Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

In writer/director Carl Franklin's suspenseful, neo-noir mystery thriller - its hard-boiled, who-dun-it and find-the-dame 'detective' story was based upon African-American Walter Mosley's 1990 mystery novel of the same name. The R-rated, 102 minute period piece from TriStar Pictures conveyed the atmosphere of classic noirish intrigue in the late 1940s in a shadowy and segregated South-Central Los Angeles, enhanced by Tak Fujimoto's cinematography. The musical score from famed composer Elmer Bernstein included jazzy songs from Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and T-Bone Walker. There was plenty of the typical noir fare: voice-over narrations, twists, and red herrings plus some additional racial themes. The film's MacGuffin was an envelope-letter with incriminating photos of child abuse, and the secretive racial identity of the missing "devil in a blue dress."

Denzel Washington took the starring lead role as amateur 'detective' hero Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins - a lower-class, decorated WWII veteran from Houston, TX. The post-war boom was ending and he found himself broke (and two months behind on his mortgage) and jobless after being let go as an aircraft plant employee. He was easily persuaded and paid well by an unscrupulous, thuggish businessman (a 'fixer' with uncertain ties) to take on a seemingly-simple task - to locate the mysterious and slinky "devil in a blue dress" Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals) who had been missing for two weeks - she was a tragic femme fatale figure and the fiancee-moll of a powerful mayoral candidate, who had dropped out of the race at about the same time she disappeared. It seemed that everyone wanted to locate her. Easy was hired because the missing 'white woman' was known to frequent the city's "Negro" honky-tonks and illegal jazz-juke joints.

His convoluted search for the missing heroine brought him into a complex web and world of harsh local political rivalries in LA involving the mayoral race, corrupt and brutal LAPD cops and gangsters, as well as other troubling concerns, including political corruption and scandal, racial conflict and prejudice, faked racial identity, double-dealing, murder (body count: 6), frame-ups, kidnapping, and extortion-blackmail (i.e., involving a misdelivered letter with pictures that could incriminate a pedophile). During his trouble-ridden search, he was implicated in two murders he didn't commit. Its taglines defined the racial challenges of the main protagonist:

• "In a world divided by black and white, Easy Rawlins is about to cross the line."
• "Private detective Easy Rawlins has been caught on the wrong side of the most dangerous secret in town."

Although well-received, its budget of $27 million was poorly matched by its gross revenues of only $16.1 million. Due to the financial failure of this debut installment in a series of books featuring Easy Rawlins by Walter Mosley, further adapted theatrical sequels for A Red Death, White Butterfly, and Black Betty were placed on hold. Neither Washington's role nor the praised role of co-star Don Cheadle (as Easy's pal - a small-sized, gold-toothed, trigger-happy hired killer named Mouse) were considered for Oscar nominations by the Academy.

