cult film freak: JEAN GILLIE ALMOST REVIVING ROBERT ARMSTRONG IN 'DECOY'

Written by James M. Tate / 6/20/2026 / No comments / edward norris , film noir or melodrama , forties , heist , herbert rudley , jean gillie , marjorie woodworth , robert armstrong , sheldon leonard

JEAN GILLIE ALMOST REVIVING ROBERT ARMSTRONG IN 'DECOY'

6/20/2026 | No comment

Year: 1946 Rating: **1/2

There's a kind of unwritten law in movies, that when a character gets extremely physically injured, and recovers, they most likely won't wind up dying later... since the audience already went through the ringer, their death would be both anticlimactic and tedious: which has never been truer than the bizarre film noir thriller DECOY that's equally science-fiction: involving a chemical that can bring someone back from being executed in the gas chamber...

An antidote that makes fourth-billed doctor Robert Hudley the male lead, despite two other fellas looking (and acting) too much alike: so weaselly crook Edward Norris and deceptively-tricky detective Sheldon Leonard really get in the way of who the ambiguously-driven doctor should have dealt with alone...

Edward Norris, Sheldon Leonard and Jean Gillie in DECOY

In femme fatale beauty Jean Gille, co-heading the big plan for the usual buried cash of stolen loot... that only KING KONG actor Robert Armstrong knows the location of... as he's the person that was not only close to death, but actually dies in the gas chamber before reanimation...

But as quick as he's back, he's gone... and the rest of DECOY never allows the lovely Gille's prowess (or underused good girl blonde Marjorie Woodworth) to fitfully captivate either the surrounding men or the audience — in a thriller too stuck on the plot-line for the characters to loosen up for their eventual backstabbing degradation to matter.

Robert Armstrong and Jean Gillie in DECOY

Robert Armstrong in DECOY

Jean Gillie in DECOY

Robert Armstrong and Jean Gillie in DECOY

Marjorie Woodworth in DECOY

Herbert Rudley in DECOY

Robert Armstrong in DECOY

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Tags : edward norris , film noir or melodrama , forties , heist , herbert rudley , jean gillie , marjorie woodworth , robert armstrong , sheldon leonard

James M. Tate

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