Jeopardy (1953) watch online HD

Here's an excellent Barbara Stanwyck double bill on one disc. The first movie - and believe me the lesser of the two - is MGM's "To Please A Lady" (1950) in which she is paired with Clark Gable. It is essentially a star vehicle with Gable as usual dominating the film with his screen presence. Here he plays a macho racing driver who gets some bad press from feminist reporter Stanwyck and the battle of the sexes begins. Of course after much ado they eventually end up in each others arms and it all comes to a predictable and pleasing close. A bit of a fluff of a move really but Gable and Stanwyck - two icons of the Golden Age - make it watchable!

But the real meat on this DVD is the second feature - a marvellous and quite unknown little thriller called JEOPARDY. Produced by MGM in 1953 this is a wonderful little gem of a movie that hasn't dated one iota! Here Stanwyck plays the wife of Barry Sullivan and mother to their young son Lee Aaker on vacation on a deserted and remote Mexican beach when suddenly tragedy strikes. A dilapidated wooden pier collapses trapping Sullivan under a heavy pylon and guess what? Yes,the tide is coming in. With not a soul in sight and unable to free him herself Stanwyck sets off by car for assistance. After driving some distance the only aid she can muster comes from an unscrupulous escaped convict (Ralph Meeker) who - in return for his help - wants more from her than money or a change of clothes ("I'll do anything to save my husband"). Does she or doesn't she??.

Meeker runs away with the picture! He turns in quite a brilliant performance! Once he comes into the film you simply cannot take your eyes off him! An actor in the smouldering Brando style he surprisingly never made much of his career in films. Although he gave splendid performances as the unsavoury, disgraced cavalry officer in the outstanding Mann/Stewart western "Naked Spur" (1953) and as one of the doomed sacrificial french troopers in Stanley Kubrick's powerful WW1 drama "Paths Of Glory" (1957) his only real claim to fame was as Mike Hammer in Mickey Spillane's "Kiss Me Deadly" in 1955. His performance in "Jeopardy" should have done wonders for him but he had only a so-so career in films. He died in 1988.

Because of this release "Jeopardy" can now proudly take its rightful place as a classic noir. A memorable, taut and exciting thriller thanks to fine performances, tight direction by John Sturges, the crisp Monochrome Cinematography of Victor Milner and an atmospheric score by Dimitri Tiomkin. Extras, however are no great shakes except for a radio version of "Jeopardy" and trailers for both movies.

This disc is also part of a Barbara Stanwyck box set celebrating her centenary. Hard to believe that the lady would be over 100 years old if she was still around!

JEOPARDY - an MGM winner!

What a great Barbara Stanwyck film that I happened to see the other night. "Jeopardy" was fantastic. It was made in 1953 and probably for double bills but it kept me on the edge of my seat.

Barbara Stanwyck plays Helen, who with husband Doug (Barry Sullivan) and son (Lee Aaker) drive to an isolated fishing spot in Mexico for a vacation. Husband has a fall from the jetty and the only way he is to be saved is if Barbara drives back to a garage for some rope.

While there she runs into a psychotic killer (Ralph Meeker - one of my favourites) and what follows is a game of cat and mouse as Barbara tries everything in her power to get Meeker to come back with her to free her husband.

The film was so suspenseful and such a surprise - I was not expecting such a great film. But I suppose I should have realized - is there anything Barbara Stanwyck does that is anything less than wonderful?

"I like cheap perfume better; it doesn't last as long..." - Ralph Meeker's convict character (Lawson) tells this to Barbara Stanwyck's Helen character, after he gets a whiff of the perfume that she picked out w/her husband in Tijuana...! This line cracked me up, and also seemed like a metaphor for this film - that cheap is better than expensive, because a cheap perfume-loving man who has a way with a 2 x 4 is a better man to have around in the long run! I agree with some of the other comments posted about Helen's attraction to Lawson. Even though her narration states that she wants Lawson to be put away, she did seem attracted to his fiery nature, and that passion he stirred up in her wouldn't likely wash away with the tide!

