Stanwyck gives it all she can give but it appeared to me that she wasn't exactly comfortable around the little boy who played her son.What a vacation is in store for her, husband Barry Sullivan, who gets trapped below a chunk of wood, and her young son.On her way to get help, Stanwyck encounters Ralph Meeker, a convict who broke from prison and is running. He immediately takes her hostage before she finally convinces him to come back with her to aid her drowning husband.The film tries to show that there is some good in anyone as Meeker desperately tries to free Sullivan and ultimately does, before he runs away from oncoming police cars. Stanwyck states that we'll ultimately read of his capture or demise as this 69 minute film ends. In reality, there is ultra-liberal hog wash shown here.

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.

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 *****