Jeopardy (1953)

Just perfect...

An Exercise In Nonsense

The acting in this movie is really good.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

While on a fishing trip in Mexico, a family man with wife and child gets his foot caught underneath a broken timber from a collapsed jetty; his wife goes for help (after busting the car-jack) and manages to get herself kidnapped by an escaped murderer on the lam! Barbara Stanwyck always prided herself on being a resourceful and reliable screen actress, so the ninny-spouse she plays here doesn't sit too well (husband Barry Sullivan tells her to keep a calm head, but by the next scene she's driving frantically all over the road). "Jeopardy", written by Mel Dinelli from a story by Maurice Zimm, is the kind of quickie 1950s back-end attraction used for double features; it has interesting locations and good cinematography, but was most likely an inexpensive way to use contract talent on a tight schedule. The actors are far better than the material, particularly Sullivan playing the most hapless husband in memory. **1/2 from ****

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.

The lesson to be learned from Jeopardy is that when you are going to a foreign country at least learn a few useful phrases of the native language. If Barry Sullivan and Barbara Stanwyck had learned a few rudimentary phrases of Spanish before going on vacation to Mexico they might have saved a whole lot of time and trouble. Especially to learn AYUDAME, (Help Me).Barbara was finding it hard to get good material at this point because Jeopardy is barely more than a competent made for TV film. She and Sullivan and their son Lee Aaker are traveling to Mexico in Baja California to get in some good fishing. But Sullivan falls off an abandoned pier and gets his leg caught in pilings. After some attempts to lift the thing, Stanwyck goes for help.But not speaking any Spanish she's out of luck. The first guy she runs into who speaks English is American Ralph Meeker who is an escaped prisoner on the run. Meeker's got other ideas including some ideas for Stanwyck. Jeopardy was clearly B picture material, it might have made a decent enough TV film later on, but is so beneath the talents of all the players involved. It was also directed by John Sturges who certainly knew his action films, but was hardly a director for a film with a female star lead.Maybe Barbara should have said Ayudame upon receipt of the script.

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.