Leonard Maltin must've been watching some other movie. (Though I find his Guide to be quite a valuable resource, please disregard his comments on this one.) He states "starts off well then fizzles" when it's really the reverse - "starts off tepid then catches fire". The plot is about as simple as it gets. Happy Mom, Happy Dad and Happy Son take a vacation at an isolated beach, Dad incapacitated in accident, Mom runs off to get help, meets up with dangerous escaped convict. Mom tries to trick convict into helping while Dad waits and hangs on for dear life.

Good white-knuckler given an electric jolt by Ralph Meeker, appearing suddenly (the director, John Sturges, films it in a clever way that will make you gasp) around halfway through as the cunning, desperate criminal. Meeker is an unusually flippant, reckless actor (at least here and in the classic "Kiss Me Deadly") and he happily snatches the keys to the film's narrative and speeds off with the top down. His character has a habit of grinning childishly and saying "Pretty neat, huh?" when he's especially pleased with his misdeeds. There is a funny break in the action when they get a flat tire and he tersely instructs his hostage, Barbara Stanwyck, "Don't go away". She fires back "Where would I go?" (they're in the middle of nowhere) and he realizes sitcom-ishly "Yeah, that's right". The friction between them is a hoot.

There are flaws, somewhat ridiculous ones. There's one scene where the police, who have been chasing after Meeker for some time, stop Stanwyck's car and to evade detection Meeker rests his head on her shoulder like a loving husband supposedly would, and pretends to be asleep as she's being questioned. A. He looks conspicuously un-masculine in this pose and B. I think it's safe to say that any adult who appears to be asleep during an encounter with law enforcement would certainly arouse suspicion.

Still a sturdy thriller which builds to an exciting and edifying conclusion.

JEOPARDY doesn't deserve the brickbats it's getting from other viewers who think of it as little more than a B-film, a quickie in the career of Barbara Stanwyck.

Nonsense. Stanwyck was still a terrific actress and uses all her skill to keep this a taut woman-in-peril kind of story that starts out innocently enough but then shifts into high gear the moment her husband is trapped under some rotten pilings from a pier.

Nor is the plot a foolish one. Clearly, it's the kind of incident that could easily have happened on an isolated beach in Mexico, with Stanwyck unable to find an English-speaking person to help her when she and her small son are unable to free Sullivan as the tide rises.

It just so happens the only person able to understand her predicament is an escaped convict running from a murder charge (Ralph Meeker). The moment Meeker appears he lifts the film into a new realm of suspense, so convincing is his portrayal of a Stanley Kowalski-type of character without anything but self-preservation (and sex) on his mind. Meeker never had a better showcase for his machismo appeal.

Because of production code rules, the film fails to make more of the sex angle including Stanwyck's decision to be more cooperative with the man who clearly might do her a favor if she does him one. By glossing over this angle and merely showing Meeker grab her in a couple of tight clinches, the film loses some of its impact when she returns with him to help her husband.

Nevertheless, it's a brisk, tightly constructed story around a simple theme and it works beautifully. John Sturges doesn't waste a moment of the film on any sub-plots but stays firmly fixed on the woman's dire predicament and all of the tension the viewer must feel watching Stanwyck's distress mount, knowing that her husband is in even more peril than she is.

It's a much better film than cited here--definitely worth a look.

I found this movie to be suspenseful almost from the get-go. When Miss Stanwyck starts her narration it's only a few minutes until you realize that trouble is coming. The deserted area, the lock on the deserted gas station door, everything sets you up to wait for it...here it comes. At first you think it will be about the little boy, but all too soon you start holding your breath watching the tide coming in. I found this movie to be really stressful, even though I had watched it before and was prepared for the denouement. Now a movie that can keep you in suspense even when you have seen it before deserves some sort of special rating, maybe a white knuckles award?

"Jeopardy" (MGM, 1953), directed by John Sturges, is not a movie about the behind-the-scenes look about the making of a popular TV game show, but a fast-paced suspense drama revamped from a radio play.

