What’s A
Woman To Do?-Barbara Stanwyck’s Jeopardy
DVD Review
From The Pen
Of Sam Lowell
Jeopardy,
starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Ralph Meeker,
Okay, okay
here is the riddle, a woman’s very serious riddle where she has to do whatever is
necessary under the circumstances to save her man, to keep him from being her ex-man,
from being RIP. The answers aren’t always pretty in life, or as here, in the
movies in the film Jeopardy which is
a good enough word for the title of this black and white exposition on
situational morality. Barbara thinks she made the right choice, and let the
church-based moralists be damned.
Yeah, let’s
call her Barbara since she is going to have to stand the gaff from those
frowning neighbors when she gets back home, gets back home with her man, her very
much alive man Barry. Yeah, let’s call him Barry because not only is he going
to have to defend his wife against the witches but he is going to also wonder
how lucky he was to get a wife who went the distance for him, although you know
as well as I do that there will always be a little doubt, nothing big, but
still a thought in the air about what really happened back at the abandoned
hacienda. Back where Barbara got that unexpected help from Ralph, a guy not
known for the goodness of his heart if you must know, yeah, let’s run the table
and call him Ralph because, well, just because.
Here’s the
set-up. Barbara and Barry and their son Johnny, a totally respectable red scare
Cold War night middle class white picket fence family although without the dog
that usually completes this picture, decided to go to the Baja, the Baja down
Mexico way, on a family outing, a camping trip to get away from the nine to
five routine, to get away from that white picket fence existence. Great idea, a
little sweaty sun, a little spraying ocean, some fishing, maybe a little
boating, a little bonding with Johnny who Barry has kind of neglected in his rush
to get ahead in the world, maybe a little bonding of another kind with Barbara
now that he is not all keyed up and notices her charms. Nice, a nice family picture,
no question.
Then the
whole thing kind of unwinds, some ill-fated wind coming out of the Baja to snag
the gringos’ mal suerte (their bad luck) and the necessity for Barbara hard-bitten
choices. Blame it on Johnny if you don’t want to blame it on luck, or an act of
God, or the fellahin of the world but Johnny is the direct cause of the dilemma.
See once they get to the campsite and investigate the surroundings bonehead
Johnny decided to check out the rotting pier not far from their campsite.
Wouldn’t you know though that Johnny would get his foot caught in one of the
decaying boardwalk slats. And Barry being Barry went to rescue his son like any
good father. But as the old saying goes no good turn goes unpunished and so
Barry wound up being trapped by a collapsing portion of the pier. Normally no problem
if the collapse had occurred closer to shore but as it turned out it was too
far out-and the tide was coming in.
Everybody, me
too, would have to admit that Barbara and Johnny moved heaven and earth at that
moment to get Barry unhinged from his dilemma. No go, nada nunca nada. They came
up with an idea thought involving the lever principle of a plank as a wedge to
pluck Barry out by using the car as the power to move the plank. Problem: no rope
to tie the plank to the power of the car. But there was an half abandoned hacienda
back up the road on which they came and maybe some rope could be found there.
So Barbara went back on that fateful journey to see about getting some, or some
help.
Well, after speeding
back to the hacienda because that tide is really coming Barbara does find the rope-and
Ralph. Ralph however is not nature’s nobleman and he wants the car to aid in his
getaway since he is a stone-cold killer who has just escaped from the federales.
And they are looking for him intensely, looking for a three time loser who really
did have nothing to lose. So Barbara began what would become the dance of the
seven veils to get Ralph to help her. Nothing worked through a whole series of
incidents on the way back toward where Barry and Johnny. Nothing worked until
desperate Barbara, knowing that Ralph had not been with a woman for a while made
her fateful decision. Now this was a 1950s film so the Barbara’s compromise,
her proposition was not shown but everybody over the age of twelve could figure out she let him at her because in the very
next scene Ralph and Barbara are rocketing back to save Barry. You have to say
this for Ralph he might not have been nature’s nobleman but whatever promise he
made to Barbara for her favors, as the old saying went, he kept to it. Did
yeoman’s work to get Barry out before the sea swallowed him up. Then had to hightail
it since the federales had picked up his trail. And Barbara? On some very cold
nights when Barry is back to work and back to the old nine to five routine she
must wonder if she did the right thing. On other hotter nights she might lie
awake wondering about Ralph’s fate. Yeah, jeopardy is the right word.
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