as him being a determined worker down on his luck. Also, the whole movie follows him as he investigates the effect of a certain cause. Finally, as you said, the movie wraps up in the end as all loose ends are wrapped up and has a very predictable ending.