The story simply starts off with an all-American family, Helen Stilwin (Barbara Stanwyck), Doug, her husband, (Barry Sullivan), and their little boy, Bobby (Lee Aaker) of California taking a vacation by driving to Mexico. While there they park their car in a quiet but somewhat abandoned fishing village by the ocean where they decide to make their camp. Shortly afterwards, their adventurous son ventures on an old rotting pier, where he gets his foot caught. Father Doug goes out there and releases him by taking off his son's shoe. Moments later, Doug falls through the pier and ends up getting his own foot caught beneath a heavy pile on the beach at low tide. Unable to set his himself free, Helen leaves Bobby with his father to drive off and get help. Suspense builds after Helen picks up a stranger (Ralph Meeker) for assistance, only to soon learn that he is an escaped killer whose main interest is to elude from the police authorities. As she finds herself being held captive by this dangerous and heartless character with nothing to lose, the tide of water slowly builds that may soon be over Doug's head unless help comes.

What a neat thriller this is! Fast-paced and a real attention grabber that doesn't lose control of its audience. Stanwyck, as professional as always, starts off casually but changes into a fierce and desperate woman who becomes tormented after finding herself the victim of a desperate killer on the run, with her main interest is to get back to her husband in danger, and her little boy.

"Jeopardy," which is shown on Turner Classic Movies, is, according to host Robert Osborne, a movie based on a 22 minute radio play, "A Question of Time," extended to a tight 68 minute film. Not as well known as other thrillers of the day, especially those directed by Alfred Hitchcock, but this one is worth a look. Highly recommended for nail biters wanting to save money on manicures. (***)

Jeopardy is a tense, satisying thriller, a cut above a B but not really a major production. It qualifies as almost an experimental film, as the studio that produced it, Metro, was desperately looking for new kinds of films, stars and directors to compete with the then new medium of television. The director, John Sturges, was an up-and-comer whose best years lay ahead. He had just recently begun directing A level films, and had already proved himself a most capable craftsman. Stars Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan and Ralph Meeker, were at very different phases of their careers. Stanwyck's glory years were behind her, and yet she could still carry a film, as she proves here. Barry Sullivan, as her husband, was one of a dozen or so leading men who got started in films in the forties who never quite achieved the success many had hoped for him. He was a fine, low-key actor, poised, but in an upper middle rather than upper class way, which made him excellent in professional roles. As the escaped convict who is the only person around who can save Sullivan's life (he is trapped under a pier, and the tide is rising), Ralph Meeker is more energetic than usual. This excellent actor had the misfortune of having come to films after Brando and Clift. He was in his way as good an actor as either of them, but he lacked charisma. His bargaining with Stanwyck, which comes down to his demanding sex in exchange for saving her husband (by implication only, as this is 1953), makes for an intriguing premise which, had this been a different kind of film, could all raised all sorts of interesting questions about Stanwyck's character. Meeker is indeed a more exciting character than Sullivan; and in her scenes with him Stanwyck is livelier than she is with her husband and son. But as this is a formula picture, not a Strindberg play, the possibility that Stanwyck might want want to have a fling,--leaving aside the question of her husband's predicament,--remains unexplored. In this sense the incoming tide doesn't quite have the effect one might have wished, though the movie remains tense and highly entertaining thanks to excellent acting, fine location photography, nearly all of it outdoors, and excellent direction by the woefully underrated Mr. Sturges.

Barbara Stanwyck's opening voice-over narration promises a post-war celebration of the open road. It's hardly that, as Mom (Stanwyck), Dad (Barry Sullivan) and young son (Lee Aaker) motor down to Baja California. A condemned pier at a deserted beach collapses, pinning Dad; the tide is coming in. On her way to summon help, Mom picks up with a homicidal fugitive (Ralph Meeker, probably best known as Mike Hammer in Robert Aldrich's apocalypic 1955 noir, Kiss Me Deadly). He grows more menacing as the water rises.... There's really not much to this movie, with its principal cast of four characters, but it's watchable. The strangest thing about it is probably the curious change of heart on the part of one -- or more? -- of the characters at the end.

