Decoy

"She Treats Men the Way They've Been Treating Women for Years!"

1946 1h 16m EN

😐

5.9

MID

★5.9TMDB · 36

CrimeThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A fatally shot female gangleader recounts her sordid life of crime to a police officer just before she dies.

“She Treats Men the Way They've Been Treating Women for Years!”

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Cast

Jean Gillie
Margot Shelby
Edward Norris
Jim Vincent
Robert Armstrong
Frank Olins
Herbert Rudley
Dr. Craig
Sheldon Leonard
Sergeant Joe Portugal
Marjorie Woodworth
Nurse
Philip Van Zandt
Tommy
Carole Donne
Waitress

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jack Bernhard
Writers: Nedrick Young
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 76-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

80 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jack Bernhard, shot by L. William O'Connell. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jason H. Bernie shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jean Gillie and Edward Norris and Robert Armstrong carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "She Treats Men the Way They've Been Treating Women for Years!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0038462 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jack Bernhard directs. L. William O'Connell behind the camera. Jason H. Bernie cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 76-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
280 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Directed by Jack Bernhard, shot by L. William O'Connell. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Jason H. Bernie shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Jean Gillie and Edward Norris and Robert Armstrong carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "She Treats Men the Way They've Been Treating Women for Years!".
8IMDB entry: tt0038462 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 36 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
10Classified under 11 themes, including "prison", "gangster", "gas chamber", "treasure map".
11Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: L. William O'Connell
Editing: Jason H. Bernie
Makeup / hair: Milburn Morante
Runtime: 76 min · 1h 16m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Decoy (1946)

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Jack Bernhard

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2013-11-20
★ 8/10
Can you come down to my level? Decoy is directed by Jack Bernhard and adapted to screenplay by Nedrick Young from a story written by Stanley Rubin. It stars Jean Gillie, Robert Armstrong, Herbert Rudley, Sheldon Leonard and Edward Norris. Music is by Edward J. Kay and cinematography by L. William O’Connell. Margot Shelby (Gillie) is dying on the sofa, a “victim” of a gunshot wound. Sgt. Jo Portugal (Leonard) leans in to hear the story of how she came to be in this situation… Manic, delirious, bonkers, nasty, Decoy is all of those things, and more, wonderfully so. Running at under 80 minutes, this “B” noir out of Monogram spins a cruel tale of greed, fatalism and cold blooded homicide, all propelled by one of the coldest and wickedest femme fatales to have ever worn a pair of stilettos. Plot involves money of course, there’s a pot load of it buried somewhere and Margot Shelby wants it. The trouble is is that her criminal boyfriend, Frank Olins (Armstrong), is going to the gas chamber and he isn’t telling anyone where the loot is. No problem for Margot, she uses her cunning feminine wiles to ensnare a couple of male dupes into her web, and then the three of them resurrect Frank from the dead and put into action a plan that will reveal where the cash is. Easy Peasy! As the brilliant beginning has shown us, we know the fate of Margot, what you can’t be ready for is what she is prepared to do to achieve her aims, and her means and motives sock you right between the eyes. Even as death approaches she still has to have the last cruel laugh. The beautifully sensuous Gillie gives a thoroughly memorable performance, it’s a tragedy that she would die three years later of pneumonia, aged just 33. Elsewhere. Bernhard (who was married to Gillie at the time) is only competent in direction, but along with the performance he gets out of Gillie (which was a veer from the norm for her), he also gets a cracker turn out of Leonard. Kay’s music is inconsistent, even too breezy in the wrong areas, and O’Connell’s photography is standard stuff that doesn’t strive for any mood accentuation. Yes you have to kind of unscrew your brain and black out some of the more dafter elements here, and there’s some unintentionally cheese laden moments, but what an experience it is all told. 7.5/10

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