Fox Movie Channel

When Gregory Peck Protected Our World

Night People

Welcome to Part One of my exploration of how Gregory Peck is an all-American ass kicker. I have recently learned via watching Fox Movie Channel that before Will Smith took up the mantle of saving the world, Gregory Peck used to hold the job. Except where Will usually defends the whole world from threats posed by aliens, robots, or zombies, Gregory Peck used to guard America in particular from villainous international foes. And international human foes can be pretty scary. Like zombie scary. Which is why we're lucky that Gregory Peck took care of business in the Night People in 1954 and that he was still taking care of business 15 years later in The Chairman. (Which I'll get to in Part Two.)

I initially watched the Nunnally Johnson film Night People simply because the title is so good. It's set in occupied Berlin in the 50s, and the military political situation is super tense. Gregory Peck plays Colonel Van Dyke, a soldier diplomat who talks fast and sure and intimidates and impresses people with his fast sure talking. He sometimes has to sleep in because all this tricky international business keeps him up late at night (thus the film's title). Like when a young American soldier gets abducted by the Ruskies, who may in fact be some holdover bad Germans. To complicate things, the abducted kid's Dad blows into Berlin - from Toledo, no less - and demands "Action." Dad, quite nicely played by Broderick Crawford, is used to being the fastest surest talker in town - but he's out of his league in divided Berlin. And certainly no match for Gregory Peck.

The situation is a hot mess, but GP, being the able fast-talking protector of our way of life that he is, navigates the whole murderous, double-crossing, poison-laced jumble and probably still makes it to his 1 AM poker game. And I think he's doing his secretary. It's implied, although ambiguous, since he's always bossing her around - or was that supposed to be normal? He also repeatedly calls a nurse "Nursey." And at one point, while talking about this hottie German Frau who negotiates some of this international intrigue as his agent (and who he also has a history of doing), he proclaims that "If that dame's banging away at the absinthe tonight I'll shoot her straight through the head so help me." In other words, he was the man. And America was lucky to have him.

The lesson of this movie is that if Gregory Peck takes you in his arms and says, "It's alright baby," and he says it fast and sure, it is. You can believe him. That is, of course, unless you're a two-timing, double agent, identity thieving, absinthe-banging Nazi spy. In that case he'll knock you out cold and ship your Kraut carcass off to the Russians. Because Gregory Peck kicks ass for America, so the rest of us can sleep soundly.