''Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.'' is a 1946 race film directed by

Spencer Williams Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", " Royal Garden Blues", " I've Found a New ...

and produced and distributed by Sack Amusement Enterprises. This film is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

Plot

Gertie LaRue ( Francine Everett) is a nightclub entertainer from the

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

neighborhood of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. She arrives on the Caribbean island of "Rinidad" to perform as the headliner in a revue at the Paradise Hotel. Gertie has earned the nickname "Dirty Gertie" for the casual nature in which she entices and then humiliates men. On the island, she attracts the attention of two young Americans—a soldier and a sailor—whom she nicknames "Tight Pants" and "High Pockets," respectively. The men enjoy sharing Gertie’s affections. However, Diamond Joe, the owner of the hotel, finds himself falling for Gertie and begins to shower her with gifts. Gertie also attracts the attention of two missionaries, Mr. Christian and Ezra Crumm, who keep watch on Gertie’s activities. However, a former boyfriend from Harlem tracks Gertie to the island. Unable to possess her, the ex-boyfriend kills her while insisting that he loves her.“Obituary: Francine Everett,” The Independent (London), June 25, 1999
/ref>

Cast

The cast includes: * Francine Everett *Don Wilson *

Inez Newell Inez is a feminine given name. It is the English spelling of the Spanish and Portuguese name Inés/Inês/Inez, the forms of the given name " Agnes". The name is pronounced as , , or . Agnes is a woman's given name, which derives from the Greek w ...

* July Jones *

Production

''Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.'' is an unauthorized adaptation of the 1921

W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

short story "

Rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water ...

", which had been adapted as the John Colton- Clemence Randolph play ''Rain.''“The Bootleg Files: Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.", Film Threat, October 24, 2008
/ref> The property had been filmed twice before this version: as the 1928 '' Sadie Thompson'' starring

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

and the 1932 ''

'' starring

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Crawford was si ...

. This adaptation changed the names of the characters, switched the location from the Pacific Rim to the Caribbean, and gave the female lead a career in entertainment (the original concept had her as a prostitute). It was directed by

, an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

actor and writer who directed a series of race films during the 1940s for the

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

-based producer Alfred Sack, who distributed these all-black productions to cinemas catering to African-American audiences. Williams appeared in ''Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.'' as a female fortune teller who predicts Gertie’s death. ''Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.'' was the last starring role in a feature movie for Francine Everett, who was a star in race films, most notably ''Keep Punching'' (1939) and ''

Big Timers ''Big Timers'' is a 1945 American musical comedy race film directed by Bud Pollard. The bottom of a poster for the film notes "The secrets of a chambermaid in a Sugar Hill Hotel!" The film features a love story. Cast *Stepin Fetchit *Francine ...

'' (1945). After completing this film, she had bit roles in two Hollywood productions, '' Lost Boundaries'' (1949) and '' No Way Out'' (1950), before retiring from acting. ''Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.'' was a commercially successful title on the race film circuit, but it was not widely seen by white audiences until the 1990s. The film is a

title.

DVD release

''Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.'' was released on

Region 0 DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to ...

DVD by Alpha Video, as part of a double feature with '' Sepia Cinderella'', on July 31, 2007.

References

External links