This was made when Barbara Stanwyck was not exactly at her prime form but she was still a major star and she still had to stay busy and pay her bills by appearing in uninspired material like this. Film starts out with Doug Stilwin (Barry Sullivan) taking his family to Mexico for a fishing trip and they head to a secluded beach area to camp. Their son Bobby (Lee Aaker) gets his shoe caught on an old pier and Doug gets him out. While getting off he falls and a piece of the pier lands on his leg and traps him. His wife Helen (Stanwyck) must take the car and find some rope because the tide is coming in! While on the road Helen meets Lawson (Ralph Meeker) who is an escaped convict and takes her hostage. She finally convinces him to take her back to the beach in exchange for sex (Not exactly implied) and to go with him. She agrees! Story sounds just like those "B" movie scripts that kicked around every studio at the time. But their is a few interesting things to notice here. Stanwyck and Meeker have more chemistry together then Sullivan has. Sullivan is so stiff and the only time that he seems to come to life is when he see's a lobster boat and he starts barking orders to Aaker and has him running around like an idiot waving a white cloth and putting more wood on the fire. But as you watch Helen in her scenes with Lawson she gives off just enough glint in her eye and uses subtle body English to make you think that she's secretly attracted to the bad boy Lawson. He's the total opposite of her husband. Meeker makes the most of his role and is always grinning like the big bad wolf. The script is strictly "B" level but the cast does their best and they do raise the material up a notch.

Jeopardy (1953)

*** (out of 4)

John Sturges directed this intense thriller about a wife (Barbara Stanwyck) and husband (Barry Sullivan) who take their son on a vacation to Mexico so that they can go fishing but an accident happens and the husband gets his leg caught under a log. With the tide coming in, the wife has to try and get help before it's too late but she gets kidnapped by an escaped murderer (Ralph Meeker). This film seems to get mixed reviews and while it's not classic Sturges I still felt there was enough suspense packed in the 67-minute running time to make the film highly enjoyable. I've never found Stanwyck to be sexy so that takes away from some of her roles for me but she's terrific when playing it tough and that's the case here. She's really good in the tough role and Meeker is the perfect snake to go against her. Sullivan is also very good in his moments with his son played by Lee Aaker. There are a few flaws throughout the film and the ending is pretty weak but there's still plenty to enjoy here. The score by Dimitri Tiomkin also adds to the suspense.

Jeopardy is a B movie, and it's sad to see the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck reduced to doing it. It is, however, not without merit. Stanwyck plays a wife and mother trying to get help for her trapped husband, Barry Sullivan. She runs afoul of Ralph Meeker en route. Now, here's the thing. He refuses to help her husband unless she has sex with him. As you can imagine, this being the 1950s, this is in the subtext and so far down that if you're not paying attention, you miss the implication.

This makes Jeopardy a cut above your standard B, especially because of the presence of Stanwyck. She's certainly desperate to save her husband, but the film raises some interesting questions. Meeker was more rough and tumble than her husband - was she perhaps attracted to him? Definitely worth seeing.

The only time I have seen this movie was when I was 10 years old. I have remembered it all of these years as I couldn't sleep for a week or more after seeing it. It just absolutely rattled me. I was on vacation with my aunts in Ft. Worth, Texas and I will never forget it. Now, 48 years later, my daughter is trying to get a copy of this for me to view as an adult. It has taken a lot of research to find out what movie it was but I always remembered that Barbara Stanwyck was in it and finally was able to get the name and reviews on it. I very much enjoyed it, but it gave me quite a scare! Jaqui

Jeopardy has the feel of being a stock movie of sorts - one of the movies that the studios pumped out inbetween big budget/box office ones. It's a mere 70 minutes and doesn't feature many sets, and the only star is Barbara Stanwyck. But what a star, of course.

Stanwyck is a tough lady once again as she runs into an escaped convict while seeking help for her trapped husband in the Mexican desert. The majority of the movie is focused on how she deals with her captor, who wants her to submit to him in exchange for his help. Some psychological battling there.

It's a surprisingly effective little movie - its short length makes it taut, and that Stanwyck is great should go without mention (but I'll still praise her every time).

It seems to be a perfect day for swimming. A normal family wants to gain advantage from it and takes a trip to the beach. Unfortunately it happens that the father is trapped under a pier and neither his wife nor the small son is able to help him out of this - whereas the tide is rising. The woman (Barbara Stanwyck) takes the car and searches for help.

John Sturges' short movie (69 minutes) is powerful because of unanswered questions. Stanwyck finds a guy who could help, but there is a price she has to pay for this. There is a double question the movie poses. How far would you go to help the man that you love, and on the other hand - observing Stanwyck's behaviors towards the stranger - does she really love her husband? Like a good short story this movie leaves the viewer to himself with questions he can only answer himself.

