Decoy

In a shabby room, a dying police sergeant named Joe Portugal recounts how he came to be shot by Margot Shelby, a cold and calculating woman whose ambitions have left a trail of ruined men. Margot's story unfolds in flashback: she is the mistress of Frank Olins, a convicted killer awaiting execution, and she is convinced he has buried a quarter-million dollars somewhere beyond the reach of the law. When Olins goes to the gas chamber, Margot's plan does not end – it begins.

Margot recruits Dr. Craig, a weak and debt-ridden physician, to use a rare antidote to revive Olins after his execution and force him to reveal the money's location. She also manipulates Jim Vincent, a small-time accomplice, playing on his infatuation with her while treating him as expendable. As alliances shift and each man begins to understand the depth of her indifference, the film traces the systematic way in which Margot disposes of anyone whose usefulness has expired.

Decoy occupies an extreme position within the femme fatale tradition. Where many noirs soften the woman's villainy with ambiguity or victimhood, this film strips away every mitigating layer. Margot Shelby is neither corrupted nor coerced; she is the film's sole engine of destruction, and the narrative is structured entirely around the logic of her ruthlessness. The result is one of the starkest portraits of predatory will in the cycle.