• the title credits played over a slow pan of Archibald John Motley Jr.'s 1949 oil-on-canvas painting of Bronzeville at Night - depicting a South Side black metropolis of a Chicago suburb, not LA - accompanied by T-Bone Walker's "West Side Baby"
• in the film's opening in the summer of 1948 (heard in voice-over), Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins (Denzel Washington) was desperately searching for work after losing his job 3 weeks earlier for showing up late; his machinist job had been terminated at the Champion Aircraft plant at the same time his mortgage payment on his home was overdue; he was back in Joppy's (Mel Winkler) Bar above a butcher shop, scanning the newspaper for job opportunities
• in other news of the city, the Los Angeles Times reported the headline: "Todd Carter Drops Out of Mayor's Race" - an important point for later
• in the bar, "property owner" Easy was introduced by his friend and bar-owner - ex-boxer Joppy - to his acquaintance: a well-dressed, shady white businessman named Dewitt Albright (Tom Sizemore) who described himself as a fixer ("I do favors for friends") for higher-ups; Easy was told to meet him at 7:00 pm at a specified address
• in voice-over as he drove to his own S Central LA home's neighborhood, Easy described how he had moved to LA from Houston, TX after the war in Europe, and proudly bought a home with help from the GI Bill: ("I guess maybe I just loved ownin' something"); the job prospect came at a great time, but Easy was also nervous: "A chill running up the back of my neck was telling me l was about to make a bad decision"
• that evening at 7 pm, Easy drove to the meeting location in Hollywood - the Alvarado Building, where in his office, Albright proposed that Easy help find Daphne Monet, the fiancee of Todd Carter, whose disappearance for two weeks had led the upset Carter to withdraw from the Mayor's race; allegedly Carter wanted to make up with her; Easy was shown the LA Times newspaper article with Daphne's picture; due to the fact that Daphne had "a predilection for the company of Negroes. She likes jazz, pig's feet and dark meat," the job was only suited for a black man; Easy was offered $100 dollars to simply locate Daphne; he warily but readily accepted - the quick cash seemed too good to be true
• before returning home, Easy visited John's Market in the heart of S. Central LA (at the corner of 89th Street and Central Avenue), where Albright said that Daphne had been seen; on the street outside, white cops were arresting a black man with a white woman; inside John's Market, the black female owner Hattie Parsons (L. Scott Caldwell) complained that she had paid off the cops, but they were still hassling her black customers outside
• Easy was harrassed by a drunken white man named Richard McGee (Scott Lincoln); it appeared he was offering Easy cash to get him into the second floor illegal jazz nightclub-speakeasy; Easy paid his entry fee to Hattie for the club and was escorted up the stairs by the club's strong-armed bouncer Junior Fornay (David Fonteno), Hattie's nephew; it was clear that Easy and Junior knew each other from Houston; as they climbed the stairs, Easy commented about how Junior was the only Negro in America who smoked Mexican cigarettes: ("Zapattas. How do you smoke these damn things?")
• [Note: the next important event happened entirely off-screen - but it would turn out to be a crucial part of the mystery; Junior ejected McGee from John's and drove the drunk back to his Laurel Canyon home]
• Easy entered the smoky, dark and noisy, blacks-only jazz nightclub; he met some of his friends, including Deacon Odell (Albert Hall), fellow ex-co-worker Dupree Brouchard (Jernard Burks) and Dupree's date-girlfriend Coretta James (Lisa Nicole Carson), and the group began drinking heavily

John's Market Store Owner Hattie Parsons (L. Scott Caldwell)	Deacon Odell (Albert Hall)	Dupree Brouchard and His Date-Girlfriend Coretta James
	Some of Easy's Friends in Illegal Nightclub

• at the end of a drunken night, Easy helped carry passed-out Dupree back to Coretta's place, and then as Dupree slept in the back bedroom, Coretta seduced Easy on the sofa in the living room, with hints that she was one of Daphne's confidantes - the white dame he was looking for: ("Why you keep asking about her? Colored women ain't good enough for you no more?"); Easy satisfied Coretta as they had passionate sex together for the remainder of the night until just before sun-up: "That's it. You're hitting my spot. You're hitting my spot..."

Easy Having Sex with Dupree's Girlfriend Coretta James (Lisa Nicole Carson) - a 'Friend' of Daphne's - Before Coretta's Murder (Off-screen)

