The Prize **** (1963, Paul Newman, Edward G Robinson, Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Kevin McCarthy, Leo G Carroll, Micheline Presle, Gérard Oury) – Classic Movie Review 5974

Director Mark Robson’s glossy, sizzling, entertaining 1963 espionage thriller The Prize focuses on political intrigue and shady shenanigans at the annual Nobel Prize-giving ceremony in Sweden. It is advertised as a colourful caper starring Paul Newman from the screenwriter of North By Northwest (1959) – and that’s exactly what you get.

Paul Newman and Edward G Robinson star as two of the six prize recipients. Newman plays Andrew Craig, who has been awarded Nobel Prize in Literature but prefers women and drinking to writing. Elke Sommer plays the beautiful Inger Lisa Andersson, offered by the Swedish Foreign Department as his chaperone. Robinson plays famous German-American physicist Dr Max Stratman, who is accompanied by his niece Emily (Diane Baker).

But soon, meeting a second time at a press conference, Newman thinks something is bizarrely wrong with Robinson’s demeanour, behaving like they had never met. Newman is right! Robinson has been replaced by an evil Soviet double!

With such a plot and cast it is guaranteed to be plenty lively, and many individual scenes – like the nudist meeting – have exactly the right touch of cheek. Newman is an engaging hero and plays with considerable vitality, while canny old Robinson enjoys himself in well-delineated twin roles, effortlessly upstaging everybody.

Even though it is perhaps a shade too long at 136 minutes, the production relies too heavily on studio sets, and William Daniels’s Metrocolor colour photography is murky, otherwise there are no downsides and it is great.

Elke Sommer won the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female, shared with Tippi Hedren for The Birds (1963) and Ursula Andress for Dr No (1962).

Ernest Lehman’s screenplay is based on the 1962 novel by Irving Wallace, author of The Chapman Report.

Lehman won two Edgar Awards of the Mystery Writers of America for his Alfred Hitchcock screenplays for North by Northwest (his only original screenplay) and Family Plot (1976). He was Oscar nominated six times.

The film features an early score by Jerry Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004).

Also in the cast are Kevin McCarthy, Hitchcock favourite Leo G Carroll, Micheline Presle as Dr Denise Marceau, Gérard Oury, Sacha Pitoeff, Sergio Fantoni, Jacqueline Beer, John Wengraf, Don Dubbins, Virginia Christine, Rudolph Anders, Martine Bartlett, Karl Swenson, John Qualen, Ned Weaver and Ivan Tressault.

French actress Micheline Presle was born Micheline Nicole Julia Émilienne Chassagne on 22 August 1922. She did not make another English-language film.

Joyeux centième anniversaire to Micheline Presle on 22 August 2022.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5974

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