One of the handful of African American filmmakers active in the 1930s and ’40s, Williams was a principal architect of so-called race film: low-budget features intended for black audiences in the racially segregated theaters of the day. Williams’s feature-length work, most of which was made for the Sack Amusement Company of San Antonio, Texas, can be divided into two groups. The “sacred” films, such as The Blood of Jesus (1941) and Go Down, Death (1944), are set in rural communities and deal in fundamentalist themes of sin and redemption, often accompanied by gospel music. The “profane” films, like Juke Joint (1947) and The Girl in Room 20 (1946), feature urban settings, are set to blues and jazz scores, and explore themes of transgression and temptation—the lure of sex, drink, and gambling.

Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. combines elements of both groups: the setting is a Broadway-style nightclub located on the fictional island of Rinidad, where a celebrated Harlem showgirl (Francine Everett) is performing with her troupe. A hypocritical preacher, Mr. Christian (Alfred Hawkins), proclaims her a “painted trollop” but quickly falls under her erotic spell. Williams himself appears in drag as a fortune-teller named Old Hager, whose vision of a violent end for Gertie is realized at the film’s climax. As Gertie looks mournfully at herself in a mirror, a former lover emerges from the darkness and shoots her. The temptress is allowed no opportunity for redemption.