Best movie of this year hands down!

Such a frustrating disappointment

An absolute waste of money

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

The Nobel prize in literature is being awarded to the brash drunken womanizing author Andrew Craig (Paul Newman). The Swedish Foreign Ministry assigns Inger Lisa Andersson (Elke Sommer) as his minder. Dr. Max Stratman (Edward G. Robinson) is another winner coming to Stockholm with his young niece Emily (Diane Baker). He's got a rendezvous with mysterious Hans Eckhart. Dr. John Garrett (Kevin McCarthy) is forced to share his prize with his competitor Dr. Carlo Farelli (Sergio Fantoni). Dr. Claude Marceau (Gérard Oury) and his disgruntled wife Dr. Denise Marceau (Micheline Presle) are awarded the prize for chemistry. He's brought along his mistress. Craig meets Stratman in a very knowing and friendly manner. Eckhart wants Stratman to defect. When he refuses, Stratman is kidnapped. In the second meeting, Craig reveals that he's been making his living writing mystery novels under a pseudonym and Stratman doesn't seem to be the same person. Craig gets a mysterious call and finds a dead body. However the body disappears and nobody believes him.This starts like a sex comedy. Newman comes in after 15 minutes and the tone is extremely light. Then the mood becomes more serious with the kidnapping. I would prefer the mood stay serious from the beginning. The movie oscillates between a light comedy and a dark thriller. Newman delivers some fun comedy. The character should be more serious. The movie works much better as a paranoia filled Hitchcockian thriller. I would also rather have the mystery be kept a secret. There is no room for any twists. The movie reveals all the good stuff right away. This movie really struggles with dueling tones.

Paul Newman was able to show some bursts of comedy, rarely scene in his long, brilliant career in this 1963 thriller.Edward G. Robinson has a field day playing 2 parts here of a physicist and supposedly his East German twin brother, thought of as being long since dead.Too bad for Diane Baker here. At last, I thought she had a role that she could really get her teeth into. She is forced to work for the Communist East Germans when her supposed dead father turns up living and the Communists want him to change places with his physicist twin. They force Baker to work for them, but even in that, her role is limited.Elke Sommer serves as Newman's assistant in Sweden when he wins the Nobel Prize in literature. While she is effective in the part as Newman's eventual lover, there are some scenes that she comes across as if she is in a picture with Bob Hope.The picture is intriguing and tries to bring out that even Nobel Prize winners are human people with frailties as well as all of us.

Ernest Lehman, the writer of Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest", was a terrific choice to adapt this Irving Wallace suspense tale...and though director Mark Robson may never be confused with Hitchcock, the overall look, pacing, and feel of "The Prize" are quite similar to "Northwest". Paul Newman plays a hard-drinking heel, a once-promising but now cynical, womanizing writer who has turned to detective stories to pay the bills; he nevertheless has been chosen as one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize for his literature, and sobers up just in time for some exciting adventures in Stockholm. He suspects that one of the other Prize winners is a ringer, with no one else on-screen in his corner (just Foreign Ministry worker Elke Sommer in his arms!). A handsome piece of work, the film does have minor deficiencies: the opening introductions are amusing but a bit pedantic, while an overlong sequence with Newman escaping killers by hiding out at a nudist convention lands with a thud (Cary Grant may have been able to pull this off, but Newman is still too callow). Supporting cast is first-rate, though Lehman tries to have it both ways with Diane Baker's mysterious character, and one ends up not understanding much about her actions or motivations. Newman, shuffling along with a bemused smile, has some nice moments with Sommer, while Edward G. Robinson does a fantastic actors' turn playing two sides of the coin. **1/2 from ****

Paul Newman and Edward G. Robinson struck me as a curious combination, so I chose to watch "The Prize" not having any idea what it was about.This story about a number recipients in Stockholm about to receive their Nobel Prize, will show how their lives are intertwined in the days prior to the annual event. It is a mystery story that I almost gave up on after a handful of minutes -- my own fault for being impatient. A flower takes time to blossom, and so does a movie that is over 40 years old. But I am glad I didn't switch it off.The intrigue does start to capture after a while and the insights the viewer is granted are satisfying, while our hero is denied these sensations as no one believes him. The 21st century participant of this drama may find parts predictable, but it is very enjoyable, even if a little dated.Paul Newman gives everything you would expect. And you could say the same for Elke Sommer, since I wouldn't expect anyone to describe her as a terrific actor -- good performance for her, and she always wonderful to look at. I would have enjoyed more screen time by Edward G. Robinson in this role that had him more timid than I am accustomed to.I recommend this movie to everyone that enjoys these actors, although one viewing is probably enough.