Jeopardy (1953)

This is a almost linear plot contrivance that works better than you'd think. The basics get laid out quickly. In a very very isolate spot on the Baja peninsula of Mexico our two leads and their son go for a camping and fishing trip. But the dad (Barry Sullivan) gets trapped under a really heavy bit of an old pier--and the tide is rising.

Mom (Barbara Stanwyck in a really good performance) needs to do something fast. It gets complicated by a murderer who happens to be in the same vicinity, but these complications get really interesting morally by the way the movie presents them. There is even a voice-over a couple times with Stanwyck asking, what would any woman do in this situation? her answer comes out loud part way through: I would do anything to save my husband. Anything.

There are some totally realistic aspects here, including a killer/criminal who is modern and unromanticized, a bit of a surprise, really. But every now and then there is a little moment of bad judgement on the part of the writer and director, and the believability, which is important, is shot down. But then it picks up and you go along some more. Most of it is really interesting. An example of this is at the end when Stanwyck really needs to tell Sullivan what is going on in the water together, and she doesn't. It's as if she has some new bond with the criminal that overrides her obvious love for her husband.

But maybe to save his life.

Like a lot of 50s movies, this one is shot all on location. This avoided the problem with the studios as they were falling apart (financially) and made a pretty cheap shoot overall. And it works. One of the appeals is the setting--dry and isolated, for sure. And they don't make the Mexican cops speak English most of the time, another point for realism.

Is this a great movie? No way. I wish there had been more focus on how creepy and dangerous it got physically and psychologically between Stanwyck and the killer. This could have played out as the main part of the movie (which in a way it was--it presented the core moral dilemma). But in the rush to make a compact movie there was no room for subtlety, I guess. Just an excellent Stanwyck and a very good Sullivan in his more limited role trapped by the pier.

Curious stuff. Compare to Ida Lupino's "The Hitch-Hiker" if you get a chance.

"Jeopardy" is psychological thriller with a very small cast. It has adventure, drama and crime set mostly in the wilds of Mexico's Baja Peninsula. The film just lists one shooting location - Pioneertown, California. But obviously, it was shot in other places as well. It has scenes along the Pacific shore, at the Mexico border crossing, and at what looks like the town of Ensenada, Mexico.

Barbara Stanwyck has the lead role as Helen Stilwin. She narrates some early segments of the film with voiceover. Her family is starting out on a two-week camping and fishing vacation. They are driving from their home in California to a place her husband had found years ago with a friend. It's not clear, but apparently, he had been scouting the area while serving in the military during WWII.

Barry Sullivan plays her husband, Doug. Child star actor Lee Aaker plays their son, Bobby. There's just one other main supporting role. Ralph Meeker plays Lawson, an escaped killer whom the Mexican police are pursuing.

All of the cast give excellent performances. Sullivan is especially good in the scenes when his leg is pinned under a collapsed dock piling. He sits on the shore while the incoming tide brings waves higher and higher that wash over him. And, Aaker is very good as a boy just seven or eight years old. He is very clever and smart for his age.

The story has some intense moments and an interesting ending. Some good black and white scenes show the starkness of the country and sparsity of people and other life. Stanwyck has some early poetic voiceover lines. But the screenplay has some oddities, including one blatant factual error.

In a voiceover, as she looks at a map of the Baja Peninsula, Helen says, "When you see a map, you see what isolation you're heading into. Tijuana, Ensenada up at one end, and then 400 miles to La Paz, the only other town at the other end." The actual distance from Tijuana to La Paz is 921 miles - nearly 2½ times as far. The full driving length of the Baja Peninsula is more than 1,050 miles from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas. It's surprising that no one involved in the movie thought to check the actual distance from Tijuana to La Paz. It's obvious that the playwright didn't know.

Helen's voiceover continues, "In between, nothing but names. Oh, picturesque names. Mission Santo Tomas, Colonia Guerrero, El Rosario... but just names. Ancient settlements and missions no longer existing, ghost towns, ruins."

