The Prize

Paul Newman stars as Andrew Craig, a cynical, hard-drinking, shamelessly womanizing American author who is in Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize, and Elke Sommer is his "handler" Lisa Andersson, in this 1963 Cold War thriller. Andrew insists that he’s there for the prize money but there is also the lure of his beautiful handler and a mystery surrounding the sudden personality change in a physicist (played by Edward G. Robinson) who is also attending the ceremony. The Prize is a thriller in the Hitchcockian vein, complete with shadowy thugs, tantalizing clues, and a web of conspirators determined to either make Andrew look foolish or kill him. It’s even scripted by North by Northwest screenwriter Ernest Lehman, who adapts Irving Wallace’s 1962 novel but adds set pieces that are right out of his great Hitchcock lark. Lehman has plenty of fun with the dialogue, both in Andrew’s sassy flirtations ("And what was she wearing?" "Sort of an off-the-shoulder smile") and his smart-aleck remarks when no one believes that someone is trying to kill him. The pacing is snappy and the romantic interludes are entertaining, but Mark Robson otherwise directs with dutiful professionalism, and never actually manages much in the way of suspense or thrills. Still, Newman’s rascally performance keeps the film alive, while Sommer is sexy, sharp, and delightfully exasperated by Andrew’s shenanigans, which she finds increasingly hard to resist. Diane Baker, Micheline Presle, and Kevin McCarthy costar. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)