Sweet Smell of the Sixties

Haven't seen John Boorman's Point Blank in at least a decade but it's just as stunning as I remember a sleek, stylish 60's revenge thriller that's become a template for plenty of films since. Nowadays it makes me think of Seijun Suzuki's gangster films from around the same time all sharp suits, concrete architecture and stoney faces.

The Prize is a comedic Hitchcockian thriller about a drunken author, played by Paul Newman, who wins a Nobel Prize and on attending proceedings accidentally gets himself rolled up in some East/West espionage shenanigans. The script is quick, full of wit and the action well handled if a little slight but it all crackles along with plenty of brio. You could fault it for it's formulaic plot (Lehman also wrote North By Northwest) but to be honest the quality is so high it doesn't really matter, all in all it's a nicely shot, well acted thriller done with that seemingly effortless 60's panache that it makes you wonder why so few film makers today are capable of producing anything near it.