Decoy is a 1946 American film noir

Film noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

. Directed by Jack Bernhard, the film stars Jean Gillie

Jean Gillie

Jean Gillie was an English film actress of the 1930s and 1940s. Gillie appeared in 20 British and two American films before her career was cut short by her early death.-Career:...

, Edward Norris

Edward Norris

-Selected filmography:-External links:...

, Robert Armstrong

Robert Armstrong (actor)

Robert Armstrong was an American film actor best remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'Twas beauty killed the beast," at the film's end...

, Herbert Rudley

Herbert Rudley

Herbert Rudley, , was a prolific character actor who appeared on stage, in films and on television.Rudley was born in 1910 in Philadelphia, and attended Temple University. He left Temple after winning a scholarship to Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre.He began appearing on stage in 1926...

, Sheldon Leonard

Sheldon Leonard

Sheldon Leonard was a pioneering American film and television producer, director, writer, and actor.-Biography:...

 and Marjorie Woodworth. The film was produced by Jack Bernhard and Bernard Brandt as a Jack Bernhard Production, with a screenplay by Ned Young, based on an original story by Stanley Rubin

Stanley Rubin

Stanley Creamer Rubin is an American screenwriter and film and television producer born in New York City, New York. He was the recipient of the Television Academy's first Emmy in 1949 for writing and producing an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's The Diamond Necklace.His initial scripts for the...

.

Decoy is a showcase of how film noir can do so much with so little. Short-lived Jean Gillie stars as one of the film genre's toughest femme fatale

Femme fatale

A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...

s, a drop-dead beauty who chemically revives her sweetheart-in-crime after he gets the gas chamber. She's after money, not love: he knows where the loot is stashed.