Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.

Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946)

** (out of 4)

W. Somerset Maugham's story "Miss Thompson" was often turned into a feature by Hollywood but this version here comes from director Spencer Williams and it has him once again taking a very low-budget and turning out a "race" picture. The film centers on Gertie LaRue (Francine Everett), a singer who comes to work at a small club but soon her past is going to catch up with her. DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM U.S.A. features a terrific title but sadly it's yet another example of a black production simply not having the money to compete with not only Hollywood but even the lowest budgeted movie out there. I watch a lot of really, really low-budget horror movies and I'm really not sure I've ever seen one that had a lower budget than what Williams and countless other "race" picture directors had to work with. It's clear that they couldn't afford too many takes as there are several scenes where actors mess up but keep on going. There's even a very long sequence where a boom mic is visible and in a rather embarrassing way as it's floating around the top of the screen from left to right. The film also doesn't have much camera movement and there are other technical problems along the way. With that said, I think film buffs will be slightly entertained simply because it is something different than what the major studios were turning out at the time. At just 60-minutes the film moves along well enough and while the story is nothing special I thought it was at least entertaining. Star Everett, who was considered the most beautiful woman in Harlem, had a pretty interesting life and her performance here is worth watching the film for. Director Williams appears here playing a female psychic yet there's never an attempt for him to "look" or sound like a woman.

Well known showgirl goes on the run and ends up on a small island hiding out with her band until things blow over. However she just can't give up her wild life style.

Spencer Williams, one of the few black directors of the period is at the helm here and while he turned out a great many films he wasn't a very good director. Actors are arranged in almost tableaux and the scripts are rather poor. Williams also tends to have the camera in one place with little variation. You have to give the man credit for the large number of films he turned out, but you really will wish he was a better filmmaker

As Williams movies go this film was better than most however its still a chore to get through, owing to the fact that the .

Gertie is a flirty show-girl staying at an island resort, like Maugham's Sadie Thompson. Some interesting characterizations and encounters, but nothing of huge interest. Not nearly as striking as Spencer Williams' religious fantasy movies "Blood of Jesus" and "Go Down Death".

Dirty Gertie drinks, flirts heavily, and takes expensive jewelry from men. She's the heroine of the movie, but she's tarnished, and her doom is foreshadowed many times. The movie has the structure of many black musical films, leading up to a big revue in a nightclub at the end, but those expectations are frustrated. The revue consists only of the dancing of the chorus line, credited as "6 Harlem beauties," and a short dance number by July Jones and Howard Galloway.

Even more frustrating is that Francine Everett, though she was known as a singer and dancer, doesn't sing at all in the movie. She dances only a few steps early in the plot, and in the nightclub revue she only sways a bit as she removes her over-the-elbow gloves at the start of a sadly interrupted striptease.

The oddest thing in the movie, however, is director's Spencer Williams' casting of himself in a cameo role as "Old Hagar," the crystal-globe-reading fortune teller. Williams plays the role in drag, dressed in a house dress and head wrap, but he wears his mustache and speaks in a deep, masculine voice. He doesn't play it for comedy, yet it's hard to say he's playing it straight. Did Williams just step in for an actress who didn't show up for filming that day (that's the sort of thing that happened in making very low budget black movies), or is the explanation something stranger?

The movie is effective as long as it sticks to the movie "Rain" script that it is adapted from. Unfortunately when it strays, it becomes pointless and dull. I suspect that director Spenser Williams didn't want to offend his audience with a portrayal of a Reverend lusting after a prostitute. Franchette Everett is excellent as Gertie. She brings the type of sensuality to the film that really lifts it up. It is a shame that she was not given more song and dance numbers. Franchette was called the most beautiful woman in Harlem and should have been a big star in Hollywood, but she refused to take racist roles.