Night People (1954 film)
Encyclopedia
Night People is a 1954 motion picture drama starring Gregory Peck
, Broderick Crawford
, Anita Bjork
and Buddy Ebsen
, directed by Nunnally Johnson
. It was co-written by Jed Harris
, a noted theatrical producer.
The story is set in Berlin
during the years following World War II. Peck plays a counter-intelligence
officer of the United States Army
. At the time this movie was made, Berlin was a divided city but not yet isolated by the Berlin Wall
.
Night People was filmed on location in Berlin, and is not available as of 2010 on DVD
.
. Lt. Col. Steve Van Dyke, the American provost marshal
assigned to investigate, learns through his East German
contact Frau "Hoffy" Hoffmeir that the soldier has been kidnapped by East German agents who want to trade him for a pair of elderly Germans. At the same time, the Soviet Union has closed border posts into Berlin, suggesting an impending international crisis. Johnny's father, Charles Leatherby, is a wealthy and politically influential industrialist from Toledo, Ohio
and flies to Berlin to bully the military bureaucracy into finding his son. Accustomed to being in charge and never refused, he issues a demand that the military attempt to bribe the East German government using Leatherby's money. Van Dyke is offended by Leatherby's arrogance and ignorance. ("You're a big wheel in the axle grease business. You're a personal friend of Senator...McDinglehoffer," he scoffs.)
They go to dinner at the Katacombe restaurant, ostensibly to discuss the proposed swap, accompanied by Van Dyke's assistant, M/Sgt. Eddie McCulloch. In actuality, Van Dyke wants Leatherby to see the cost of the trade: the elderly female piano player and her blind husband (his eyes gouged out by the Nazis during the war
) demanded for Johnny's return. When the Americans move to detain them for forged identity papers, the couple attempts suicide
by using strychnine
. Van Dyke has them taken to a U.S. military hospital under the care of Major Foster, the cigarette-mooching doctor in charge. The husband is near death. The wife is in better shape and conscious, and Eddie discovers in interrogating her that she is actually English and demanding to talk to someone in British Intelligence. Van Dyke recognizes that he could be in legal jeopardy if the British determine he is using one of their citizens as a player in a "swap shop." The woman identifies herself as Rachel Cameron, wife of Gen. Gerd von Kratzenow, an anti-Nazi conspirator, and reveals that the people wanting them are not Russians but former Nazis working now with the communists.
Leatherby begins to understand the complications involved. (Van Dyke tells Eddie at one point, "You're right, this deal is getting trickier than a basket full of eels.") Friends are often really enemies, and adversaries sometimes secret allies. Van Dyke learns that his friend and Soviet counterpart, Col. Lodejinski, has been betrayed attempting to escape to the West and has committed suicide with his whole family. He also is told that Rachel Cameron acted as a spy for the Allies during the war. Van Dyke considers submitting to the demands and trading the elderly couple for the soldier. He provides Leatherby with this stark choice. While using Hoffy, with whom Van Dyke had once engaged in an ill-advised love affair, as an intermediary, he causes jealousy on the part of his secretary, Ricky Cates. Hoffy's loyalty comes under question; she is the common thread in so many twists. Van Dyke arranges for Johnny to be delivered by Russian ambulance to the American hospital to complete the trade, but concocts a dangerous double-cross in which he has to intentionally poison himself to succeed.
but which was never produced.
Nunnally Johnson had been seeking a project to break into directing, and approached Darryl F. Zanuck
to direct Night People. Zanuck was amenable, but informed him that Peck had contractual rights to veto the studio's choice of director and might not want someone without experience. However, Peck and Nunnally Johnson were friends and had worked together on The Gunfighter
in 1950, which Johnson had produced and re-scripted. Peck's confidence in him was so high that he readily approved him for his directorial debut.
Despite this, rumors were published in The Hollywood Reporter
in September 1953 that the two had seriously feuded. A possible source was Peck's initial doubts about Johnson's overall abilities, but these were soon dissipated and the pair worked amicably. Together they had also had to overcome several squabbles on the set with Fox staffers over costuming and other intrusions. One biographer reported that Peck became so angry over one dispute that he channeled his anger into a scene in which his character rebukes Broderick Crawford's, and filmed ten pages of script in two hours. Johnson and Peck teamed together again in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
.
The movie's exteriors were filmed on location in Berlin, while interiors were filmed at the Geiselgasteig Studios
in Munich over a five-week period in the summer of 1953, at a cost of $800,000, shot in the new wide-screen format of Cinemascope
., 178. Filming was sometimes made difficult by the tensions existing in Berlin between the United States and the Soviet Union. In one scene filmed near the Brandenburg Gate
with realistic props, the film crew came under close scrutiny by numerous armed Russians suspicious of the activity.
