Jeopardy (1953)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

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".

This film has a couple of things going against it, which makes it feel a bit like a B movie...well, it is a B movie...but a darned good one. "A list" movies usually aren't only 69 minutes long, and despite being in 1953, it's black and white. And, the film has only one first rate star.But on the plus side, this is a taut little thriller. Can a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) save her husband (Barry Sullivan) who is trapped under a beam at a pier in the deserted Baja California in Mexico and will drown when the tide comes in? She's got her little boy to think about, too. So who does she find when she goes for help? An escaped murderer (Ralph Meeker).Stanwyck may be past her prime here (although she still had a few "A" pictures coming up in her career (such as "Titanic" with Clifton Webb"), but she was still a powerful actress...and she certainly demonstrates that here. Barry Sullivan, who was soon to turn more to television parts, is a comparative lightweight, but he nevertheless does fine here. And an actor most of us love to dislike (or even hate) -- Ralph Meeker as the ex-con -- gives a whirlwind performance here. You'll love the scene where he slaps Stanwyck...multiple times! Of course, we are quite sure the husband will be saved...but how? And will Meeker survive? And did Stanwyck have a tryst to secure Meeker's help. Well, on that last one you're left to guess...after all, it was 1953! Worth watching at least once!

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!

Just a dumb old movie. First Stanwyck's son gets his foot trapped in a really dumb way, and then her husband gets his foot trapped in another really dumb way. In an effort to save him, Stanwyck gets unlucky, yet again, and comes across an escaped convict. She has a chance to kill him but fails in a very dumb way. In the end her husband is saved, and Stanwyck tells us through narration what the dumb message of the movie is. All's well than ends dumb.I could never figure out how an unattractive woman like Stanwyck ever made it as a leading lady in Hollywood's glamour-oriented Golden Era; that nose is so beautiful… So photogenic… The film is mercifully short, running a little over an hour. It's as though the director sensed that he was making crap, so he thought it best to keep the crap short.