• in voice-over, Easy later described how Coretta forced him to pay her $10 dollars for further information about Daphne and her whereabouts - Easy learned: "She was shacking up with a smalltime colored gangster named Frank Green"; a phone call from Albright late in the day sent Easy to meet up with him at the Malibu Fishermans Pier in an hour's time
• it was dark as Easy arrived and was looking out at the ocean, when a white female stranger named Barbara (Renée Humphrey) from Des Moines, IA struck up a conversation with him, causing him to get into trouble with her two racist-minded male companions Herman (Robert J. Knoll) and Football (Kai Lennox), accompanied by Barbara's sister (Poppy Montgomery); Easy was saved by gun-wielding, scary and crazy-acting Albright who approached and threatened to kill Football, but then struck him in the face and sent him (and the others) fleeing in fear
• Easy shared with Albright what he knew about Daphne so far from Coretta - Daphne was hanging out with black gangster Frank Green at the Skylar Apartments: ("Skylar and 83rd"): "He's a gangster. Hijacks liquor and cigarettes. Good with a knife"; Albright peeled off another $100 dollars for Easy
• Easy returned home, where he was accosted in his driveway by two white detectives, Miller (Beau Starr) and Mason (John Roselius); he was detained and handcuffed for no specific reason and hauled into the Los Angeles City Jail for questioning; in a small musty room, he was accused of bludgeoning Coretta to death (off-screen), and suspected of having an argument with Dupree over her before her murder; then after some brutal roughing-up treatment and three hours of confinement, Easy was inexplicably let go; he mused (in voice-over): "The game of cops and n-----s kept up outside the station, but I hardly even noticed. I had seen dead bodies before. Cold, hard, still as concrete, their eyes wide open, staring up at nothing. But not Coretta. I could still feel her heartbeat"

Easy's Encounter with Chauffeured 1947 Black Cadillac Limo Carrying Mayoral Candidate Matthew Terell (Maury Chaykin) and a Young Mexican Boy

