Barbara Stanwyck

Barry Sullivan

Ralph Meeker

Lee Aaker

Rico Alaniz

Salvador Baguez

Bob Castro

Carlos Conde

George L. Derrick

Paul Fierro

Sol Gorss

Margarita Martín

Victor Milner

Alex Montoya

George Navarro

Charles Stevens

Ken Terrell

Louis Tomei

Juan Torena

Felipe Turich

Natividad Vacío

Bud Wolfe

Maurice Zimm

Newell P. Kimlin

Sol Baer Fielding

John Sturges

Dimitri Tiomkin

Frank Delmar

Mel Dinelli

Helen Rose

Edwin B. Willis

Fred M. MacLean

William Tuttle

William Ferrari

Helene Parrish

Cedric Gibbons

Pat McNalley

Paul Marquardt

Jasper Woltz

Joel Freeman

George Parrish

Jack Aldworth

Charles Schnee

William J. Hole Jr.

Dave Friedman

Douglas Shearer

A. Arnold Gillespie

Manuel Emanuel

Crime

Drama

Thriller

Jeopardy

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

United States of America

Peligro!

Jeopardy is directed by John Sturges and adapted to screenplay by Mel Dinelli from Maurice Zimm's radio play "A Question of Time". It stars Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Ralph Meeker and Lee Aaker. Music is by Dimitri Tiomkin and cinematography by Victor Milner.

Running just shy of 70 minutes, Jeopardy is a classic lesson in how to garner great suspense from a small cast and set-up. Beginning with jaunty music and the scene setting of a family of three off for a vacation, it's all Americana bliss, but it's not long before fate deals the family some bad cards and we land firmly in thriller territory. The dialogue is safe and assured, with the stars turning in rich characterisations as written, particularly a wonderfully oily Meeker as the villain of the piece. Though very much plein air as a production, a claustrophobic and fraught air grips the play and drags the viewer in wholesale, a sense of cruel luck, danger and ironies hold things in a noir realm. While a turn of events in the narrative is deftly played, the sub-text shattering to the point we don't need to see it to feel it.

Unfortunately some irritants stop it from hitting the top end of the scale. Daft ironies and highly improbable contrivances chip away at the pic's other strengths, one scene has the son (Aaker) trapped on a dilapidated pier, to which his dad calls out "stay right where you are", I mean really, what else was the lad going to do?! Some crude back projection work also dampens down some otherwise nice production touches (Calif locales just lovely), while the ending kinda dilutes a previous moral kicker. But irritants aside, this holds its head up high as a picture well worth investing time in. 7.5/10

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Jeopardy 1953) Trailer