Peck stated that the role of Steve Van Dyke had been one of his favorites, because his lines were "tough and crisp and full of wisecracks, and more aggressive than other roles" he'd portrayed.
and Tom Reed were nominated for an Academy Award for best writing, motion picture story.
The film opened in New York on March 12, 1954, to favorable reviews, but was not well-received by the public. It placed fifty-second in gross box office receipts for 1954.
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
, Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford was an Academy Award-winning American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series "Highway Patrol."-Early life:...
, Anita Bjork
Anita Björk
Anita Björk is a Swedish actress.Born in Tällberg, Dalarna, Anita Björk attended Dramatens elevskola in 1942-45....
and Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
, directed by Nunnally Johnson
Nunnally Johnson
Nunnally Hunter Johnson was an American filmmaker who wrote, produced, and directed motion pictures.Johnson was born in Columbus, Georgia. He began his career as a journalist, writing for the Columbus Enquirer Sun, the Savannah Press, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and the New York Herald Tribune...
. It was co-written by Jed Harris
Jed Harris
Jed Harris was a renowned Austrian-American theater producer and director, and writer of film.-Personal history:...
, a noted theatrical producer.
The story is set in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
during the years following World War II. Peck plays a counter-intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
officer of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. At the time this movie was made, Berlin was a divided city but not yet isolated by the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
.
Night People was filmed on location in Berlin, and is not available as of 2010 on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
Plot
Allied enemies kidnap Corporal John "Johnny" Leatherby, a young American soldier in West BerlinWest Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
. Lt. Col. Steve Van Dyke, the American provost marshal
Provost Marshal
The Provost Marshal is the officer in the armed forces who is in charge of the military police .There may be a Provost Marshal serving at many levels of the hierarchy and he may also be the public safety officer of a military installation, responsible for the provision of fire, gate security, and...
assigned to investigate, learns through his East German
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
contact Frau "Hoffy" Hoffmeir that the soldier has been kidnapped by East German agents who want to trade him for a pair of elderly Germans. At the same time, the Soviet Union has closed border posts into Berlin, suggesting an impending international crisis. Johnny's father, Charles Leatherby, is a wealthy and politically influential industrialist from Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
and flies to Berlin to bully the military bureaucracy into finding his son. Accustomed to being in charge and never refused, he issues a demand that the military attempt to bribe the East German government using Leatherby's money. Van Dyke is offended by Leatherby's arrogance and ignorance. ("You're a big wheel in the axle grease business. You're a personal friend of Senator...McDinglehoffer," he scoffs.)
They go to dinner at the Katacombe restaurant, ostensibly to discuss the proposed swap, accompanied by Van Dyke's assistant, M/Sgt. Eddie McCulloch. In actuality, Van Dyke wants Leatherby to see the cost of the trade: the elderly female piano player and her blind husband (his eyes gouged out by the Nazis during the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
) demanded for Johnny's return. When the Americans move to detain them for forged identity papers, the couple attempts suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by using strychnine
Strychnine
Strychnine is a highly toxic , colorless crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine causes muscular convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia or sheer exhaustion...
. Van Dyke has them taken to a U.S. military hospital under the care of Major Foster, the cigarette-mooching doctor in charge. The husband is near death. The wife is in better shape and conscious, and Eddie discovers in interrogating her that she is actually English and demanding to talk to someone in British Intelligence. Van Dyke recognizes that he could be in legal jeopardy if the British determine he is using one of their citizens as a player in a "swap shop." The woman identifies herself as Rachel Cameron, wife of Gen. Gerd von Kratzenow, an anti-Nazi conspirator, and reveals that the people wanting them are not Russians but former Nazis working now with the communists.
Leatherby begins to understand the complications involved. (Van Dyke tells Eddie at one point, "You're right, this deal is getting trickier than a basket full of eels.") Friends are often really enemies, and adversaries sometimes secret allies. Van Dyke learns that his friend and Soviet counterpart, Col. Lodejinski, has been betrayed attempting to escape to the West and has committed suicide with his whole family. He also is told that Rachel Cameron acted as a spy for the Allies during the war. Van Dyke considers submitting to the demands and trading the elderly couple for the soldier. He provides Leatherby with this stark choice. While using Hoffy, with whom Van Dyke had once engaged in an ill-advised love affair, as an intermediary, he causes jealousy on the part of his secretary, Ricky Cates. Hoffy's loyalty comes under question; she is the common thread in so many twists. Van Dyke arranges for Johnny to be delivered by Russian ambulance to the American hospital to complete the trade, but concocts a dangerous double-cross in which he has to intentionally poison himself to succeed.
