This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Originally produced by Pathe/Monogram, Decoy is currently being issued on a disc with Crime Wave from Warners. The print has been beautifully restored, and while it was definitely shot on a limited budget, it does not look any cheaper than most film noir from that period. Jean Gillie, the British actress who makes her American film debut in this picture, is the ultimate femme fatale. Sheldon Leonard is one of the good guys this time, and as she spills her story to him, we are drawn into the action. There are so many memorable scenes and images in this film. Particularly, there is a point in the narrative where Miss Gillie runs a guy over with a car—and another one where she shoots a man out in the forest and just laughs about it. But she makes up for (some of) this when she helps save a friend from the gas chamber, but unfortunately he has a short future. Jean Gillie had a short future, too. She died three years after she made this film of pneumonia.

"Decoy" features the most heartless woman in film noir history. Jean Gillie is a horrible person--the best femme fatale you can find. The film begins with her dying--and she tells the police what led her to this fate. What follows is a story of one betrayal after another after another, as Gillie's loyalty, it seems, is to her self alone.Her story begins with Gillie's boyfriend (Robert Armstrong) on death row. The problem isn't that she cares about him, but he knows where a huge pile of loot is hidden--and she is determined to somehow save him because he won't just tell her where it is. The plan is medically impossible, but she finds a very gullible doctor (Herbert Rudley) and gets him to agree to give him an injection of some weird drug that will supposedly revive him. Naturally, along the way, Gillie kills off everyone--even her revived boyfriend. But, sadly for her, he plans don't work out--but I don't want to say more as it would spoil the film.The film has some exceptional moments--most of which are Gillie's. For instance, the scene where she shoots the doctor as she laughs is reminiscent of Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death". There also is the that that after one of men is killed, she makes out over the lifeless corpse below her! What a horrid person! The only negatives are the silliness of the revival of the executed man AND the complete lack of blood when the doctor is not only shot but drags himself to a final confrontation. I know in the 1940s they tended to avoid using blood--but NONE! Also, this is not a problem with the film per se, but it was odd and tough to see Sheldon Leonard playing a cop--and a non-crooked one to boot! He was almost the quintessential mobster and accepting him as a detective was tough. Still, it's well worth seeing and exciting for any fan of the genre.

What a great little film noir! The plot, casting, acting, direction and cinematography are excellent, making this relatively unknown noir a minor classic.The ingenious plot to resurrect an executed criminal from the gas chamber falls into the realm of sci-fi but is actually based on good science. Methylene Blue was used as an antidote for cyanide poisoning during the 1940s, but must be administered to a living person, not a corpse. Nevertheless, the resurrection drama gives the plot a lurid Frankensteinian twist that adds to its appeal, especially when the resurrected criminal is killed a second time in the same day!Jean Gillie delivers a sensational performance as the ultimate femme fatale -- a gorgeous, sophisticated fashionista -- who is also a brutally manipulative and murderous villain who stops at nothing to satisfy her materialistic ambitions and get her greedy little hands on $400,000 from a bank heist.Herbert Rudley is effective as the prison doctor caught in a moral dilemma between professional ethics and his infatuation with Gillie. The other main characters -- Edward Norris as a cynical gangster and Sheldon Leonard as a slimy cop -- give convincing performances and balance the ensemble. There is some sharp dialog and a surprise ending. This is a terrific film noir loaded with goodies and not to be missed.

Decoy has a ridiculous plot. It's about a plot to get a prison doctor to revive a gangster after his death sentence is carried out in the gas chamber so that the gangster's moll can find out the location of money from a heist gone awry. This is pretty far-fetched and I'm not sure I buy it. But the magic of the movie is that I don't buy it now, but when I was watching this petite little B flick, I was thoroughly entertained. It covers the corners of a film noir with all the caricatures and all the frowning settings.This overall ironic noir, now that it's over, feels like a bit of a throwaway. It doesn't do much in the way of originality or freshness. It recycles the same notes to the same tunes we've already heard thousands of times. It just plays them with a different instrument. If this were not very much my type of movie, what with the gangsters, femmes fatale, double-crosses, heist loot, and those sorts, I would hardly have cared about much during. However, since it is, I was entertained for its thankful 76-minute duration.Everything is passable. I think Robert Armstrong has the right look for a gangster street wise enough to take the secret of his loot to his grave. Jean Gillie is a decent gun moll, especially considering that one would hardly guess that she is English. All her sideline squeezes are tough-looking, swarthy men in black suits who look like they were the bullies in junior high, and Herbert Rudley, the everyman prison doctor stuck in the middle, though he is thankfully a no-name, was tolerable as the protagonist.