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La plage déserte

Original title: Jeopardy
  • 1953
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 9m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
2.6K
YOUR RATING
Barbara Stanwyck in La plage déserte (1953)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer2:52
1 Video
8 Photos
Film NoirCrimeDramaThriller

A family vacationing on the coast of Mexico have to cope with multiple threats to their safety.A family vacationing on the coast of Mexico have to cope with multiple threats to their safety.A family vacationing on the coast of Mexico have to cope with multiple threats to their safety.

  • Director
    • John Sturges
  • Writers
    • Mel Dinelli
    • Maurice Zimm
  • Stars
    • Barbara Stanwyck
    • Barry Sullivan
    • Ralph Meeker
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.7/10
    2.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • John Sturges
    • Writers
      • Mel Dinelli
      • Maurice Zimm
    • Stars
      • Barbara Stanwyck
      • Barry Sullivan
      • Ralph Meeker
    • 56User reviews
    • 16Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:52
    Official Trailer

    Photos7

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    Top cast22

    Edit
    Barbara Stanwyck
    Barbara Stanwyck
    • Helen Stilwin
    Barry Sullivan
    Barry Sullivan
    • Doug Stilwin
    Ralph Meeker
    Ralph Meeker
    • Lawson
    Lee Aaker
    Lee Aaker
    • Bobby Stilwin
    Rico Alaniz
    Rico Alaniz
    • Officer at 1st Roadblock
    • (uncredited)
    Salvador Baguez
    • Officer at 1st Roadblock
    • (uncredited)
    Bob Castro
    • Police Machine Gunner
    • (uncredited)
    Carlos Conde
    • Tijuana Vendor
    • (uncredited)
    George L. Derrick
    • Gas Station Attendant
    • (uncredited)
    Paul Fierro
    Paul Fierro
    • Mexican Lieutenant
    • (uncredited)
    Sol Gorss
    Sol Gorss
    • Captain's Driver Talking to Helen
    • (uncredited)
    Margarita Martín
    • Mexican Mother
    • (uncredited)
    Victor Milner
    Victor Milner
    • Bit Part
    • (uncredited)
    Alex Montoya
    • Officer with Walkie-Talkie at 2nd Barricade
    • (uncredited)
    George Navarro
    • Tijuana Vendor
    • (uncredited)
    Charles Stevens
    Charles Stevens
    • Mexican Father
    • (uncredited)
    Ken Terrell
    Ken Terrell
    • Officer at 2nd Barricade
    • (uncredited)
    Louis Tomei
    • Officer at 2nd Barricade
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • John Sturges
    • Writers
      • Mel Dinelli
      • Maurice Zimm
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews56

    6.72.6K
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    Featured reviews

    Michael_Elliott

    Tense Drama

    Jeopardy (1953)

    *** (out of 4)

    John Sturges directed this intense thriller about a wife (Barbara Stanwyck) and husband (Barry Sullivan) who take their son on a vacation to Mexico so that they can go fishing but an accident happens and the husband gets his leg caught under a log. With the tide coming in, the wife has to try and get help before it's too late but she gets kidnapped by an escaped murderer (Ralph Meeker). This film seems to get mixed reviews and while it's not classic Sturges I still felt there was enough suspense packed in the 67-minute running time to make the film highly enjoyable. I've never found Stanwyck to be sexy so that takes away from some of her roles for me but she's terrific when playing it tough and that's the case here. She's really good in the tough role and Meeker is the perfect snake to go against her. Sullivan is also very good in his moments with his son played by Lee Aaker. There are a few flaws throughout the film and the ending is pretty weak but there's still plenty to enjoy here. The score by Dimitri Tiomkin also adds to the suspense.
    Doylenf

    Tight, suspenseful thriller with Ralph Meeker stealing the show...

    JEOPARDY doesn't deserve the brickbats it's getting from other viewers who think of it as little more than a B-film, a quickie in the career of Barbara Stanwyck.

    Nonsense. Stanwyck was still a terrific actress and uses all her skill to keep this a taut woman-in-peril kind of story that starts out innocently enough but then shifts into high gear the moment her husband is trapped under some rotten pilings from a pier.

    Nor is the plot a foolish one. Clearly, it's the kind of incident that could easily have happened on an isolated beach in Mexico, with Stanwyck unable to find an English-speaking person to help her when she and her small son are unable to free Sullivan as the tide rises.