Yet, between Ensenada and El Rosario (150 miles south of Ensenada) today, there are some towns of good size. Among them are San Vicente, 2010 population of 4,400, 52 miles south of Ensenada. And 24 miles south of there (76 miles from Ensenada) is Punta Colonet, with 3,280 people and another nearby town of 470. And from there it's just 20 miles more (96 miles from Ensenada) to Camalú, a town of 8,600. And 24 miles further (120 from Ensenada) is Lázaro Cárdenas, with 16,300 population in 2010.

There are some smaller villages between these (San Quintin, Catavita, etc.), and more inhabited towns in the 21st century all the way to La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. The distance between towns stretches as one goes south - to 200 miles at one place - where Highway 1 crosses through the mountains. All of these places would have been much smaller in 1953, and some indeed may have been deserted or not yet existed. But, it's not likely that all - or even most of them were uninhabited.

Stanwyck has a questionable generalization in the opening scene voiceover where she talks about Americans driving for their summer vacations. She refers to "The big rolling freeways and the fantastic traffic patterns... There's a turnoff everywhere... and you can go straight ahead too, if you only know how." But, in 1953 there were very few expressways in America. Most were in California and a few were around some of the largest cities elsewhere - New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. The U.S. didn't start work on the Interstate system until 1956. So, in 1953, most Americans, in most places, drove most of the time on two-lane roads. Long distance travel was still most frequently by passenger trains, and airline travel that was growing fast.

Another big oddity in this film is the 45 pistol. Doug said it was his Army weapon. Did he steal it? He was probably an officer, since he had a sidearm. But no GI of any rank is allowed to keep his weapon when discharged from active duty. So, the movie should have made it clear that there was a unique situation in which Doug had been allowed to purchase his WWII weapon. Without that, any GI or veteran will think he stole the gun from the Army.

One more curiosity in the story is the escaped convict. How did he wind up in the middle of a large desolate expanse of country that has only one road into and out of it? Where did he come from? How did he get there? There are some other small strange things about this film, but not enough space to discuss them.

"Jeopardy" has a much slower pace than many movie fans will be used to in the early 21st century. Still, it should interest and entertain those who especially enjoy a "thinking" film. It's too bad the writer and director weren't thinking through all the goofs in the plot and script.

Here are a couple favorite lines from the movie.

Helen Stilwin: "Well, it's duty free. I'm saving money for you." Doug Stilwin: "Every time you save me money, you cost me money."

Bobby: "Aw, mom. You always talk about civilization." Helen, "Don't knock it, son."

With a movie-tagline like - "She did it - Because her fear was greater than her shame." - Along with a movie-quote like "I'll do anything to save my husband - Anything!" - You can be sure that when it comes to the words "it" & "anything" they were clearly referring to one thing, and only one thing, alone. (nudge. nudge. wink. wink.)

With this above-average, "race-against-time" Thriller from 1953, I have to admit that, at first, I didn't think I'd like it all that much, especially since it starred one of my least favourite actresses from that era, Barbara Stanwyck.

But once they actually got to the real meat-n-potatoes of the story, Jeopardy actually cooked (at a fairly steady boil) and held my interest for the entire latter half of its brisk 69-minute running time.

Yes. I agree that the youthful and virile-looking Ralph Meeker certainly made for a very convincing and brutally aggressive, escaped convict. Yet, by the same token, it was the likable performance by 10-year-old Lee Aaker, as Bobby Stilwin, who I felt shone just as brightly as Meeker's star.

As a young boy eagerly trying to help his father (who was clearly in dire straits), Aaker obviously had a very firm understanding of his character and never once over-played his part as "the cute, little kid".

As an added bonus, Jeopardy certainly contained lots of very well-shot scenery along the Baja California peninsula.

Besides Jeopardy's story starting out like something of a typical, Disney, family-time picture, my only real beef about this film's plot-line has to do with the Lawson character showing up at such an isolated location as that of the most southerly tip of this 775-mile-long jut of untamed land in Mexico. If you ask me, no escaped convict (in his right mind) would ever make himself such a sitting duck by venturing out to a place where he could so easily be cornered and hunted down by the law.

