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Whistle Stopper - The Prize
![The Prize]()
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List Price: $14.98
Our Price:
Your Save: $ 14.98 ( 100% )
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Manufacturer: Unapix Consumer Products
Starring: Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Micheline Presle
Directed By: Mark Robson
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304946350
Format: Color
ISBN: 630494635X
Label: Unapix Consumer Products
Manufacturer: Unapix Consumer Products
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Unapix Consumer Products
Release Date: 1998-05-26
Running Time: 134
Studio: Unapix Consumer Products
Theatrical Release Date: 1963-12-25
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Why is this out of print ?
Comment: Why is this movie out of print ? This is a great movie, fantastic thriller. There is one scene set in a nudists' club. Is that the problem ?
I just can't stand the MPAA. Not sure if it their fault, but it certainly smells like it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Why is it not on DVD?
Comment: I remember seeing this movie a very long time ago. Since then it seems to have been swept under the carpet.
After reading the reviews, I agree that it is an Alfred Hitchcock knock off, but I disagree as to which one. Foreign Correspondent (1940) has a very similar plot and in fact, I used Foreign Correspondent, to find this movie title. I was looking for a remake of Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent. I saw the Foreign Correspondent a short time ago and it made me remember this movie, the name of which had excaped me. Using the IMDB to sort out things I finally came up with the right name only to find The Prize isn't on DVD yet. It seems a shame that movies have to have numerous dead bodies and shooting to make the switch to DVD.
Both of the movies are worth watching and no I'm not related.
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: If only the Nobel Prize ceremonies were always this intriguing
Comment: For a Hitchcock knock-off, The Prize is not bad at all. There's an amusing situation (not Lincoln's nostril but the Nobel Prize ceremonies), scenic tours (not of the Riviera but of Stockholm), a gaunt killer (not an imported assassin who knows music but a waiter), a long, terrifying fall (not Madeleine Elster but Paul Newman), a supple blond ice queen (not Grace Kelly or Eva Marie Saint but Elke Sommer) and a dashing hero (not Cary Grant but Newman). And in an odd sort of way, it's Paul Newman who is as much a drawback to the movie as a plus. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed, but the set-up is all established in the first ten minutes of the movie.
Newman plays Andrew Craig, an American author who has run out of steam after two great books. He's been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and has arrived in Stockholm, full of martinis and self-loathing, for the award ceremonies. Craig is on his way to becoming a lush. The Nobel committee has assigned him a keeper, Inger Anderson (Elke Sommer), to keep him out of trouble, away from the booze and to see that he minds his manners. She's not altogether successful. At the hotel, Craig meets Dr. Max Stratman (Edward G. Robinson), an émigré after WWII from Germany who is now an American citizen. Stratman is receiving the Nobel for physics. They chat and agree to meet for further discussion the next day. Craig also meets Stratman's niece, Emily Stratman (Diane Baker). Yet at the next morning's press briefing, where all the Nobel winners have gathered to meet reporters, Stratman acts as if he's never met Craig before. Only we know why; Max Stratman has been propositioned to defect to East Germany...and when he refused, he was abducted and replaced by his twin brother, Walter Stratman, from behind the Iron Curtain. It's not long before Craig catches on that something nasty is happening. Partly out of concern for Max Stratman, partly out of boredom, he sets out to answer the questions that keep popping up in his head. Along the way he finds a body, is pushed off a tall building into an ocean channel and nearly killed by a tugboat, is threatened and then almost run over by a car, finds himself in an eery psychiatric hospital and then, pursued by two killers, in a meeting hall filled with nudists. What can he do but take off his clothes to blend in? At the climax, he finds himself clamoring around the cargo holds of an East German freighter where only he seems to believe the villains have hidden Stratman. And all along he is either helped or hindered, take your pick, by Inger Anderson and Emily Stratman. It's easy to tell who the bad guys are, but not so easy to figure out which of the two women is playing a double game.
