SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

secondtake 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.

mark.waltz What do you do when you are in the middle of nowhere with an abandoned pier on the ocean front on the Pacific coast's Baja California? Go exploring, of course! It doesn't matter that the planks of these piers each weigh a ton and can pin a man under in the incoming tide. Add on a wanted felon and you're in Jeopardy! No vowels or Vanna will help you now.This is the tale of a typical American family-father, mother and son. Papa Barry Sullivan is the unlucky man who goes out to rescue his son trapped on the pier and ends up being embraced by one of the loose planks, and Barbara Stanwyck is the frantic mother. A cute little kid named Lee Aaker is their precocious son. But the danger, hinted at by a roadblock, arrives in the form of help. Escaped gangster Ralph Meeker is the wanted man, and he wants more than help escaping-he wants Stanwyck.A compact, neat little thriller with a passing resemblance to the same year's "The Hitchhiker" (adding on the family angle), "Jeopardy" seems to be like an extended TV anthology show released as a "B" feature with an "A" leading lady. Not quite past her prime, but not a box office attraction anymore like Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day or Marilyn Monroe, Stanwyck still has a fine, youthful figure, but I found her just a trifle too old to be believable as the mother of a pre-teen. The Jedi set is extremely scary looking, reminding me of set pieces in various Hitchcock films (particularly "Rear Window") and the one Stanwyck tries to escape from in 1954's "Witness to Murder". She starts off gently as the kindly wife and mother (narrating the opening much like she did in MGM's "East Side West Side") and turns tough in this, acting more like her calculating character in the same year's "Blowing Wild", where she was totally evil. Meeker, too, is brilliant in this, adding a touch of humanity (not too much fortunately) to his villain.In watching the conclusion, I began to feel a bit sorry for him and felt touched by the screenwriter's obvious sympathy towards him in how Stanwyck bids him adieu. Her final words about him hit the nail on the head yet don't minimize the consequences of his previous evil actions. Ironically, the same year, Stanwyck would face doom on another ocean-the Atlantic-in 20th Century Fox's "Titanic".

dougdoepke 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.

Michael_Elliott 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.