A family (Barry Sullivan, Barbara Stanwyck and Lee Aaker) vacationing in Baja California encounter a life and death situation when the father (Sullivan) becomes trapped under a collapsed beam that was holding up a portion of a dilapidated and dangerous pier on an isolated beach. The situation intensifies with the rising tide. Wife Barbara Stanwyck goes off in the car frantically searching for help and encounters fugitive from justice Ralph Meeker. A fast pace between the occurrences on the beach as Sullivan and son Aaker try to come to grips with what is becoming a deadly situation and Stanwyck's intensifying relationship with Meeker make this movie significantly better than average, especially Stanwyck's attempts to get Meeker to go to the beach and rescue Sullivan. Meeker is chased throughout the film by Mexican police. His character is more complex than it looks. Stanwyck and Meeker share tense scenes as the day darkens, the tide rises, and the police close in. Directed by John Sturges, scene for scene this is a tough movie made on a small budget.

It may be a gimmick movie, but the gimmick sure works. So how the heck are mom (Stanwyck) and son (Aaker) going to get dad's leg (Sullivan) from underneath the broken piling before the ocean tide comes in. If they don't, he's fish food. It would help if the family weren't in the middle of a Mexican nowhere. Worse, there's an escaped con (Meeker) on the loose, and he's already killed one man. This looks like a camping trip from heck.

As I recall, the movie got a little spread in Life magazine at the time. Pretty good for a little b&w programmer with all of a 4-person cast. I imagine the biggest expense was trying to keep Sullivan dry since he took a real beating from the waves. I hope they paid him double. Director Sturges gets the most out of the one-note set-up, so it's no wonder he soon went on to A-productions, e.g. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955).

I'm still curious, however, how the pivotal scene ends between Stanwyck and Meeker when she tries to talk him into helping. Just what did she do. Maybe I missed something or maybe the scene was just playing footsie with the Production Code. Anyway, whatever her ploy, it appears to have worked on Meeker, at least for a little while. All in all, I guess it's not surprising the minimal premise works so well given the talent involved that includes scripter Dinelli who's responsible for other such nail-biters as Beware My Lovely (1952) and The Spiral Staircase (1945). So be prepared for biting down to the nub as the little family races against the tide and the odds.

Classic movie lovers and fans of fantastic Barbara Stanwyck would find this one hard to dislike. It's a nicely filmed and compact little melodrama that was recently aired on TCM. The storyline unfolds seemingly almost in real time, at a breakneck pace that's able to achieve a good deal of suspense.

Stanwyck and hubby Sullivan are roughing it in Mexico with their small son, and run into extreme difficulties. Through a series of bad decisions, Sullivan soon has his leg caught underneath the pylons of a dilapidated pier as the tide comes in, and frantic wife Stanwyck sets out to get help, but instead encounters unsavory criminal Ralph Meeker.

Exploitative and salacious in it's themes, "Jeopardy" has Stanwyck attempting to make a dirty deal with Meeker to rescue her trapped husband. Contrived as the plot may be, with the "ticking time bomb" element of the roaring tide that threatens Sullivan, what's here should please fans of Stanwyck and Meeker both. Although it may, in the final analysis, be one of her lesser efforts, Stanwyck displays a real commitment to the material. One physical scene displays the showbiz trooper that she was, as she desperately sprints through a deserted filling station (in heels) in an extended take that was certainly over a minute long. Remarkable how fit and slim this great actress was!

There are some unintentional humorous bits involving the young son, and a pot of hot coffee, but most of the action is centered around Stanwyck and her dilemma. And the intimidating Ralph Meeker really is impressive, as both an object of scorn and forbidden desire reminiscent of Brando in that same year's "The Wild One." The locations used are quite effective and convincingly dangerous, and actually play a large role in developing the suspense. And the ending certainly is thought-provoking.

This is no masterpiece but "Jeopardy" delivers seventy minutes of pure "old school" entertainment.

*** out of *****

Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan and Ralph Meeker in leading roles, "Jeopardy" is exactly the kind of second-rate thriller which usually gets dumped on television and is already forgotten by audiences just a few years after its initial release. John Sturges' film follows all the rules a noir-ish thriller of its kind usually has to obey, including a few instances of overacting and a number of illogical plot elements which are incoherently woven together in order to make the story more exciting and appealing. In the case of "Jeopardy", it's the amount of plot holes and inconsequential character actions which test the audience's patience, but thanks mainly to Barbara Stanwyck's incredible starpower as well as John Sturges' convincing direction, even this mediocre script can actually exceed its uninspiredness. In the end, what started as a calm roadtrip turns into a complete manifesto of madness. Even if this thriller won't feed the viewer's intellect and doesn't provide anything it could be particularly recommended for, it's basically a gift for everyone who always loves to see Barbara Stanwyck in an exciting adventure. They are who this film was probably meant to be seen by, and they are who are probably going to walk away from watching this satisfied enough.

