"Decoy" (1946)

"Decoy" is an interesting and completely forgotten 1946 film noir with excellent Jean Gillie as a main female lead.

Gillie is actually one of the most interesting female baddies in these classic old movies as she will do everything to get her boyfriend out of the prison, just to find where he keeps the hidden money. Not that she loves him - it's clear she enjoys his presents, clothes and perfumes - but cleverly she twists several men around her little finger in order to make them do what she wants, including aggressive gangster, naive doctor and even a police detective. The plot has interesting twist where Gillie finds out that body can be brought back to life after it has been killed in a gas chamber, so she arranges doctor to steal and revive her prison boyfriend who is on a death row, in order to get the secret out of him. The guy actually comes back to life like some new Frankestein and stumbles towards horrified Gillie who might be calm as a snake but this is a bit much for her. I won't explain the whole story here because I believe film reviews should just cover introduction without spoiling anything for potential audience but somehow this little forgotten movie works very well even in its limited budget and its a nice discovery from a wonderful golden years of cinema.

Her husband Jack Bernhard directed this movie and it was noticed as one of the most interesting female roles in film noir cinema at the time.

Sadly, beautiful Jean Gillie died of pneumonia at the age of 33 so this is the reason why she is not better remembered today.