FAQ

The Stilwin family -- father Doug (Barry Sullivan, mother Helen (Barbara Stanwyck), and son Bobby (Lee Aaker) -- are vacationing on an isolated beach along the coast of the Baja Peninsula. When Bobby gets his leg trapped on a deserted jetty, Dad goes to help but the pier collapses, trapping Doug's foot under a heavy piling log. With the tide coming in, Helen tries to find help. She enlists the aid of another American, Lawson (Ralph Meeker) but soon learns that he's an escaped criminal, wanted for murder, and his efforts to escape compromise Helen's efforts to save her husband.

Jeopardy began as a 22-minute radio play, 'A Question of Time', written by American radio scriptwriter Maurice Zimm. The play was adapted for the movie by American screenwriter Mel Dinelli.

The Baja Peninsula is a long thin finger of land, mostly belonging to Mexico, that projects southward from southern California. It is bordered on the east by the Gulf of California, which separates it from mainland Mexico, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.

The movie only shows that Helen says she will do anything to save her husband's life. Lawson then kisses Helen roughly. The scene then switches back to the beach where Doug is trapped and the tide is rising. Whether or not Lawson ended up having sex with Helen is in the eye of the viewer.

Using a board as a lever, Lawson is able to lift the piling off Doug's leg long enough for Helen to pull him free. Suddenly, police cars begin passing over the bluff. Lawson drives the car into the bushes, returns to shake hands with Helen, and then escapes along the beach. The police shout down to her, warning her about the dangerous criminal on the loose. In the final scene, Helen and Bobby tend to Doug. In a voiceover, Helen says, 'He killed, and he deserves to be killed. And yet, how will we feel when we read in the papers that he's been trapped, shot down. Yes, I wondered what I would do if it ever came to something like this. I wonder if every wife wonders.'