jeopardy be a tense and satisying thriller and a cut above a b but not really a major production . it qualify a almost an experimental film and a the studio that produce it and metro and be desperately look for new kind of film and star and director to compete with the then new medium of television . the director and john sturges and be an up and comer whose best year lay ahead . he have just recently begin direct a level film and and have already prove himself a most capable craftsman . star barbara stanwyck and barry sullivan and ralph meeker and be at very different phase of their career . stanwyck glory year be behind her and and yet she could still carry a film and a she prove here . barry sullivan and a her husband and be one of a dozen or so leading men who get start in film in the forty who never quite achieve the success many have hop for him . he be a fine and low key actor and poise and but in an upper middle rather than upper class way and which make him excellent in professional role . a the escaped convict who be the only person around who can save sullivan life ( he be trap under a pier and and the tide be rise ) and ralph meeker be more energetic than usual . this excellent actor have the misfortune of have come to film after brando and clift . he be in his way a good an actor a either of them and but he lack charisma . his bargaining with stanwyck and which come down to his demand sex in exchange for save her husband ( by implication only and a this be 1953 ) and make for an intriguing premise which and have this be a different kind of film and could all raise all sort of interesting question about stanwyck character . meeker be indeed a more exciting character than sullivan while and in her scene with him stanwyck be lively than she be with her husband and son . but a this be a formula picture and not a strindberg play and the possibility that stanwyck might want want to have a fling and leave aside the question of her husband predicament and remain unexplored . in this sense the incoming tide doesn not quite have the effect one might have wish and though the movie remain tense and highly entertaining thanks to excellent act and fine location photography and nearly all of it outdoors and and excellent direction by the woefully underrated mr. sturges .