"I got a sugar daddy, a sailor, a marine, and a preacher man, if I want to take the time to work on him."
Amateurish acting and weak production value mar this 1946 film from director Spencer Williams. It's a spin on the W. Somerset Maugham story 'Rain' that old film fans may recognize from Sadie Thompson (1928) and Rain (1932), though here the story is altered and it unfortunately plays out like a misogynistic morality tale. Dirty Gertie, you see, is a stripper from Harlem who has a habit of stringing men along, and she's fled to a tropical island with her troupe because she fears getting murdered by her ex-boyfriend. There she meets a slew of male admirers, but runs afoul of a moralizing missionary.
While the film was awfully creaky, there was nothing amateurish about July Jones and Howard Galloway dancing, and their opening act to Dirty Gertie (Francine Everett) was worth the price of admission. Everett is beautiful and certainly appealing, but there wasn't much sizzle to her character, setting aside the scene where she kisses two men that she's dubbed "Big Boy" and "Tight Pants" after a night out. I liked the moment where she hears "Blues in the Night" being played and is haunted by memories, but there wasn't enough of this kind of emotional depth. Also, I have to say, it was an odd choice for Spencer Williams to play the voodoo woman, at least without shaving his mustache, even if it was interesting to see him.
Amateurish acting and weak production value mar this 1946 film from director Spencer Williams. It's a spin on the W. Somerset Maugham story 'Rain' that old film fans may recognize from Sadie Thompson (1928) and Rain (1932), though here the story is altered and it unfortunately plays out like a misogynistic morality tale. Dirty Gertie, you see, is a stripper from Harlem who has a habit of stringing men along, and she's fled to a tropical island with her troupe because she fears getting murdered by her ex-boyfriend. There she meets a slew of male admirers, but runs afoul of a moralizing missionary.
While the film was awfully creaky, there was nothing amateurish about July Jones and Howard Galloway dancing, and their opening act to Dirty Gertie (Francine Everett) was worth the price of admission. Everett is beautiful and certainly appealing, but there wasn't much sizzle to her character, setting aside the scene where she kisses two men that she's dubbed "Big Boy" and "Tight Pants" after a night out. I liked the moment where she hears "Blues in the Night" being played and is haunted by memories, but there wasn't enough of this kind of emotional depth. Also, I have to say, it was an odd choice for Spencer Williams to play the voodoo woman, at least without shaving his mustache, even if it was interesting to see him.