Jeopardy is directed by John Sturges and adapted to screenplay by Mel Dinelli from Maurice Zimm's radio play "A Question of Time". It stars Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Ralph Meeker and Lee Aaker. Music is by Dimitri Tiomkin and cinematography by Victor Milner.

Running just shy of 70 minutes, Jeopardy is a classic lesson in how to garner great suspense from a small cast and set-up. Beginning with jaunty music and the scene setting of a family of three off for a vacation, it's all Americana bliss, but it's not long before fate deals the family some bad cards and we land firmly in thriller territory. The dialogue is safe and assured, with the stars turning in rich characterisations as written, particularly a wonderfully oily Meeker as the villain of the piece. Though very much plein air as a production, a claustrophobic and fraught air grips the play and drags the viewer in wholesale, a sense of cruel luck, danger and ironies hold things in a noir realm. While a turn of events in the narrative is deftly played, the sub-text shattering to the point we don't need to see it to feel it.

Unfortunately some irritants stop it from hitting the top end of the scale. Daft ironies and highly improbable contrivances chip away at the pic's other strengths, one scene has the son (Aaker) trapped on a dilapidated pier, to which his dad calls out "stay right where you are", I mean really, what else was the lad going to do?! Some crude back projection work also dampens down some otherwise nice production touches (Calif locales just lovely), while the ending kinda dilutes a previous moral kicker. But irritants aside, this holds its head up high as a picture well worth investing time in. 7.5/10

***SPOILERS*** While on a trip down Mexico way the Stilwins Helen Dough & Little Bobby, Barbara Stanwyck Berry Sullivan & Lee Aker, come upon this deserted little fishing village where little Bobby ends up getting his foot stuck on the pier. That while going fishing and checking out the scenic Gulf of Mexico. With his concerned father Dough going out to rescue him the pier, that was rotten to the core, collapse and parts of it lands on his leg pinning Dough to the ground with high tide about four hours away soon to engulf and drown him.

It's Helen who takes off in the family car to get help but her not understanding Spanish in explaining the situation to the native Mexicans doesn't help her at all. It's then right out of nowhere that this man Lawson or convict #6105, Ralph Meeker, suddenly appears and offers to help. It turns out that this "Lawson" is anything but "Law" abiding in taking Helen hostage and threatens to murder her if she as much as opens her mouth to the police that have the area roads blocked. It turns out that He just escaped from prison and in fact murdered the owner of the hardware store that Helen went to get a rope to save her husband Dough from drowning.

It's then what turned out to be a strange cat and mouse game between both Lawson and Helen in both trying to escape the local police and at the same time save Helen's husbands life. In the end , after Helen tried to brain with a lead pipe, Lawson finally agrees to help save Dough as well as Bobby's lives at the expense of him getting captured by the Mexican police and even facing a firing squad for his actions. Why Lawson did this is never explained since he had no love for Helen after all then she did to him and in return, in him smacking her around, what he did to her.

***SPOILERS*** All of a sudden Lawson turned into a genuine good guy doing everything he could to save Dough's life and in the end succeeding in it while the Mexican police, one of which ended up crushed under his squad car, were out to arrest him. The films completely off the wall ending,this in 1953 with the Hollywood strict system of crime does not pay endings, has Lawson get away Scot-free with the help of Helen, one of his victims, giving him cover. That is about the only fact that makes the film both watchable and an oddity of the time that it was released.

"Jeopardy" is a simple film. It revolves around two issues. First, suspense is generated when a man's leg is trapped underwater and the tide slowly rises, threatening his life.

His wife, played by Barbara Stanwyck, drives off in search of someone who might provide help. She meets a dangerous man (Ralph Meeker) and must consider what she is willing to do to save her husband. This dilemma is presented as a universal theme, but undermined by a heavy-handed delivery.

The acting is satisfactory, but inadequate to raise the quality of this film above mediocrity.