    It just so happens the only person able to understand her predicament is an escaped convict running from a murder charge (Ralph Meeker). The moment Meeker appears he lifts the film into a new realm of suspense, so convincing is his portrayal of a Stanley Kowalski-type of character without anything but self-preservation (and sex) on his mind. Meeker never had a better showcase for his machismo appeal.

    Because of production code rules, the film fails to make more of the sex angle including Stanwyck's decision to be more cooperative with the man who clearly might do her a favor if she does him one. By glossing over this angle and merely showing Meeker grab her in a couple of tight clinches, the film loses some of its impact when she returns with him to help her husband.

    Nevertheless, it's a brisk, tightly constructed story around a simple theme and it works beautifully. John Sturges doesn't waste a moment of the film on any sub-plots but stays firmly fixed on the woman's dire predicament and all of the tension the viewer must feel watching Stanwyck's distress mount, knowing that her husband is in even more peril than she is.

    It's a much better film than cited here--definitely worth a look.
    8RanchoTuVu

    Stanwyck seduces Meeker to save Sullivan

    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.
    9telegonus

    The Tide Is High!

    Jeopardy is a tense, satisying thriller, a cut above a B but not really a major production. It qualifies as almost an experimental film, as the studio that produced it, Metro, was desperately looking for new kinds of films, stars and directors to compete with the then new medium of television. The director, John Sturges, was an up-and-comer whose best years lay ahead. He had just recently begun directing A level films, and had already proved himself a most capable craftsman. Stars Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan and Ralph Meeker, were at very different phases of their careers. Stanwyck's glory years were behind her, and yet she could still carry a film, as she proves here. Barry Sullivan, as her husband, was one of a dozen or so leading men who got started in films in the forties who never quite achieved the success many had hoped for him. He was a fine, low-key actor, poised, but in an upper middle rather than upper class way, which made him excellent in professional roles. As the escaped convict who is the only person around who can save Sullivan's life (he is trapped under a pier, and the tide is rising), Ralph Meeker is more energetic than usual. This excellent actor had the misfortune of having come to films after Brando and Clift. He was in his way as good an actor as either of them, but he lacked charisma. His bargaining with Stanwyck, which comes down to his demanding sex in exchange for saving her husband (by implication only, as this is 1953), makes for an intriguing premise which, had this been a different kind of film, could all raised all sorts of interesting questions about Stanwyck's character. Meeker is indeed a more exciting character than Sullivan; and in her scenes with him Stanwyck is livelier than she is with her husband and son. But as this is a formula picture, not a Strindberg play, the possibility that Stanwyck might want want to have a fling,--leaving aside the question of her husband's predicament,--remains unexplored. In this sense the incoming tide doesn't quite have the effect one might have wished, though the movie remains tense and highly entertaining thanks to excellent acting, fine location photography, nearly all of it outdoors, and excellent direction by the woefully underrated Mr. Sturges.
    6blanche-2

    blink and you miss it

    Jeopardy is a B movie, and it's sad to see the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck reduced to doing it. It is, however, not without merit. Stanwyck plays a wife and mother trying to get help for her trapped husband, Barry Sullivan. She runs afoul of Ralph Meeker en route. Now, here's the thing. He refuses to help her husband unless she has sex with him. As you can imagine, this being the 1950s, this is in the subtext and so far down that if you're not paying attention, you miss the implication.

    This makes Jeopardy a cut above your standard B, especially because of the presence of Stanwyck. She's certainly desperate to save her husband, but the film raises some interesting questions. Meeker was more rough and tumble than her husband - was she perhaps attracted to him? Definitely worth seeing.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Jeopardy was Barbara Stanwyck's first film after taking a year off from her screen career. Her original intention had been to retire after Le démon s'éveille la nuit (1952) (filmed in 1951 but not released until 1952) but after spending some time in Europe, she said, "I simply didn't know what to do with myself, so I went back to work."
    • Goofs
      When the incoming tide is washing against Helen, her hair is soaked and in the next shot her hair is styled then soaked again .
    • Quotes

      Helen Stilwin: If he dies, I promise you one thing... I'll kill you.

      Lawson, the Fugitive: That puts you in a class with 10,000 cops. They all got the same idea.

      Helen Stilwin: It's a good idea.

    • Soundtracks
      Cielito Lindo
      (uncredited)

      Music by Quirino Mendoza

      Arranged by Skip Martin

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    FAQ22

    • How long is Jeopardy?Powered by Alexa
    • What is 'Jeopardy' about?
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    • Where is the Baja Peninsula?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 31, 1953 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Devoción de mujer
    • Filming locations
      • Pioneertown, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Loew's
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $589,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 9 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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