DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS is a movie about the path to power, the systematized utility of racial identity, the people wielding it in postwar Los Angeles, and the color of everyone’s skin. When Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins gets caught up in a white man’s business of “favors for friends,” he finds himself a pawn in sordid political race politics, a tool of the colonizing class, and a weapon to be wielded by those in power. It’s structurally noir but far more stylistically natural, lending it a certain feeling of veracity that’s hard to come by in this genre.

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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "West Side Baby” by T-Bone Walker from the DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 156: DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (1995)

4:21 - The podcast actually starts

5:52 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

7:39 - Jason’s thoughts

14:43 - Harry’s thoughts

20:21 - Aaron’s thoughts

26:43 - The false relationships of DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS

33:54 - Daphne’s complicated position at the center of the plot

38:41 - Walter Mosley’s original novel

39:59 - The guy who keeps trying to cut down Easy’s trees

42:17 - Mouse, masculinity, power, and humanity

53:26 - The oddly positive ending

56:38 - #LittleFreakWatch2022