• while he was walking home, a black 1947 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 limo pulled up next to him, and the chauffeur-driver Norman (Brendan Kelly) leaned out and urged Easy to get in: "My boss wants to talk to you about Coretta James. Listen, if he wanted to hurt you, it would've happened already"; Easy was ushered into the back seat where he met Matthew Terell (Maury Chaykin), Carter's rival mayoral candidate; Terell was with a young Mexican boy, calling him his adopted son Jesus; Terell already knew of Coretta's murder: ("She was beaten and died of a heavy blow to the back of the head. I suppose you already know that"); he called himself a "friend of the Negro" - and that Coretta had previously worked in his campaign office; Terell was fishing for information about whether Easy had been with Daphne Monet, but Easy firmly vowed: "There was nobody else there"; Easy was then let out and chose to walk home on his own
• in the middle of the night while experiencing a nightmarish flashback of Coretta's voice, Easy was awakened by a phone call from Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals), who claimed that Coretta had told her that he was looking for her; she asked him to come over in a half-hour and explain himself to her; she recommended that he use the side entrance and have the bellboy sneak him up, since she was in the whites-only section of the downtown Ambassador Hotel
• as he entered Daphne's hotel room at about 4 am in the morning, the blue-dressed Daphne was smoking a cigarette in the middle of the room, and memorably asked: "I don't know if I should think of you as a friend of Coretta's, or a private dick?"; she told him that she had also paid Coretta to not tell him where she was; he suspected that Coretta had given him inaccurate information about how Daphne was at the Skylar Apts. with Frank Green; Daphne affirmed that black gangster Frank (her "dear friend") was absolutely not Coretta's killer: "Frank doesn't go around beating people up. He prefers to use a knife as his weapon"; when Easy asked about her weapon of choice, Daphne seductively proposed: "Why don't you search me and find out?"; Daphne claimed that she was the last one to speak with Coretta who called her at about 7:30-8:00 am before her murder, but more importantly to scare him, she claimed Easy was the last one to physically be with her! [Note: This was actually inaccurate - there were two others who had been with Coretta before her death]
• now that Easy had found Daphne - to Easy's surprise - she promised to pay him if he drove her to Todd Carter's house; along the way, Daphne insisted that he stop at the Laurel Canyon home of Richard McGee to retrieve a misdelivered letter
• [Note: earlier, Richard McGee was the drunken man ejected from Hattie's grocery-store market on Central Ave.; he was trying to get ahold of Daphne who he thought was in the upstairs black nightclub above John's Market to give her the letter; McGee turned out to be the key to the entire film's mystery - he was a blackmailing, homosexual pimp and pedophile who farmed out young boys to rich clients, including one of the film's political figures.]
• in voice-over, Easy explained how nervous he was driving with Daphne in his maroon-colored, 1947 Pontiac Streamliner car: "Here I was in the middle of the night, in a white neighborhood with a white woman in my car. I wasn't nervous. I was stupid....Getting Daphne back to Todd Carter all of a sudden didn't seem so easy. Who was this guy Richard McGee?"; upon entering the ajar front door, they realized that the house had been ransacked, and McGee's smelly and bloody corpse (with a bullet hole in his head) was found on the floor in the bedroom; Easy found a pack of Zapatta's - Mexican cigarettes exclusively smoked by bouncer Junior at Hattie's store; Easy heard the clearly-traumatized Daphne take off in McGee's parked car outside the house, leaving him standing there
• [Note: Junior's cigarette pack at the scene appeared to be solid evidence - or a frame-up? - that Junior had knocked off McGee after ejecting him from the nightclub and driving him to his home.]
• it was already daylight by the time Easy arrived back home and entered his driveway; he found Albright's 1940 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible parked outside, and Albright was in his house uninvited with his two goon-partners Manny (Kenny Endoso) and Shariff (Nick Corello) making breakfast; Albright was angry that he had paid Easy, but had not located Daphne with Frank Green at the Skylar Apartments - he had moved a year earlier; at knifepoint, Albright forced Easy to admit that he had recently seen Daphne and taken her into the Hollywood Hills, but that she took off in dead man McGee's car; Albright demanded that Easy again track down Daphne: "You gotta find Frank Green, so he can lead us to her," but Easy refused since he was already being fingered for two murders: "No thank you. Too many people getting killed around me already, huh?"; Albright insisted: "You're gonna do whatever I tell ya to do. You find him, and we'll be checkin' in"
• to help protect himself (and his home), Easy put in a call to his intimidating hitman-friend Raymond 'Mouse' Alexander (Don Cheadle) in Houston, TX, to invite him to visit in Los Angeles
• afterwards in town, Easy observed a political parade and an open convertible holding candidate Matthew Terell waving to the crowds, with an announcer urging everyone to vote on June 11th
