The Prize was made into a motion picture in 1963. Directed by Mark Robson, it starred Paul Newman, Diane Baker, Edmund G. Robinson, and Elke Sommer. The film was a commercial success, although most critics gave it two-and-a- half stars: not bad but no better than average.

Working in the Alfred Hitchcock tradition of a thriller, the movie departs from the novel in significant ways. It increases the comedy and the adventure. Andrew Craig is no longer alcoholic, guilt-ridden or suffering from writer's block; instead he is the adventurous author of pseudonymous detective fiction who discovers and exposes the East German plot against Max Stratman. In the film the Communists successfully plant a double for the scientist who makes propaganda speeches against the United States until Craig's derring-do exposes the deception.