Devil
in a Blue Dress
Exploring the film and the book
The Crime Novel Goes to the
Movies:
The Classical Detective Novel,
the Hard-boiled Tradition and Noir
THE FILM:
(Director:-) Carl Franklin’s
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
Casting: Denzel Washington as Easy Rawlins, Jennifer Beals as Daphne Monet and Don Cheadle as Mouse.
Film grossed about 16 million and cost around 22 million to make (which meant that plans to film other books were dropped)
Carl Franklin took inspiration from noir films, such as The Big Sleep, but introduced African-American vernacular in terms of visuals, music and artistic references
Franklin says: “Courage leads to freedom” was the motto of the film. Thus he sees the film as a story of a man who overcomes fear to get his piece of the American dream who navigates relations to the underworld and comes out a stronger capitalist who goes into business for himself.
SETTING & ATMOSPHERE
The Los Angeles Public library put out an exhibit: “Shades of Los Angeles: A Search for Visual Ethnic and Cultural History”, which displayed 500 photos of Los Angeles from the 1890’s to 1950’s:- the stills were a source for the film and depictions of streets, houses and people. (Where to find the photos:
1940s Culture of blues, jazz and swing
Carl Franklin‘s Daphne Monet vs. Walter Mosley's Daphne Monet:
| Jennifer Beals playing Daphne Monet in Franklin's film. |
 |
| An image that matches Mosley's description of his character- Daphne Monet. |
•In Mosley’s novel, Daphne Monet has light brown hair – almost blonde – and eyes that are green or blue depending on the way she moves her head.
To what extent is Jennifer Beals’ embodiment of Daphne a departure from the novel’s description of her? What does this representation of Monet tell us about Franklin’s rewriting of the character? What are his racial and sexual politics?
THE BOOK:-
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:-
Walter Mosley
Born in 1952, African-American father and Jewish-American mother.
Worked in the IT sector through the first half of the 1980’s and quit when he decided to become a full-time writer .
Has said that Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982) inspired him to begin writing .
Set in 1948, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990), is the first in the Easy Rawlins series: a detective series in the style of Chandler with interest in issues of race and gender . The character of Easy Rawlins is partly based on Mosley’s father who served in the army during WWII and lived in L.A. during the post-war period. The series tells the history of the community from the post-war period in Los Angeles through the McCarthy era and civil rights and set against the backdrop of the Watts riots.
GENRE:- Novel takes the structure of the classical Detective Novel, The Hard-boiled genre and the characteristics of (film) Noir.
In the novel one mystery leads to another as secrets are uncovered. There is a strong emphasis on instinct, lack of ease and ambiguity. The social order cannot be restored.
Q: How does the mystery under investigation serve to expose other crimes or acts of violence in the United States?
MAIN CHARACTER:- Easy Rawlins
Depicted as a Migrant who has moved from Texas to Watts (along with many others) .
He served in WWII and was witness to genocide and racism. He came to see himself as an American citizen during WWII and through service to his country.
Post-War: he comes back to a segregated society and he wants his piece of the American dream, which for him means owning a house and garden (Chapter 3).
THEMES
Race & Devil in the Blue Dress
There is a sense that the Black American's identity is uncertain, they are not considered American and do not feel that they are. W. E. B Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk (1903) "One ever feels his twoness, - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”
There is a sense that the Black American's identity is uncertain, they are not considered American and do not feel that they are. W. E. B Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk (1903) "One ever feels his twoness, - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”
Easy on Race-
“When he looked at me I felt a thrill of fear, but that quickly went away because I was used to white people by 1948” (9).
“It was a habit I developed in Texas when I was a boy. Sometimes, when a white man of authority would catch me off guard, I’d empty my head of everything so I was unable to say anything” (21).
“’You just tell him that the next time he better give me a note because you cain’t be lettin’ no street niggahs comin’ in yo’ place wit’ no notes!’