• Easy walked over to Joppy's Bar to angrily confront his bar-owner buddy about giving out his private phone number to Daphne; he was most incensed that all along, Joppy knew Daphne and where she was located: "That girl called me last night, Joppy....The one your friend Albright is lookin' for....No, it wasn't no luck at all, Joppy. It was you. You and Coretta were's the only one that had my number and knew I was lookin' for the girl... Now you's supposed to be my friend. Why in the hell didn't you tell the man where the girl was your damn self?"; all of Easy's troubles (Coretta's death, McGee's death, Albright and his aggressive goons, etc.) could have easily been avoided if Joppy had directly told Albright about Daphne's whereabouts; to get answers, Easy smashed the bar's prized marble top with a hammer; Joppy hurriedly explained how he thought he was doing Easy a favor (to earn a little money) by pretending he didn't know Daphne: ("I didn't mean to get you in no trouble")
• in voice-over, Easy described how he would now go to "the top" and pay a visit to Daphne's love interest Todd Carter: "Like Albright said, 'When you're mixed up in somethin', you better be mixed up to the top.' So that's where I was goin'. All the way to the top. Everybody was peein' on my head and tellin' me it was rain. Guess they figured I was some new kind of fool, and maybe I was. 'Cause I was ready to start fightin' back. And I believed somehow that I could live through this bad dream I was havin', about pretty girls and gangsters, and standin' face-to-face with the richest man in town";
• impeccably dressed, Easy drove into the luxurious, manicured and gated grounds of the distinguished T. Carter Foundation, and although ignored at first by Carter's secretary (Peggy Rea), Easy loudly announced his intentions: "Too busy to hear about that little chippy of his that dumped him?"; he was promptly brought inside and upstairs by Carter's assistant Baxter (Vinny Argiro)
• the wealthy ex-mayoral candidate Todd Carter (Terry Kinney) was looking pensive on an outdoor veranda, and was notified of Mr. Rawlins' presence; they moved into Carter's richly-furnished office as Easy told how he had seen Daphne (in a "blue dress, high heels") as recently as the previous night; Carter mentioned how he had thought that Daphne was hundreds of miles away from LA; he also denied knowing Mr. Albright and his attempt to find Daphne; he reacted uneasily to Easy's assertion that someone else was looking for Daphne; he added: "We were going to get married, and we had a fight, and it is really none of your concern"; it appeared that Carter also didn't know anything about Richard McGee; he was very desperate to find Daphne: "Do you think you could find her again? It's important for her sake. I'm willing to pay you" - and Easy was offered $1,000 dollars, but only asked for $200 dollars at first; suspiciously, Carter had not sought help to find Daphne from the chief of police, the current mayor, or his close friends; Carter also refused to answer two questions: Why did he stop running for mayor?, and Why was Terell also looking for Daphne?
• as Easy walked to his car, he summarized his findings in voice-over, concluding that Albright was working for Matthew Terell: "So Albright had lied to me. Instead of workin' for Carter, he was workin' for Terell - the man running for mayor against Carter. And for whatever reason, they was all throwin' money my way to find the girl in the blue dress. Anyway, I knew that her boyfriend Frank Green hijacked trucks haulin' liquor and sold it at half the price to places down on Central Avenue"; Easy's next stop was at local businesses where Green was supposed to be selling stolen liquor, but strangely, no one had heard of Frank Green
• Easy drove home and was ambushed and assaulted on his front porch by the knife-wielding Frank Green (Joseph Latimore), and as he was about to have his throat slit, Easy was rescued by the sudden appearance of Mouse (with gold-rimmed teeth) who held a gun to Frank's head; as they were about to question Frank about Daphne's whereabouts, the phone rang; Mouse answered and told the unidentified caller [Daphne] that they were busy and she should call back later; to get Frank to talk, Mouse unexpectedly shot him in the right shoulder; Green jumped up, ran out the front door in the confusion and escaped
• Easy was exasperated that although Mouse had saved his life, in his first five minutes there, his trigger-happy friend had already used his weapon; Mouse promised to help protect Easy and assured him: "I won't do nothin' you don't tell me to do"
• shortly later, there was a knock on Easy's door; the two detectives Miller and Mason from earlier were there to follow up on the second murder - the death of Richard McGee in his Laurel Canyon home that also implicated Easy; in McGee's pocket, a note was found signed "Coretta James"; although handcuffed, Easy was released and given until the following morning to "dig something up" or otherwise he would be charged with both murders; in voice-over, Easy knew what would happen: "I played along, just like the cops wanted me to. It was all a game to them. But in the mornin', they'd be playin' for keeps because a white man was dead now. And guilty or not, somebody was gonna have to pay for this one"

