Monday, April 18, 2022

Jeopardy (1953)

IMDb plot summary: A family vacationing on the coast of Mexico have to cope with multiple threats to their safety.
Directed by John Sturges. Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, and Ralph Meeker.

Jeopardy tells the story of a family vacationing in rural Mexico when a freak accident leaves the husband trapped under a log by the beach as the tide is coming in. His wife must go off on her own to try to find someone to help them before he is fully submerged, but the only person she finds is going to be more danger to them than anything else. This is a really engaging little self-contained story. The tension of the rising tide and her husband's impending doom is easily felt, and frequently showing us how he's doing as she's off trying to find someone who speaks English enough to help her helps keep that tension high. The movie is short, at just over an hour, and that's the perfect length for something with this simple a narrative throughline, so there's definitely not enough time to get bored or feel like they're padding the length. I'd never heard of this before watching it but it's a pretty great little gem to have found!

How it entered my Flickchart:
Jeopardy > The Keep
Jeopardy > A Room With a View
Jeopardy < Broadway Danny Rose
Jeopardy < Colossal
Jeopardy > Is It College Yet?
Jeopardy > Red Carpet
Jeopardy > Great Expectations (1946)
Jeopardy > Bride of Frankenstein
Jeopardy > Raya and the Last Dragon
Jeopardy < The Pawnbroker
Jeopardy > Spencer
Final spot: #672 out of 3566, or 81%.

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