“Take your hands off me, you dirty psalm-singin’ polecat!”
This memorable quote is courtesy of Gertie LaRue, a nightclub entertainer from Harlem, N.Y.—a fictional character played by Francine Everett in the 1940s.
An intimate group of people from the SMU community gathered in the Hughes-Trigg Theater Monday evening to view the screening of “Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.,” a 1946 “race film.” The showing was part of the first annual RASC/a Film Series hosted by the art history department.
“Race films” is a genre of movies produced for an all-black audience featuring an all-black cast that existed between 1915 and 1950. In the 1980s, 15 of these films were discovered in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas and brought to SMU by Bill Jones. Thanks to digital technology, the films have been restored and are now part of the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection of the Hamon Arts Library.
“There’s a larger Tyler collection that is more than just black-cast films,” Amy Turner, one of the speakers of the panel discussion that occurred after the screening, said. “It was anything that was sort of non-mainstream, non-‘A’ Hollywood.”
Jeff Whittington, senior producer at KERA 90.1, moderated the panel discussion. Turner, head of the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection, was joined by David Sedman, associate professor of film and media arts, to discuss the restoration of the film, as well as the making and importance of this 1947 “race movie.”
Sedman explained that the film would have shown in “separate cinema,” meaning only for black audiences. He said the film was quite popular in its day but not popular enough to be re-copyrighted.
“I think [Everett] is great in the film, frankly, but then when you look at the cast around her, she’s stellar,” Sedman said regarding the star’s performance. Sedman also told the audience that Everett’s career ended soon after the release of “Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.” because she refused to take any sort of stereotypical role that she was offered.
“I think this gives you some idea of what segregated cinema did to people,” Turner said. “Francine Everett could have been a big star in another kind of world.”
Turner, who wrote her master’s thesis on the film, said parts of the film were most likely shot in Dallas, and most of the film was shot in Texas.
“The church that you see here is probably St. Paul United Methodist.”
Spencer Williams, an African-American actor, directed the film after befriending Alfred Sack, a Dallas-based producer in the 1940s. Williams often appeared in his own films, including this one.
“In this film, it’s kind of weird, him as a female fortune teller,” Whittington said, followed by joint laughter in the audience.
As part of the Comini Lecture Series, the department of art history and the Embrey Human Rights Program are sponsoring the screening of three works from the Tyler collection of race films. The last screening of the film series will show the 1947 film “Juke Joint” next Monday at 6:30 p.m.