Detective Miller (Beau Starr)

Detective Mason (John Roselius)

• Easy and Mouse drove together to Junior's residence in the Portland Court, a horseshoe-shaped complex of cheap apartments; Easy directly confronted Junior: "Why'd you kill Richard McGee?" - with proof of his Zapatta cigarette wrapper he had found next to the body; Junior had ejected McGee out of Hattie's illegal club and took him home, but had he shot him in the head that same night before robbing him? Would Junior's fingerprints be found in the house?; Junior admitted that he drove McGee to his house, and then for $50 bucks, he was given a letter for Coretta to give to Daphne: ("I give it to Coretta to give to her the next morning"); off-screen, Junior then passed the letter to Coretta in the morning just before she was murdered [Note: Junior was referring to the "misdelivered letter" that Daphne was earlier looking for in McGee's house with Easy.]; Junior emphatically denied killing McGee at his house: "That man was alive when I left"
• on the trail of the letter, Easy and Mouse drove to Compton, CA to the home of the sister of Coretta's boyfriend Dupree Brouchard; in voice-over, Easy confessed that he knew all along that Junior was innocent - "but I couldn't see no harm in letting the big waterhead sucker sweat a little bit"; Dupree had just been released from policy custody after being questioned about Coretta's murder; Easy asked Dupree about a letter Coretta might have received to give to "that white girl" (Daphne); Dupree didn't know about any letter, but Dupree speculated about Daphne: "I know it's on account of her that Coretta got killed"; inside while talking and eating pig-tails, Easy told how Daphne had been two-timing Frank Green by sleeping with Todd Carter, the dropped-out mayoral candidate; Dupree told how the only thing he had that belonged to Coretta was her Bible, given to him just before she was murdered
• while Mouse and Dupree were passed out from drinking, Easy rifled through Dupree's drawers and found Coretta's Bible; tucked inside it was the 'misdelivered' envelope-letter to Daphne with incriminating photographs of Terell with naked children - as described in voice-over by Easy: "I was scared now, and sick from what I saw. Pictures of a much younger Matthew Terell and children. Innocent, helpless naked children"
• in voice-over as he drove home by himself, Easy interpreted what he thought had happened: "The pictures was eatin' at my pocket like a cigarette burn. Albright killed for those pictures to get 'em back for Matthew Terell. He had killed Richard McGee, who had sold the pictures to Daphne. Time was runnin' out. But I had some unfinished business with the girl"; he was hoping to get another phone call from Daphne
• [Note: In fact, Daphne had bought the pedophile pictures from pedophile/pimp McGee, to use the pictures to help blackmail rival mayoral candidate Terell into silence, so she could help her lover Todd Carter and restore his candidacy; the letter with the photos was misdelivered - it should have gone directly from McGee to Daphne; however, in reality, it went from McGee through Junior to Coretta (who was supposed to give them to her friend Daphne); to keep the letter hidden, Coretta stuck the envelope in her Bible.]
• as he entered his house, the phone rang; Easy rushed to pick it up, but the caller had already hung-up; Daphne appeared from a back room - awaiting him - and apologized for breaking in; she looked scared but then relieved when he told her: "I already got the pictures, Daphne"; she approached close to thankfully kiss him, but then backed away; she claimed she paid McGee $7,000 for the pictures, and offered Easy $1,000 for them; he bargained to be paid their full value and she agreed, but she wouldn't answer his question: "What does Terell have on you, girl?"; Easy told her he really didn't want the money, but rather wanted to save himself from going to jail in the morning for two murders (Coretta and McGee) that he didn't commit; when he also asked: "Who killed Coretta?", she claimed ignorance but denied his accusation that the killer was her "boyfriend" Frank Green; when he went further to imply that Frank was her 'pimp,' she revealed that Frank was really her half-brother: ("Frank Green is my brother! Our mother's Creole. We have different fathers. Mine is white. And that's what Terell has on me")
• Daphne also cleared up who killed Coretta [Backstory Note: Coretta had briefly worked for Terell in his campaign office, and had talked about how Todd Carter's lover was of a mixed-race, and the gossip reached Terell. Coretta also heard rumors that Terell was a pedophile.]
• Daphne nervously thought that Coretta was threatening to sell the pictures in the letter back to Terell, so she sent bar-owner Joppy over to Coretta's place to get the letter, and he unintentionally and crudely beat her to death: ("It was an accident....She threatened to sell the pictures to Terell....I just asked Joppy to go over and put the scare into her....I didn't mean to hurt anybody"); and then Daphne divulged that Todd Carter's family had wanted them to marry, but pressure from Terell forced Todd to back out of the mayor's race
