The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 74

A 'Demi off a (tome Denzel Washington sparkles and seethes as reluctant sleuth Easy Rawlins in this superb mystery. By Bob Ross GARL FRANKLIN GETS it right. With an eye for atmosphere, an ear for excitement and a knack for narrative, the no-nonsense writer-director delivers the year's most delicious detective yarn. "Devil in a Blue A i-A rl 1 1 r- J- I 1 1 It Dress," Franklin's fiercely funny adaptation of Walter Mos-ley's 1990 best-seller, proves that his low-budget debut thriller, "One False Move," was no fluke. It also demonstrates that the hard-boiled Raymond Chandler tradition of the 1940s survives and enthralls in the '90s.

The tastiest difference is that Mosley's version of Philip Marlowe is a self-sufficient sleuth who happens to be black. Now Playing WHAT: Devil in a Blue Dress CRITIC'S RATING: MOVIE BOARD RATING: (violence, profanity) STARS: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals DIRECTOR: Carl Franklin PLOT SUMMARY: Neophyte tracks missing woman. RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes WHERE: For locations, see Movie Shorts, Page 17; see Page 13 for movie times. Movies are rated from zero to four stars. Trigger-happy pal Mouse (Don Cheadle) sticks it to Easy (Denzel Washington) in "Devil in a Blue Dress." Photo from TriStar Pictures This detail gives us a fresh perspective on the genre and on the story's setting a late-'40s Los Angeles where, for example, a black man has to sneak into a whites-only hotel to keep an appointment.

And it reminds us that some things such as relations between cops and blacks have not changed appreciably in 47 years. As one racist officer puts it during a routine harassment, "evidence has a funny way of showing up" when it's convenient The story starts in classic film noir fashion: Army veteran Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins (Denzel Washington, per ence. Easy, a Texas transplant, faces foreclosure on the cottage that he cherishes. So when friendly stranger DeWitt Albright (Tom Size-more, the creepy Scagnetti in "Natural Born offers him $100 just to look for a rich man's missing it seems like Easy money for sure. But the amateur upstart runs into trouble pronto.

He visits an illegal blues club (the whole soundtrack is a time-travel treat) and winds up spending the night with a woman who turns up dead soon thereafter. Easy becomes an instant murder suspect. Worse, he enrages Albright by bringing him bad information. And the harder Easy struggles to escape the snares of circumstance, the faster he spins into a wicked whirligig of money, murder, politics and blackmail. Washington's Easy Rawlins rings as true as Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade or Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes: Others may essay the role, but none will bring the character to more satisfying life.

The supporting players are equally adept. Sizemore unleashes increasing levels of fury as his plans unravel on Easy's street. Jennifer Beals continues her comeback (after "Flashdance," she got stuck in "The Bride" and "Vampire's with a suitably mysterious performance as the shady lady on the run. Maury Chaykin and Terry Kinney portray opposing politicians, and it's anyone's guess which one harbors the nastier secrets. But the most crowd-pleasing character has to be Easy's trigger-happy pal Mouse, played by Don Cheadle.

fect for the role) finds himself abruptly unemployed in the summer of 1948. Factory jobs are not exactly plentiful in this postwar period, when white workers get prefer- Gaircia's dual role doeso't add By Bob Ross I1; Now Playing WHAT: Steal Big, Steal Little CRITIC'S RATING: 12 MOVIE BOARD RATING: PG-1 3 (profanity, adult references) STARS: Andy Garcia, Alan Arkin, Rachel Ticotin, Joe Pantoliano, David Ogden Stier9 DIRECTOR: Andrew Davis PLOT SUMMARY: Identical twins battle for huge inheritance. RUNNING TIME: 1 32 minutes WHERE: For locations, see Movie Shorts, Page 17; see Page 13 for movie times. Movies are rated from zero to four stars. WHEN AN ACTOR wants to show off, nothing does it like portraying identical twins.

The joke has been played by the great (Bette Davis in "Dead the quirky (Jeremy Irons in "Dead the comical (Bette Midler and Lily Tom-lin In "Big and the utterly foolish Chong's The Corsican But poor Andy Garcia got stuck trying the twinning trick in "Steal Big, Steal Little," a would-be comic fable that wound up becoming a lumbering, distasteful, overlong joke with no punch line. The popular, Cuba-born star "Godfather III," "When a Man Loves a does a reasonably competent job portraying twin brothers who wage an Garcia plays identical twins in "Steal Big, Steal Little." As shocking as it seems, one twin is good and the other is evil. Photo from Savoy Pictures Continued on Pag 30.