From Our Vaults: Gregory Peck
Nunnally Johnson an co-wrote (with theatrical producer Jed Harris) and directed this political thriller, starring Gregory Peck, Broderick Crawford, Anita Björk and Buddy Ebsen.
Grade: B
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The story is set in Berlin during the Allied occupation right after World War II, with Peck playing a Military Police lieutenant colonel of the U.S. Army.
Cpl. John Leatherby (Ted Avery), an American soldier stationed in West Berlin, is kidnapped after escorting his German girlfriend to her home. The Soviets deny involvement in the kidnapping through their intermediary Col. Lodejinski, who is secretly an American and British intelligence asset.
Charles Leatherby, the corporal’s father and Toledo industrialist, attempts to expedite his son’s retrieval by leveraging his ties to Eisenhower administration and prominent senators.
The elder Leatherby flies to West Berlin and attempts to bully State Department and military officials into retrieving his son, demanding they offer the Soviets a monetary bribe.
Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Steve Van Dyke (Peck), the eccentric provost marshal for the American sector, is contacted by his old flame and East German source “Hoffy” Hoffmeir (Anita Björk). Hoffmeir implies that Cpl. Leatherby has been kidnapped by the Soviets or East Germans, who intend to exchange him for West Berliners, Herr and Frau Schindler. Lacking viable alternatives, Van Dyke allows Hoffmeir to facilitate the trade.
Van Dyke learns from a colleague in military intelligence that Hoffmeir is an impostor Eastern Bloc asset herself. Though suspecting that Hoffmeir is responsible for exposing Lodejinski as American asset, he allows her to proceed with the exchange.
Van Dyke sets the stage for a one-to-one trade of Cpl. Leatherby for Cameron, arranging for ambulance to cross into West Berlin for the exchange. He is warned by State Department official Hobart (Max Showalter) that the US government will disavow his actions if they prove unsuccessful.
To facilitate the exchange without endangering American or British assets, Van Dyke knocks Hoffmeir unconscious and presents her as Cameron. The U.S. military police force the ambulance to return to East Berlin before its escort can confirm the patient’s identity.
Having secured Cpl. Leatherby’s return, Van Dyke is congratulated by Leatherby, who’s humbled by the experience. Cpl. Leatherby’s repatriation is then represented by the media as signal of warmer relations with the Soviet Union.
The screenplay, based on an original story by Jed Harris and Tom Lees, was developed under the title “The Cannibals,” a phrase describing the kidnappers of Corporal Leatherby. The title was changed to Night People to avoid audiences anticipating “an African adventure.”
Nunnally Johnson, seeking a project to break into directing, approached Darryl F. Zanuck, who was amenable, but informed him that Peck had contractual rights to veto the studio’s choice of director. However, Peck and Johnson were friends, having worked together on The Gunfighter in 1950, which Johnson had produced and re-scripted. Johnson and Peck would team again in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, one of Peck’s iconic roles.
Peck would later state that Steve Van Dyke had been one of his favorites because his lines were “tough and crisp, full of wisecracks, and more aggressive than other roles.”
At that time, Berlin was a divided city but not forcibly split by the Berlin Wall of 1961. However, shooting was made difficult by the tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. In a scene filmed near the Brandenburg Gate with realistic props, the crew came under close scrutiny by armed Russians suspicious of the activity.
The exteriors were filmed on location in Berlin, while interiors were shot at the Geiselgasteig Studios in Munich over a five-week period in the summer of 1953, in the new wide-screen format of Cinemascope.
Oscar Context:
Jed Harris and Tom Reed were nominated for the Best Story Oscar.
The film opened in New York on March 12, 1954, to favorable reviews, but was not well received by the public. Even so, Billy Wilder told Johnson that he admired the movie and later reworked the basic situation in his 1961 comedy, One, Two, Three.
It was never available on VHS. A Blu-ray disc was released on July 25, 2017.
Cast
Gregory Peck as Lt. Col. Steve Van Dyke
Broderick Crawford as Charles Leatherby
Anita Björk as “Hoffy” Hoffmeir
Rita Gam as Ricky Cates
Walter Abel as Maj. R.A. Foster
Buddy Ebsen as M/Sgt. Eddie McColloch
Max Showalter as Frederick S. Hobart
Jill Esmond as Frau Schindler / Rachel Cameron
Peter van Eyck as Capt. Sergei “Petey” Petrochine
Credits:
Produced, directed by Nunnally Johnson
Written by Johnson, W. R. Burnett, based on story by Jed Harris, Tom Reed
Cinematography Charles G. Clarke
Edited by Dorothy Spencer
Music by Cyril J. Mockridge
Production and Distribution: 20th Century Fox\
Release date: March 12, 1954
Running time: 93 minutes
Budget $1,250,000
Box office $2,150,000 (US rentals)
