Devil in a Blue Dress - The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

The bone-deep disillusionment of postwar film noir becomes a powerful vehicle to explore America’s racial injustices in Carl Franklin’s richly atmospheric Devil in a Blue Dress, an adaptation of the hard-boiled novel by Walter Mosley. Denzel Washington has charisma to burn as the jobless ex-GI Easy Rawlins, who sees a chance to make some quick cash when he’s recruited to find the missing lover (Jennifer Beals) of a wealthy mayoral candidate in late-1940s Los Angeles—only to find himself embroiled in murder, political intrigue, and a scandal that crosses the treacherous color lines of a segregated society. Featuring breakout work by Don Cheadle as Rawlins’s cheerfully trigger-happy sidekick, this stylish mystery both channels and subverts classic noir tropes as it exposes the bitter racial realities underlying the American dream.

• United States
• 101 minutes
• Color
• 1.85:1
• English
• Spine #1135
• 1995

Director-Approved Blu-Ray Special Edition Features

- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Carl Franklin, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring Franklin
- New conversation between Franklin and actor Don Cheadle
- New conversation between Walter Mosley, author of the novel on which the film is based, and novelist and screenwriter Attica Locke
- Onstage conversation between Franklin and film historian Eddie Muller, recorded at the 2018 Noir City Film Festival in Chicago
- Screen test for Cheadle
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Julian Kimble

*New cover by James Ransome