Don-94 This film's dialogue (especially Sgt. Joe Portugal) is some of the most hard-bitten ever recorded. I don't mean hard-boiled -- FAST ONE (the Paul Cain novel) is hard-boiled; DETOUR isn't. Not that it's soft-boiled, exactly; but you could've left this raffish cheapie simmering for another hour, and boiled away many minutes of weird overexposition and VERGTIGO-esque driving sequences. It's not very hard-boiled. What it is, is hard-bitten: bitterly, savagely cynical. As hilariously played by Sheldon Leonard (previously seen as the threatening heavy who kicks off ANOTHER THIN MAN), Sgt. Joe Portugal is clearly fed up with all the lousy, crummy liars infesting this crummy, lousy world. Next to Portugal, Mike Hammer is a sap. Meanwhile, Jean Gillie's Margot Shelby swings for the fences and produces one of the fatale-est femme fatales ever, one of the very few who could've given Ann Savage's Vera (in DETOUR) a run for her money. (Speaking of DETOUR -- now that film is both hard-bitten *and* hard-boiled.)

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Staggering to Margot Shelby's, Jean Gillie, high rise apartment barley clinging to life Dr. Craig, Herbert Rudley, has a last present to give her for all the trouble that she caused him: A blast from his .38 to remember him by. Coming on the scene is tough Sgt. JoJo Portugal, Sheldon Leonard, wearing a hat at least three times the size of his head-To prevent him from getting sunstroke-to clean up things as well as get a confession from the dying Margot in what put her into the position, Of dying from a gunshot wound, that she finds herself in.As Margot is slowing fading away we get the story of her boyfriend Frankie Olins, Robert Armstrong, who after knocking off an armored car of $400,000.00 and killing the driver was sentenced to be executed in San Quentin's gas chamber. It was Margot with the help of the prison doctor Craig who revived his body with a secret drug that brought him back to life and then had Frankie tell her and her partner Jim Vincent, Edward Norris, just where he had the stolen money is:hidden in a safe box under the base of an eucalyptus tree in the middle of the California Desert!***SPOILERS*** What all those involved-Dr. Craig Frankie Olins & Jim Vincent-don't realize is that Margot is planning to keep all the loot all to herself and have all three knocked off to keep her from splitting it with them. It's after using her last victim Dr. Craig to get through a number of police road blocks Margot blast him away only for Dr. Craig to survive and track her down,while bleeding to death, to her pad in the city to finally do her in. As Sgt.JoJo Portugal was later to find out the late Frankie Oline was on to the double-crossing Margot right from the start and left almost the entire $400,000.00 to cancer research minus for one measly dollar bill that he left, in the box, for her to treat herself to a hot dog fries and soda pop!

