Decoy (1946)
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- Synopsis:
Gangster Frank Olins (Robert Armstrong) is to die in the gas chamber, much to the dismay of his girlfriend Margot Shelby (Jean Gillie) as he is carrying the secret of the location of $400,000 with him. Margot seduces gangster Jim Vincent (Edward Norris) to get him to engineer the removal of Olins' body from the prison immediately after he dies in the gas chamber. She takes prison doctor Craig (Herbert Rudley) away from his nurse/girlfriend and gets him to administer an antidote for cyanide-gas poisoning. During the removal of Olins' body, the hearse driver is killed by Tommy (Philip Van Zandt). The revived Olins gives Margot half of a map showing the money location; in a fit of jealousy, Vincent kills Olins and takes the other half. Because the doctor's plates on his car will get them through the police roadblocks, Vincent and Margot take him with them on the money hunt. - Actors:
- Jean Gillie, Edward Norris, Robert Armstrong, Herbert Rudley, Sheldon Leonard, Marjorie Woodworth, Philip Van Zandt, Carole Donne, John Shay, Bert Roach, Rosemary Bertrand, Walden Boyle, Martin Cichy, Tom Coleman, Franco Corsaro, Madge Crane, Dick Elliott, Virginia Farmer, Pat Flaherty, Jody Gilbert
- Directors:
- Jack Bernhard
- Producers:
- Jack Bernhard, Bernard Brandt
- Writers:
- Nedrick Young, Stanley Rubin
- Aka:
- Blonder Lockvogel
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
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Reviews (1) of Decoy
Budget Noir - Decoy review by Steve
Most of the cult of this low budget noir has gathered around Jean Gillie as its intractable, corrupt femme fatale. She married director Jack Bernard when he was stationed in the UK during WWII and he made this as a vehicle for her.
As they divorced before its release and she died soon after, it feels a quirk of fate this even exists. Gillie is the whole show as a rapacious, backstabbing criminal who won’t let anything at all stand between herself and a fortune stolen from an armoured car. Not even the laws of nature.
She springs her partner from jail by reanimating his corpse after it has choked in the gas chamber! She uses anyone necessary to get control of the bag of money. Then rub them out at the earliest opportunity to cut down on the split.
Greed permeates every scene, like the taste of cyanide gas… There's a nice moment where a cheap crook washes his hands in a sink so filthy that he could only get them dirtier by using it. And that's what it feels like watching these lowlifes scheme in pursuit of 400000 lousy dollars