Bad News Johnson, a con artist from Memphis, Tennessee, arrives in Dallas, Texas, accompanied by his dim sidekick July Jones with only twenty-five cents between them. The duo arrange to become boarders at the home of Louella "Mama Lou" Holiday, who is fooled into believing Johnson is an acting teacher from Hollywood. Mrs. Holiday agrees to give the men free room and board if they will provide poise lessons to her daughter, an aspiring beauty queen named Honey Dew.
Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. é um "race film" (filmes produzidos nos Estados Unidos voltado ao público negro) de uma adaptação não autorizada do conto de W. Sommerset Maugham, "Rain" — que teve suas versões no cinema popular com Sadie Thompson (1928), Rain (1932) e Miss Sadie Thompson (1953). Aqui, a história acontece com Gertie LaRue (Francine Everett), que trabalhava em uma casa noturna do Harlem, em New York, até chegar à ilha caribenha de "Rinidad" para fazer uma performance no Paradise Hotel. Ela acaba atraindo bastante atenção, especialmente dos homens, só que isso nem sempre vem de uma forma positiva...
Daisy Mae Walker is an aspiring singer from a small town in Texas, who comes to New York City to pursue a show business career, but falls prey to a sleazy nightclub owner. Thanks to the intervention of a kindly taxi driver, Daisy Mae is able to achieve her goals.
The film is set in Memphis, Tennessee and focuses on a street sweeper who comes upon a large parcel of money. He uses the newly acquired wealth to go on a spending spree, with the hope of getting back at an old girlfriend who dumped him for another man. However, complications arise when it is discovered the money is counterfeit.