morrison-dylan-fan Being in the mood for a short burst of Film Noir a month ago,I decided to take a look at a title that a very kind IMDber had sent me.Finding myself really enjoying the movie,I got a disappointing surprise,when my DVD player stopped playing the film 45 minutes in.Trying on 3 other DVD players,I as shocked to find that none of them were able to play the full feature.Desperate to see the full film,I started to search everywhere online for the title,and was delighted to recently stumble on the title,which led to me getting ready to see the full decoy finally take place.The plot:Rushing into the flat as Dr. Lloyd Craig drops to the ground from a gunshot,police officer Joe Portugal finds Margot Shelby taking her final breaths,as Shelby attempts to get hold of a sealed box laying on the side.Picking up the box,Portugal asks Shelby to tell him how she got hold of the box.The past:Successfully robbing $400,000,gangster Frank Olins soon finds the law catching up with him,and showing their appreciation over Olins refusal to reveal where the cash is hidden,by sending him to death row.With her boyfriend only having a few days to go before he's sent to the gas chamber, Margot Shelby begins making plans on how to get Olins out of jail,and also get him to reveal where the cash is hidden.Catching the attention of small time gangster Jim Vincent,Shelby using all of her cunning skills to make Vincent believe that if he helps her to find the location of Olins cash,then he will get half the amount.As Olins takes his finally steps to the gas chamber,Shelby begins to talk to a Dr working at the morgue called Lloyd Craig,who tells Shelby about a drug that can bring the dead back to life.View on the film:Burning down the good ol' country gal image she had shown in the British Comedy Tawny Pipit,the graceful Jean Gillie (who tragically died of pneumonia 3 years later,age 33) gives a tremendous performance as Margot Shelby,with Gillie showing a red mist to cover Shelby's eyes,as she gets closer to tracking down the money.Along with the red mist,Gillie also shows a real skill in keeping Shelby's cards close to her chest,as she begins to put her plan in to action.Wrapped around Shelby's fingers, Edward Norris gives a masterful performance as Jim Vincent,with Norris showing Vincent's low-life roots to become brittle,as he is taken in by Shelby's charms,whilst Herbert Rudley gives an excellent,twitchy performance as Lloyd Craig,who Rudley shows is desperate to get back to his comfort zone.For the superb screenplay by Stanley Rubin and Nedrick Young give the title a distinctive Gothic Horror edge,which allows for the writer's to create a deep feeling of the characters entering a sinister world.Strongly linked to the Gothic Horror edges,the writer's inject a deep decaying root into their Film Noir world,by showing the relationship between Shelby,Vincent and Craig to be one that is built on a pack of lies,which lead to an extremely cynical final note.Returning to the US with his then-wife Jean Gillie,director Jack Bernhard gives the title a real sense of elegance,thanks to Bernhard closely working with cinematographer L. William O'Connell to cover the movie in shimmering low-light,which along with showing the characters attempting to hide their true motives,also allows Gillie to look like a ravishing Femme Fatale.Digging into the titles Gothic Horror streak,Bernhard gives the film a harsh,cold atmosphere,by allowing the 'red mist' from Shelby's eyes to be cast across the screen,as Decoy shows itself to be a marvelous Film Noir,that the viewer won't want to recoil from.

secondtake Decoy (1946)This kind of death row movie makes you appreciate how hard it is to pull off a great movie. Here, all the flaws show, almost textbook perfect. The acting struggles between pretty good (the lead female, the femme fatale one, Jean Gillie) to pretty awful (including, unfortunately, the lead male, a doctor, Herbert Rudley). The detective who shows up now and then (Sheldon Leonard), is actually pretty strong, a coldhearted, no-nonsense type, charmless, perhaps, but with some acting subtlety. (Leonard was a smart guy, actor and director for a lot of classic entertainment television years later.)But in "Decoy," notice how the archetypal elements are all there. The plot is as interesting as many melodramas, if a bit far-fetched in the one detail that is its hook. But there is no Joan Crawford to raise the whole thing up. Cinematographer Bill O'Connell did do the astonishing original 1932 "Scarface" and he makes this movie excellent in the night scenes, but much of the rest of it is merely functional. The director, Jack Bernhard in his first film (in a five year career), could have made more of all of this. When an actor flinches in reaction, it's obviously an overreaction a better director would have reshot. The music swells and soars. The prison priest is sombre. The nurse calls the doctor "darling" even though he's in love with someone else. But still, there are moments, and it has a great period feel to it whatever its flaws. And a line now and then pops up, crude and noirish. "Come here baby, I want to look at ya." Or the Frankenstein-like, "I'm alive, I'm alive!" Headlights signal across a lonely highway, men struggle with their unexplained passions, good women give bad women the eye, and innocent people die needlessly. The key brief moment that rises above is a man's grappling with being alive at all. And there is that box of money out there which everyone wants, and he's the only one who knows where it is, while he's actually alive and kicking.It's all in a day's work. Don't expect a cult marvel--it's no "Detour," not at all "Gun Crazy," to name two B-movie classics. It's a creaker with some involving moments, getting better in the second half, and with a campy last three minutes (the woman's laugh is worth the whole thing). But by the end, you might have to remind yourself about the beginning, before the big flashback.