Pretty Margot (Jean Gillie) is shot in her apartment and retells the whole story to Sergent Portugal (Sheldon Leonard). It involves a boyfriend (Robert Armstrong) on death row, buried loot, and a whole lot of double crossing.
British actress Gillie met and married American GI and film producer Jack Bernhard during the war. He brought her to Hollywood to make her a star. This began by him directing this film, and ended with The Macomber Affair, released the following year. Their marriage broke apart, apparently when filming wrapped, and she returned to England, disillusioned with Hollywood. Two years later she died of pneumonia. She was 33.
Long time readers should remember Armstrong as Carl Denham from two Kong films. He also appeared in Mighty Joe Young, but the majority of his credits appear to be westerns and war flicks. In addition to being a journeyman actor, Sheldon Leonard was an enormously successful and popular TV producer, instrumental in creating shows like The Danny Thomas Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, I Spy, and Gomer Pyle: USMC, among others. The two principal characters on The Big Bang Theory were named in honor of him.
Gillie’s Margot is a remorseless and cold-hearted femme fatale, manipulating everyone in her path in a single-minded quest for the money. She’s in charge and everyone is her pawn. Under different circumstances, Gillie would have become a big star. She was a sight to behold.
Decoy was Gillie’s film and she ran with it. Parts of the story are silly (it involves using an antidote to cyanide poisoning administered postmortem) and some of the performances were a little over the top, but who cares. The twists and turns alone will keep you entertained. AMRU 3.5.
“People who use pretty faces like you use yours don’t live very long anyway”
No comments:
Post a Comment