Gord Jackson If you're in the mood for a little sophisticated humour leavened with just enough suspense to keep it interesting, then "The Prize" is for you. Set in Stockholm, Sweden at Nobel Prize Ceremony time, the story revolves around the lives, battles and petty jealousies of a disparate group of winners with only one of them seeming to have any sense-of-the-occasion. Grand soap opera at its most ridiculous, the film focuses on Paul Newman's Andrew Craig, a somewhat tipsy author of serious novels suffering from acute, 'serious writer's' block syndrome. But never one to let such a trivial annoyance get in the way, Craig keeps hearth and home together (along no doubt with a fancy liquor cabinet stocked with a favourite single malt) by punching out cheap detective stories for the masses under a pseudo name. He doesn't make his crime yarns sound much like high art, but then again neither is this movie. What both are, however (especially if you've ever read Dashiel Hammett, Jim Thompson or Raymond Chandler) are amazingly entertaining.At times re-tilling famous Hitchcock ground, "The Prize" is a thoroughly enjoyable soufflé with a delightful cast that includes (a little under-used) Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Kevin McCarthy and the always solid, sturdy Leo G. Carroll. As directed by Mark Robson, the introductions and subsequent interplay of many of the film's characters is quite reminiscent of the approach Robson also took in his sumptuous 1957 soap opera "Peyton Place." And Robson wasn't the only one stealing from himself.Ernest Lehman (who also wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's wildly successful "North by Northwest") shamelessly borrows more than once from that highly successful opus, but that's okay. His retreads also work very well in "The Prize" too thank you very much.Finally, other assets to this pleasant romp include Jerry Goldsmith's sometimes understated score coupled with some glorious cinematography that deftly captures the film's various locations.So again, if you're looking for sophisticated fare with a gentle thriller twist, don't pass up on this one. You can't take a single frame of it seriously, but then again, you're not intended to. Just sit back, be patient, relax and enjoy!! It really is worthy of its 8 out of 10.

Agnelin "The prize" is a quite delightful and cosmopolitan mix of comedy and mystery, packed with a top-notch cast that make the whole show well worth watching, in addition to a witty and funny script.Paul Newman is the undisputed protagonist, displaying his star charisma and attractiveness to the most. He stars as Andrew Craig, a cynical, womanizing and fun-loving, but very insightful American novelist who travels to Stockholm in order to attend the ceremony where he'll be given the Literature Nobel prize. He is greeted by gorgeous Swedish government representative Inger (Elke Sommer), very much in a stereotypical (but probably deliberately so) ice-queen role. In his hotel, he will meet other awardees, such as German-born Dr Stratman (Edward G. Robinson, wonderful as ever) and his elusive niece, cardiologists Dr Farelli and Dr Garrett, or French scientists Drs. Denise and Claude Marceau, among a chorus of hotel employees, busboys, Government representatives and local characters that serve as tongue-in-cheek comedic support for the main plot.The movie takes its time introducing each of the characters, so it's hard to tell whether you're in for a romantic movie, a glamorous comedy or something else. The well-written character of Mr Craig will lead us effortlessly and cheerfully through the several sequences until the real action starts, and we will be caught in a Hitchcock-esque international mystery story with sparkling dialog, lots of flirting and romance, and a good display of humor.The mystery, while being the motor of the story, is however not the main ingredient. I personally found the romantic and the humorous tones to be the dominating ones here. All in all, it's a very agreeable comedy, with good writing and very likable characters.My vote is 7/10.

sncsl Just weeks before traveling to Stockholm in the summer of 1964, we had seen the movie "The Prize" and the distance from the level where the killer was flipped downwards onto the statue with the spear or sword which impaled him was FRESH in the mind. The movie had shown the distance from the beginning of the fall to the impalement as being about straight down. Actually, the distance the falling body would have had to have covered was more like 40 to 60 feet. Through the years, we have seen no comment on this error. Tonight (12-8-09) we saw the movie again on TCM for the first time in 46 years and again, we saw the "photographic filming error". The impalement was viewed with glee since the killer had almost done away with Paul Newman . . . but, the depiction of the disposal of the Russian "hit man" could have been authentic. Advice: go to the scene in Stockholm today and assess the distance under consideration . . and draw your conclusions. S. Brewer

bkoganbing This light adaption of Irving Wallace's novel The Prize serves as yet another Hitchcock wannabe production. I'm sure Paul Newman's performance here got him cast later on with Alfred Hitchcock himself in Torn Curtain. Irving Wallace's Cold War novel was a good deal more dramatic than what we see here, though the plot centers around the serious business of kidnapping. It takes place at Stockholm during the Nobel Prize Awards ceremony. Edward G. Robinson, a defector from behind the Iron Curtain, is to receive the Nobel Prize for physics. But the Russians have other ideas.Robinson has twin brother who they plan to substitute after they kidnap Robinson. Robinson is to denounce the capitalist warmongers at the ceremony and then go back to Russia. Or both Robinsons will, willingly or unwillingly. Assisting them in their plans is Diane Baker, the daughter of the Commie Robinson and niece of the defector.One of those small things that usually happen in Hitchcock type films trips up the plans. Before he's kidnapped Robinson has a casual encounter with Paul Newman who is receiving the Nobel Prize for literature. Later on Robinson doesn't seem to remember it at all, or Newman for that matter.It's probably the writer's curiosity that gets him aroused, but Newman with the help of Swedish Foreign office attaché Elke Sommer starts to unravel the whole dirty scheme.Newman does fine work here as a Norman Mailer type iconoclastic author, but I'm still wondering why he goes into that Reginald Van Gleason type voice on occasion in the film. I guess working with Jackie Gleason in The Hustler must have had a more profound impact than anyone thought.There's a nice sidebar plot going with the dual recipients for the Prize for Medicine, Sergio Fantoni and Kevin McCarthy, each of whom thinks they should get sole credit for a discovery. And there's the modern day Curie husband and wife team from France, Gerald Oury and Michelline Presle, who are keeping up appearances, but leading quite separate lives except for work. The real star of the film however is the Swedish capital city of Stockholm and we get to see many fine shots of it during the course of the story.The Prize might be too light a treatment for devoted fans of Irving Wallace, but it's all right as a Hitchcock light type of film.