• suddenly, Albright and his two thugs arrived - Easy was brutally beaten with a baseball bat as Daphne was dragged away and kidnapped; in voice-over, Easy realized that Daphne's abduction to a remote place would result in his framing for Daphne's murder: ("They were takin' Daphne someplace more deserted than Albright's office up in Hollywood. Someplace where there would be no witnesses. And I was bein' left alive to take the fall"); after a phone call, Mouse (driving Dupree's car) met up with Easy outside Joppy's Bar; Easy borrowed one of Mouse's guns, abducted Joppy at gunpoint from the upstairs bar, and the three made a quick getaway with Mouse driving Easy's car; Joppy was pressured to show them where Albright's hideout-cabin was in Malibu on State Highway Rte 9
• on the way, once Mouse was told by Easy that Joppy had killed Coretta, he turned around and fired his gun twice at Joppy to scare him; Joppy denied the charge, but was obviously guilty; once Easy snuck up to the cabin in the dark, he heard Albright questioning Daphne inside for the pictures, as he made denigrating, vicious racist comments about her mixed race ("What part of you is n----r?"); Easy instigated a shoot-out through the windows to prevent Daphne from being tortured with a hot fireplace tool; Easy lethally hit Manny who stumbled outside and died, while Mouse suddenly arrived and finished off the second thug Shariff inside; Albright was also shot and fell through a window before slowly dying next to his car; Daphne was rescued and brought to Easy's car, where Mouse sheepishly admitted that he hadn't shot Joppy, but had choked him instead: ("Well, how am I gonna help you out if I'm back here foolin' around with him, now? Easy, look, if you didn't want him killed, why'd you leave him with me?"); [Note: one of the film's loose ends - they left the crime scene with four dead bodies!!]
• at Easy's house, Daphne paid up $7,000 for the pictures in Easy's possession; as Mouse entered a taxi to return back to Houston, it was revealed that they each shared half of the money in exchange for the pictures
• as Easy drove Daphne to meet up with Carter at the Griffith Park Observatory, Daphne revealed that she had done everything behind the scenes - to try and help her white lover Carter; but then Terell had threatened to go public about Daphne's mixed-racial heritage; however, she now felt that once Carter saw the pictures, their marriage would be assured, and Carter could re-enter the mayoral race and win
• (off-screen) at a YWCA locker, Daphne retrieved $30,000 dollars she had been given by Carter's family to leave town; Easy (who still had the pictures in his pocket) stood off to the side as Daphne and Carter spoke outdoors; he sensed how hopeful Daphne was that her relationship with Carter would now be restored, but realistically, she was completely blind to how racial matters would again interfere with their love
• Easy (voice-over): "She was still convinced, though, that her Negro blood didn't matter now that Terell couldn't use it to keep the man she wanted to marry out of the mayor's race. She was in love and couldn't see for dreamin' any better than the rest of us, I guess. Because even though we had fought a war to keep the world free, the color line in America work both ways. And even a rich white man like Todd Carter was afraid to cross it"
• Carter promptly rejected Daphne and she walked away; however, Carter did honor his promise to pay Easy for the remainder of his fee ($800); Easy handed over the letter with pictures to Carter, and then stated the obvious - that Carter would now be able to re-enter the mayoral race: "That puts you back in the race" - and Terell would presumably drop out; Easy asked for reassurance that Carter would clear up any trouble that he had with the police; Carter told Easy that he indeed loved Daphne, but that racial barriers were too high for any further relationship
• Easy summarized how things ended: "She had told me her story on the way home, Iike a sinner who wanted to confess. Her name was Ruby Hanks from Lake Charles, Louisiana. And I suppose all she really wanted was a place to fit in"; that early morning, he dropped the dejected Daphne off at her half-brother Frank's 2nd floor apartment; a few days later, Easy felt guilty about being paid off by Daphne and tried to return his half of her money, but realized she and Frank had already left town; unable to belong in white society, she had been exiled
• as the film concluded, the California Eagle newspaper reported the headline: "CARTER BACK - A SHOE-IN FOR MAYOR - Quiet Civil Leader Returns as Flamboyant Terell Quits"; Easy noticed the two detectives drive by - still keeping an eye on him; Easy told his religious-minded friend Deacon Odell on his front porch about his potential future plans as a PI: "I got a little money saved up. I'll invest in some real estate. Maybe go into business for myself....A little private investigatin'"; Odell cautioned him: "Well, like a man told me once: 'Step out your door in the mornin', you're already in trouble. It's just a matter whether you're mixed up at the top of that trouble or not, that's all'"

Concluding Scene Between Odell and Easy

Ending's Relaxed View of Easy's Neighborhood Street

• the film ended with sentimental thoughts about the importance of friendship, and Easy's final voice-over: "And I forgot all about Daphne Monet, Dewitt Albright, Carter and them. And I sat with my friend on my porch at my house and we laughed a long time"