![]() ![]() Treated to a lurid story of greed, double-crossing and wanton murder. Margot Shelby (Jean Gillie), the woman in that hotel room, we are In flashback, told to cop Joe Portugal (Sheldon Leonard) by The rest of Decoy lives up to this terrifically compelling opening He arrives at a hotel, makes his way up to a woman's roomĪnd pulls out a gun, closing the door behind him. Where a roadsign tells us he's 75 miles from San Francisco. ![]() Wanders out of this service station restroom and onto the highway, A pair of equally dirty hands wash themselves shakilyīefore we pan up to a shard of a mirror to see the disheveled face of a Over a smoking gun and strongbox, is that of the dirtiest sink The first image in Decoy (1946), after opening credits placed ![]() Portugal then opens the box and finds only a single dollar bill inside, along with a note from Olins stating that he did not intend to leave any money to a double-crosser. She then forces Craig to dig up the treasure, and after he does, shoots him. Vincent plans to kill Craig, but before he can do so, Margot, who wants all the money for herself, tricks him into fixing a flat tire and runs him over with the car. Because his doctor's license plates will enable them to pass through the police roadblocks, Margot and Vincent force Craig to drive them to the hiding place. Later, encouraged by Margot, a jealous Vincent shoots Olins and takes his half of the map. When Olins is revived, he gives Margot half of a map showing the location of the stolen money and keeps the other half for himself. She then seduces Craig, the prison doctor, and persuades him to bring Olins back to life by administering an antidote for cyanide gas poisoning. Margot pretends love for gangster Jim Vincent and promises to share the stolen money with him if he helps remove Olins' body from the gas chamber immediately after the execution. Because a guard was killed during the robbery, Olins is sentenced to die in the gas chamber. While she is dying, Margot recounts for police detective Joe Portugal the events that led to her shooting: After Margot's boyfriend, Frankie Olins, hides the $400,000 he stole in a bank robbery, he is arrested. Lloyd Craig struggles to Margot Shelby's apartment and shoots her before dying himself. The accompanying inscription "Aux quatre Vents," referring to the house At the Four Winds, through which many of Bruegel's images were published, is found only on prints issued after 1570.Suffering from a fatal gunshot wound, Dr. Bruegel" in the lower right corner, the engraving was probably not published until several years after the artist's death in 1569. The concerns for the dangers of acquisitiveness and avarice expressed here had deep resonance in Antwerp, the bustling mercantile capital of Northern Europe where Bruegel was active for most of his career. The image seems to suggest that humanity's lust for money is responsible for armed conflict. The Dutch verses inscribed in the lower margin inform us that "It's all for money and goods, this fighting and quarreling." According to the Latin portion of the inscription, the banner with the "savage grappling hook" in the right background exemplifies greed, the vice at the root of all this trouble. Strongboxes, piggy banks, money bags, barrels of coins, and treasure chests-most of them heavily armed with swords, knives, and lances-attack each other in a ferocious display of chaotic, all-out warfare. The unprecedented, and somewhat enigmatic, iconography of this image derives from the fertile imagination of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who executed the original drawing after which this was engraved. ![]()
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