Das unsichtbare Netz

A film that starts out innocently enough and is shot in Technicolor doesn't hold out much hope of being much of a tough Berlin Cold War drama like Carol Reed and James Mason might have made. Nonetheless, Night People gets pretty engrossing as the story unfolds. What it lacks in shadowy black and white photography and bleak ambiance, it makes up for in a couple of cool plot twists and attention to keeping the story moving. Gregory Peck bites off his lines as if he really means them as the colonel who's trying to get the young corporal who was kidnapped from the US sector after he kisses his German girlfriend good night, to the Russian sector and held for the ransom of an elderly couple, the wife of whom is part of a cool scene in a big beerhall restaurant where Peck is chewing the scenery and German sausages with Broderick Crawford. Crawford's character as a rich Toledo industrialist and well connected father of the kidnapped corporal gets pretty interesting as well as he's bent on throwing as much of his considerable weight around as he can in order to expedite his son's return. But this is international intrigue which requires a lot of preparation while the go-between German ex-mistress of Peck who likes absinthe, gets slowly revealed. Actually, the story is mostly top-notch, though with sergeant Buddy Ebsen's numerous humorous observations and overall casualness, the film is a lot lighter though not necessarily less smarter than some the of black and white classics.

The Cold War was settling in for a deep freeze when Night People was made in 1953. The story is about the kidnapping of an American corporal on occupation duty in Berlin and the efforts by our military to get him back.

Mind you this isn't any ordinary corporal. Turns out he's the son of Broderick Crawford who is doing a light version of his junk tycoon from Born Yesterday. As it is explained in a line which audiences today might not get, 'he plays golf'. That he was a businessman who played golf was meant that he played regularly with the most famous golfer in America. You could not go a week in the USA of the Fifties without reading in the newspapers or hearing on radio or television about President Eisenhower tearing it up at some golf course. No one born after 1956 or so would possibly grasp the meaning of that description.

So Crawford goes to Berlin to get some action and he runs into Gregory Peck of the Provost Marshal's office who does things in his own time and won't be bullied or influenced.

Peck's role calls for him to be soldier, diplomat, and psychologist all in one. But he's a professional and he carries it off despite a few unexpected wrinkles. One of them turns out to be Anita Bjork who has been working both sides of the Cold War in an effort to obtain her much needed absinthe.

Aiding and abetting Peck in his attempt to free the corporal are Rita Gam as his girl Friday, Sgt. Buddy Ebsen, Peck's non-com aide, and army doctor Walter Abel who has to be on standby at the climax of the film. Why is that, you have to watch Night People to find out, but Abel's needed for a potential emergency.

Berlin ever since the airlift was at the center of the Cold War with the Russians. The wall had not been built yet and after that things kind of settled to an uneasy acceptance until the fall of the Soviet Union. Night People is an average Cold War drama made better by the presence of some A list cast members and a tightly edited script by Nunnally Johnson who also directed.

This is an extremely well done motion picture. The first directorial job of longtime writer Nunnally Johnson revealed a fine talent which created suspense and captures the audience minds without resorting to chases and explosions. Everything happens indoors, and it is question of brains not of fists.

A magnificent job by Broderick Crawford and Gregory Peck, and a well done investigation into cold war minds, all about the kidnapping by the Russians of an U.S.Corporal in Berlin, in order to exchange him for a couple of elderly Germans wanted supposedly by former Nazis in the service of the Soviets. Everything works wonderfully, until one asks why didn't the Russians kidnap the couple in the first place and save all the trouble.

Curiously, this was nominated to an Oscar for best original story... It lost, and the award went to Philip Yordan for Broken Lance, which was based not on an original story but in the screenplay Yordan had written in 1949 for House of Strangers, from a story by Jerome Weidman.

Gregory Peck plays a U.S. Army Provost caught up in exchanging a married couple wanted by Russians for a captured American soldier in "Night People," set in post-war Berlin. By today's standards, this film is on the talky side, with not much action. Although the script was nominated for an Oscar, it's problematic - the denouement was much too simple, for one thing.

Broderick Crawford is the father of the captured soldier, and he does an excellent job. Rita Gam is Ricky, Peck's beautiful and feisty secretary. There are several TV faces as well: Buddy Ebsen, Walter Abel, and Max Showalter. Anita Bjork is "Hoffy," a woman who works for Peck yet may be playing both ends.

But the film is really Peck's, who does a fantastic job creating an interesting, tough, passionate, decisive, and funny character. He's instantly both likable and admirable.

I really enjoy this movie and have seen it frequently through the years. It has been running on the Fox Movie Channel lately. I think the other comments are probably true, but I enjoy watching the film nonetheless. I love the very end when Gregory Peck is listening to the way the situation he commanded is presented by the news over the radio, while he smokes and surveys the cleaned-up city of Berlin. Peck presents a man who might be in a dirty job but can look himself in the mirror. I agree it is an adult movie in that the characters acted like adults. I felt during the drinking scene Hoffie conveyed that she had some remorse and was tired. (Just before, I enjoyed scene showing the bad feelings between Hoffie and the secretary. "Would you be kind enough to tell Major VanDyke that I am here, please?) Later, it was pretty clear how Hoffie figured out Steve was onto her. The other character I liked was the British fellow. I enjoyed his dialog. I told my British husband about the scene. I also enjoyed listening to the American idiom of the time. I liked all of the characters very much and look forward to seeing it again. Another user mentioned the Oscar for best screenplay for 1954 went to Broken Lance. I liked that movie, too!