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".

Lawson 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).

jshaffer-6 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?