Blucher One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

hirsch-43266 I believe the reason the Reds kidnapped the soldier was because he was visiting his girlfriend in the Russian Zone of Berlin, while the old couple avoided it religiously. The prisoner swap was a stretch, I'll admit. The plot-point about former Nazis wanting the anti-Hitler-plotting old couple is hardly half the story. Not only did the KGB use Heinrich Mueller (head of the Gestapo) in recruiting former German agents, but they also employed and protected an even more famous ex-Nazi -- Martin Bormann. Yes, some real rascals, those Bolshies. I can't agree that this was any kind of ordinary Cold_War film, as I know of very few of any kind. "Big Jim Mclaine" was a live-action, comic-book sort of movie, although loosely based in fact after Communist-controlled unions in Hawaii did try to strangle the island with strikes for 177 days in 1949. Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain" and the awesome "Topaze" were two more. "The Third man" was tangentially about the Cold War in Vienna -- the real center for Cold War espionage, not Berlin. Even discounting the fact that many "Cold War" movies were actually defeatist, moral-equivocating messes, I'd still guess the 4 years of WW II accounted for 200 times more movies than the entire 1922-1989 Cold War, which was 200 times more interesting than tank battles and amphibious landings, and much more important for Americans to understand.

john-harry-adams This film is so well crafted that it still can't be faulted - 60 years later. There's not a weak player in the cast - and this must be the film to remember both Peck and Crawford by. Peck by his mastery of the very complex character he has to play, Crawford by the masterful way in which he plays his usual, boorish, stereotype - but then brilliantly wises up to reality. The scenes where Peck and Crawford interact are electric.The plot is very, very complex. Even if you pay full attention to every word and every character nuance, you'll probably still be unprepared for the twists and turns of Nunnally Johnson's subtle and complex story.On this topic, you'll note some reviews criticising the plot for weaknesses. Not So. It is a foolhardy reviewer who goes up against a Nunnally Johnson script! To elaborate I'd have to spoil. Suffice it to say that this story is a wild horse - and you'll have one heck of a job staying on its back as it bucks, twists and cavorts.Worth seeing - has to be seen, some might say - more than once!

silverscreen888 Nunnally Johnson has been awarded every prize a screenwriter can be given. This film, with its many strengths, demonstrates why as well as does any of his efforts. The storyline here is both complex and adult; it is a Cold War thriller with very-strongly-developed characters, fine performances and great B/W production values throughout. Johnson wrote the script from a story by Jed Harris and directed. The story revolves around a Colonel played strongly by Gregory Peck who is in charge of US forces in Berlin who are dealing daily with the four powers governing their sectors there. Three challenges weigh on him at once. The Russian counterpart he has been trying to help defect is murdered; a young US serviceman is inexplicably kidnapped after meeting the German girl he loves, and demands are made by the Russians to get into their hands two persons in exchange for the soldier. Then the young man's industrialist father arrives to complicate matters further, making demands, while the Colonel discovers a traitor in his own circle of operatives. There are many fine performances in the well-chosen cast, headed by Peck's very strong military character, aided by Walter Abel and Buddy Ebsen; others noteworthy include Peter Van Eyck, Max Showalter, Jill Esmond, Marianne Koch, Anita Bjork and Broderick Crawford. Lovely Rita Gam plays the Colonel's secretary and steals every scene she is in. I found the military-parade pre-opening too-long; but the dialogue, characters and situations were everywhere absorbing and amazing memorable; had Johnson done nothing bu the scripts for this and "The Dirty Dozen", his place in Hollywood history would be secure. I suggest that with all its fine technical and creative aspects, when viewers talk about films "they used to make but can't or don't make any more", "Night People" is exactly the sort of powerful and adult film they have in mind.

David Atfield 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.