A sexy, enticing dancer from Harlem makes things happen in a sleepy Caribbean island resort.A sexy, enticing dancer from Harlem makes things happen in a sleepy Caribbean island resort.A sexy, enticing dancer from Harlem makes things happen in a sleepy Caribbean island resort.
Howard Galloway
- Specialty Dancer
- (as Howard Gallaway)
Storyline
Did you know
- Trivia"Tight Pants" is a Pharmacist's Mate First Class in the U.S. Navy. "Big Boy" has no rank insignia, but on his left shoulder is a Eighth patch and on the sleeve below the four service hash marks indicate he served at least two years overseas.
- GoofsWhen Gertie is checking into the hotel and introductions are being made, the moving boom microphone dips well into the top of the scene.
- Quotes
Gertie La Rue: Take your hands off me, you dirty psalm-singin' polecat! If the truth were only known, you want me just like all the rest!
- ConnectionsEdited into SanKofa Theater: Dirty Girty From Harlem (2022)
- SoundtracksBLUES IN THE NIGHT
Written by Harold Arlen
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
Released by Bluebird Records on January 23, 1942
Performed by Dinah Shore
Featured review
Dirty Gertie
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?
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?
helpful•90
- gimhoff
- Jun 3, 2009
Details
- Runtime1 hour 5 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946) officially released in India in English?
Answer