I was ready to leave. That little white man had convinced me that I was in the wrong place.” (22)
“I mean there I was, a Negro in a rich man’s office, talking to him like we were best friends – even closer. I could tell that he didn’t have the fear or contempt that most white people showed when they dealt with me. [...] he didn’t even consider me in human terms. [...] It was the worst kind of racism. (126)
Patriarchy and race
Post-War African-American Identity
“I was surprised to see a white man walk into Joppy’s bar. […] When he looked at me I felt a thrill of fear, but that went away quickly because I was used to white people by 1948.
"
"I had spent five years with white men, and women, from Africa to Italy, through Paris, and into the Fatherland itself. I ate with them and slept with them, and I killed enough blue-eyed young men to know that they were just as afraid to die as I was.” (Devil in a Blue Dress, 9)
“Those Germans wanted to kill me just as much as they wanted to kill every other foreign soldier. As a matter of fact, them shooting at me was what made me realize that I really was an American. That’s why when I was discharged, I left the South and came here to Los Angeles. Because I couldn’t live among people who didn’t know or couldn’t accept what I had become in danger and under fire in the war.” (Devil in a Blue Dress, 10)
The novel centres around a quest to find Daphne Monet and figuring out her identity:
•
“Daphne has a predilection for the company of Negroes. She likes jazz and pig’s feet and dark meat, if you know what I mean.” (26)
The quest for Daphne, leads to a wider investigation of life in America for the African Americans. Daphne is passing for white so we also get a sense of the discrepancies between white/black life. We learn more about different kinds of justice for white/black and multiracial America.
In a wider sense Daphane is depicted as the Femme Fatale of the Crime Genre. A femme fatale (fatal/deathly woman) is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetypal character of literature and art.
A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure.
In some situations, she uses lying or coercion rather than charm.
She rejects the role of wife and mother; this transgression of societal norms leads to her destruction.
She may also be a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape.
The figure represents a critique of normative ideas about women.
Daphne Monet:
Femme fatale & Mystery of Identity
Femme fatale & Mystery of Identity
“She had
light hair coming down over her bare shoulders and high cheekbones and eyes
that might have been blue if the artist got it right. After starting at her for
a full minute I decided that she’d be worth looking for if you could get her to
smile at you that way.” (25)
“Her face
was beautiful. More beautiful than the photograph. Wavy hair so light brown
that you might have called it blond from a distance, and eyes that were green
or blue depending on how she held her head.” (96)
Daphne as tragic
mulatta
A tragic mulatta is a stereotypical fictional character that
appeared in American literature during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The
"tragic mulatto" is an archetypical mixed race person (a
"mulatto"), who is assumed to be sad or even suicidal because he/she
fails to completely fit in the "white world" or the "black
world." In the novel Mouse says about Daphne:-“She wanna be white. All
them years people be tellin’ her how she light-skinned and beautiful but all
the time she knows that she can’t have what white people have. So she pretend
and lose it all. She can love a white man but all he can love is the white girl
he think she is.”
Like the typical tragic mulatta Daphane is depicted as the
victim of the society he/she lives in, a society divided by race. They cannot
be classified as one who is completely "black" or "white" so suffer identity crises and deep racial trauma.
The plot and of the tragic mulatta is a tragic one. It goes as
so- A woman who can "pass" for
white attempts to do so, is accepted as white by society and falls in love with
a white man. Eventually, her status as a bi-racial person is revealed and the
story ends in tragedy- (either in her suicide, her death or a similar fate).
Often such stories are criticised because they are seen as
appealing to a white audience rather than focusing on the history of the
African-American community. Mosley uses the story of passing / crossing over to
investigate black/white and other race relations and also to explore
internalised racism.
To sum, the novel is about interrogating and investigating identity and race relations in Post-war America.
To sum, the novel is about interrogating and investigating identity and race relations in Post-war America.
W.E.B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk
