It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Gregory Peck "almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it."(IMDb)And from the very start as his debut (Tourneur's "days of glory" ) shows.I cannot remember him playing a villain.A GI was kidnapped in Germany during his military service (it was a time when conscripts trusted their superiors,which was not that way in the late sixties;see the scene with the girlfriend );we do not exactly who abducted him:Russians or former Nazis.Peck portrays an officer who may seem cold and indifferent at first sight.The boy's father is a wealthy man who believes that money can buy anything: "your money does not mean anything here" says Peck .They have to deal with "night people" in the cold war.The most interesting side of the movie is:shall we exchange innocent (and even heroic) people for an unfortunate rich kid?Which makes Charles Leatherby(Broderick Crawford) the most endearing character of the movie.The selfish millionaire discovers compassion and sacrifice.The ending of the movie,on the other hand ,is too implausible to convince.Hoffy (Anita Bjork) is only an amateur and her bosses should have known better.

Given the fact that this film starred Gregory Peck, it couldn't help but be entertaining and worth seeing. However, as far as Peck films made during his best years in Hollywood, this is definitely not one of his more memorable films. Most of the problems lie in the plot and the very unsatisfying ending, though the actors seem to give it their best.The film begins with a common soldier being kidnapped in Berlin. However, this is no ordinary soldier, as his father is a loud-mouth industrialist played, not surprisingly, by Broderick Crawford. When Crawford impulsively shows up in Berlin to kick butt and demand action, he comes up against a colonel from military intelligence (Peck) who puts Crawford in his place but good. Given that the kidnappers were probably working for the Russians, Crawford's blustering and willingness to pay any ransom is rather hollow. After all, the communists probably could have cared less. So it's up to Peck to first establish why the guy was kidnapped and to see what he can do to get him returned.While there are a few plot twists along the way, the film ends very poorly. In an ending rife with holes, Peck cheats the Russians out of their prize and gets the kid back--leaving you to assume that shortly afterward, the Russians just kidnapped some other poor shmoe and once again demanded a prisoner exchange or shot the guy to teach the Americans a lesson. Duh. Talk about a non-ending! Had the film ended well, it would have earned a 7 or even an 8. As it is, it's watchable but ultimately rather disappointing despite Peck's competent performance.

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.

Nunally Johnson proves again here that he was not really a film-maker. This so-called "thriller" is intelligent, literal and well acted - but way over-talkie and lacking in any visual style. They went to Berlin to film - and what a fascinating back-drop this is - but they hardly ever go outdoors. It seems to have been filmed mostly in poorly constructed studio sets. The best thing here is Peck's commanding performance as the hard-bitten military man, embittered by his dirty job. The attempt to use Buddy Ebsen for comic relief rarely works, and the political propaganda is offensive, particularly the referral to the Russians with terms like "cannibals". All in all pretty lame stuff.