Ernest Lehman and "The Prize"

Ernest Lehman wrote the screenplay for the 1963 movie The Prize, starring Paul Newman, Elke Sommer, and Edward G. Robinson. While the plot follows activities surrounding a fictional Nobel Prize ceremony, the genre (a spy thriller with a romance B-story) is similar to the 1959 film North by Northwest, which Lehman also wrote. North by Northwest was an original story, while The Prize is based on the novel of the same name by Irving Wallace.

While some have called The Prize derivative of North by Northwest, I'm not sure I will go so far. However, there are a few scenes in each that closely parallel each other. For example, in North by Northwest, Thornhill (played by Cary Grant), to escape being killed by the spies in the room of the Antique Auction, causes a fight and the police are called to arrest him. There is a similar scene in The Prize where Craig (played by Paul Newman) is chased by spies trying to kill him. He escapes into a meeting room of a Swedish nudist society (to be shot in a way that "good taste will prevail", according to Lehman's screenplay). There again, to avoid death at the hands of these spies, he raises a confict requiring the police to come and arrest him.

However, there are some interesting aspects what make The Prize worth studying, and here is one lesson to take away from the screenplay. To set this up, Emily (played by Diane Baker) has taken an interest in Andrew Craig. She has been introduced as the sweet niece of a Nobel prize scientist (played by Edward G. Robinson).

This is how Ernest Lehman describes a secret conversation. At this point, only "Ivar" is known by the audience to be a "bad guy" and likely an enemy spy. So this scene is important to the plot as it reveals to the audience that Emily is not the sweet woman we've been led to believe.

EMILY AND IVAR - ON THE DANCE FLOOR

They dance in silence until they are on the far side
of the floor. Casually, they glance in the direction
of the Berghs’ table. (We will INTERCUT one or two
POV SHOTS from the dance floor. These shots will
indicate that Emily and Ivar know they cannot be
seen, through the intervening dancers, from the table.)
The dance MUSIC is very loud. We will not hear words.
But we will *see* lips moving now. First Emily says 
something to Ivar. He replies at some length. Emily
nods, speaks to him again. He addresses several
sentences to her. She makes a final remark. Then their
lips fall silent and they continue to dance as before.
Throughout this exchange, their faces have been
without expression.
 

For more on Ernest Lehman, read the excellent book "Ernest Lehman: The Sweet Smell of Success" by Jon Krampner.

Favorite rom coms

I'm not an expert on this genre, but I've watched my share of them and here are my favorite rom coms, in no particular order.

• Perhaps my favorite movie of all time: His Girl Friday. This is in the public domain and can be found in several places, including youtube. I've raved about it lots of times on this blog, for example, here.
• Almost any Preston Sturges movie (where he's the writer/director). I'm going to put one of the most obscure ones, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. I think it's in the public domain (in the US) because of some copyright law error, so might be available free on youtube. See also this review for more details on which this is such a wonderful movie.
  
• Not because it's super-romantic, but because it's such a great movie: Groundhog Day!
• Among several possible Billy Wilder movies, I'll pick two: Sabrina (co-written by Ernest Lehman, who's appeared elsewhere on this blog, for example here) and The Apartment
• IMHO, this is a no-brainer: The Big Sick. So funny, so very touching. Reminds me of the touching bromance Funny People.
• Hitchcock did only one movie that is purely rom com (Mr and Mrs Smith, 1941), but the thriller masterpiece North by Northwest has enough rom com elements, that I'm including it on this list.

If you haven't seen these, check them out!

Frank Daniel's 5 essential elements of a "good story well-told"

Frank Daniel (1926–1996) was a screenwriter, film producer, screenwriting teacher and mentor to many, including David Lynch, Miloš Forman, and Terrance Malick. He is the originator of the "eight sequence method" for outlining a screenplay.

"I am sorry to say he died not long ago, and I have to tell you that he was my only teacher. He gave much to other people, he helped many people. He was a noble-minded and non-egoistic man, and no one understood the art of film-making as he did. He understood it and truly loved it – his criticism was always constructive and never purposely offended anybody. He was open about saying what he didn't like, but he did it in a way that would help you. And that cannot be said about most of the critics in USA. I am very sorry he is not here." — David Lynch

In D. Howard and E. Mabley's book The Tools of Screenwriting, Daniels gives his essential elements of "a good story well told"

1. The story is about somebody with whom we have some empathy.
2. This somebody wants something very badly.
3. This something is diffcult, but possible to do, get, or achieve.
4. The story is told for maximum emotional impact and audience participation in the proceedings.
5. The story must come to a satisfactory ending (which does not necessarily mean a happy ending).