While all this is going on, preparation for the Nobel ceremonies is taking place...the receptions, the rehearsals, the getting-to-know the other winners, some of whom turn out to play key roles, especially the two who have won the Nobel for medicine. They dislike each other intensely yet find a grudging friendship when they must work together to save a key character. Best of all is Leo G. Carroll as Count Bertil Jacobson, charged with making sure everything at the ceremony moves smoothly. Carroll, a veteran of Hitchcock films, is droll and understated.
Why is Newman essential to the movie? Because he has star power, and we recognize it as soon as he appears on the screen. Hitchcock was at his best with strong, charismatic actors. Newman provides the same strength here. Why is he also a weakness? Because he's no Cary Grant. The Prize is the same kind of international adventure, romantic and stylish, as are To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest. Where Grant could effortlessly turn irony into amused charm, however, Newman turns irony more often into a kind of petulant sarcasm, especially when he's acting half in the bag. And where Grant and Kelly melted the celluloid, Newman and Sommer don't make many sparks. They're playful, find themselves in compromising positions, smile out a few hopeful double entendres, but it's all just pleasant acting. On the other hand, Edward G. Robinson brings a great deal of authority to his role. There's not much of him in the second half of the movie. In the first half, however, we get to see him as an avuncular, kindly and smart old man, someone we can believe would make a man like Craig become concerned about, and then as a cold-eyed, deliberate and not-so-kind character.
All-in-all, The Prize is a snappy, reasonably fast-paced cold-war adventure, a lot of fun to watch. I enjoy it whenever I see it. I just wish Hitchcock and Grant had made it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: At Least Elke Looks Nice
Comment: It took me years to finally see "The Prize" (1963), although the film had intrigued me since I saw a production still featuring the then radiant (and very young) Elke Sommer. But until I actually viewed "The Prize" I was unaware that this was one of the earliest Hollywood attempts to create a blockbuster. Not because of potential box office (it would take "Jaws" and "Star Wars" to start that revolution), but because the industry at the time felt the only way to successfully differentiate themselves from television was by bundling up a cast of thousands with a whole lot of exotic location shots, and a running time far in excess of anything to be found on the tube (the mini-series had not yet been invented).
This "cast of thousands" includes prospective Nobel prize recipients in Stockholm for the awards presentation. Novelist Andrew Craig (literature-Paul Newman), refugee Max Stratman (physics-Edgar G.), John Garrett and Carlo Farelli (medicine-Keven McCarthy and Sergio Fantoni). Commies (this is the cold war after all) kidnap Stratman, with the aid of his niece, Emily (Diane Baker) who believes this is a way to free her father. Suspension of disbelief is necessary at this point as the premise is that her father is Stratman's identical twin who will take his place and denounce the United States during his acceptance speech (yawn).
Newman is the star and he teams up with a hot Swedish official (Miss Sommer) to foil the Commie plot. The Newman-Sommer stuff is the best part of the film along with a fun performance by Jacqueline Beer, which adds some degree of comic relief. Believe it or not they take 134 minutes to tell this story, which barely has enough interesting story elements for a 50-minute episode of "I Spy".
If you are thinking about watching "The Prize", be prepared for a fair amount of absolute boredom. There have been attempts to compare the film to some of Hitchcock's stuff, particularly "North By Northwest". That is quite a stretch although even "Rear Window" had it's occasional boring moment, so just take the most boring minute in any Hitchcock film and multiply it by 134.
If you are looking for comparisons think Arthur Hailey as the Irving Wallace source material is very similar. Imagine an overlong combination of "The Young Doctors" and "Hotel".
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fun, Hitchcockian Thriller
Comment: A very underrated little Hitchcock knock-off, centered around the kidnapping of a brilliant scientist (Edward G. Robinson) at the time of the Nobel Prize ceremony. Paul Newman is Andrew Craig, a writer and prize winner who was reluctant to even come to the ceremony but becomes embroiled in the international intrigue (which, of course, no one around him believes is actually happening). Light and engaging, with several 'borrowings' from the "North By Northwest" script (which is allowed, I suppose, since they were both written by the same guy). Newman does a strange accent thing that goes in and out, but if you can ignore that it's a lot of fun and features a great cast.
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