Cast
- Gregory PeckGregory PeckEldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
as Lt. Col. Steve Van Dyke - Broderick CrawfordBroderick CrawfordBroderick Crawford was an Academy Award-winning American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series "Highway Patrol."-Early life:...
as Charles Leatherby - Anita BjörkAnita BjörkAnita Björk is a Swedish actress.Born in Tällberg, Dalarna, Anita Björk attended Dramatens elevskola in 1942-45....
as "Hoffy" Hoffmeir - Rita GamRita GamRita Gam is an American film and television actress and documentary film maker. She was nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.-Career:...
as Ricky Cates - Walter AbelWalter AbelWalter Abel was an American stage and film character actor. His eyes were brown and his height was five foot ten inches....
as Maj. R.A. Foster - Buddy EbsenBuddy EbsenBuddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
as M/Sgt. Eddie McColloch - Max ShowalterMax ShowalterMax Showalter was an American film, television, and stage actor, as well as a composer, pianist, and singer. One of Showalter's most memorable roles was as Jean Peters' character's husband in the 1953 film Niagara...
as Frederick S. Hobart - Jill EsmondJill EsmondJill Esmond was an English actress and first wife of Sir Laurence Olivier.-Early life:Esmond was born Jill Esmond Moore in London, the daughter of stage actors Henry V. Esmond and Eva Moore. While her parents toured with theatre companies, Esmond spent her childhood in boarding schools until she...
as Frau Schindler / Rachel Cameron - Peter van EyckPeter van EyckPeter van Eyck, born Götz von Eick , was a German-American actor.-Biography:...
as Capt. Sergei "Petey" Petrochine - Marianne KochMarianne KochMarianne Koch is a retired German actress of the 1950s and 1960s, best known for her appearances in spaghetti westerns and adventure films of the 1960s. She later worked as a television host and as a physician....
as Kathy Gerhardt - Ted Avery as Cpl. John Leatherby
- Hugh McDermott as Maj. Burns
- John HorsleyJohn Horsley (actor)John L. Horsley is an English actor. He was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England.He made his acting debut at the Theatre Royal in Bournemouth. His early career saw him playing a succession of doctors and policemen, the former on film in Hell Drivers , the latter on television in Big...
as Lt. Col. Stanways
Production
The screenplay was developed under the title The Cannibals, a phrase used in the dialogue to describe the kidnappers of Corporal Leatherby. In July 1953 the New York Times reported that the title was changed to Night People to avoid audiences anticipating "an African adventure." The title was taken from a property already owned by Fox, a science fiction vehicle that was to star Richard WidmarkRichard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
but which was never produced.
Nunnally Johnson had been seeking a project to break into directing, and approached Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
to direct Night People. Zanuck was amenable, but informed him that Peck had contractual rights to veto the studio's choice of director and might not want someone without experience. However, Peck and Nunnally Johnson were friends and had worked together on The Gunfighter
The Gunfighter
The Gunfighter is a 1950 western film starring Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell and Karl Malden . This film was directed by Henry King...
in 1950, which Johnson had produced and re-scripted. Peck's confidence in him was so high that he readily approved him for his directorial debut.
Despite this, rumors were published in The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
in September 1953 that the two had seriously feuded. A possible source was Peck's initial doubts about Johnson's overall abilities, but these were soon dissipated and the pair worked amicably. Together they had also had to overcome several squabbles on the set with Fox staffers over costuming and other intrusions. One biographer reported that Peck became so angry over one dispute that he channeled his anger into a scene in which his character rebukes Broderick Crawford's, and filmed ten pages of script in two hours. Johnson and Peck teamed together again in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, by Sloan Wilson, is a 1955 novel about the American search for purpose in a world dominated by business. Tom and Betsy Rath share a struggle to find contentment in their hectic and material culture while several other characters fight essentially the same battle,...
.
The movie's exteriors were filmed on location in Berlin, while interiors were filmed at the Geiselgasteig Studios
Bavaria Film Studios
The Bavaria Film in Geiselgasteig, a district of Munich's suburb Grünwald, Bavaria belongs to one of Europe's biggest and most famous film production companies.- History :...
in Munich over a five-week period in the summer of 1953, at a cost of $800,000, shot in the new wide-screen format of Cinemascope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
., 178. Filming was sometimes made difficult by the tensions existing in Berlin between the United States and the Soviet Union. In one scene filmed near the Brandenburg Gate
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate and one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which...
with realistic props, the film crew came under close scrutiny by numerous armed Russians suspicious of the activity.
Peck stated that the role of Steve Van Dyke had been one of his favorites, because his lines were "tough and crisp and full of wisecracks, and more aggressive than other roles" he'd portrayed.
Awards and reception
Jed HarrisJed Harris
Jed Harris was a renowned Austrian-American theater producer and director, and writer of film.-Personal history:...
and Tom Reed were nominated for an Academy Award for best writing, motion picture story.
The film opened in New York on March 12, 1954, to favorable reviews, but was not well-received by the public. It placed fifty-second in gross box office receipts for 1954.