Birdman of Alcatraz **** (1962, Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Telly Savalas) – Classic Movie Review 1438

In director John Frankenheimer’s 1962 classic, Burt Lancaster gives one of his finest performances as the notorious and violent but mild-mannered real-life jailed killer Robert Stroud, who is locked away in Leavenworth Prison in 1912 for murdering a man in Alaska.

But then a guard cancels the visit of his mother Elizabeth Stroud (Thelma Ritter) after a violation of jail rules, and Stroud stabs and kills the guard. Tried three times, he is sentenced to execution but his mother appeals to President Woodrow Wilson, who commutes his sentence to life imprisonment. However, the warden Harvey Shoemaker (Karl Malden) decides to keep Stroud in permanent isolation for the rest of his life.

With the prospect of 60 years in solitary confinement after they virtually threw away the key, things looked bleak, until Stroud finds a sparrow that has fallen from the nest on the yard and raises it till it can fly. And he goes on to find his own personal redemption when he starts raising and caring for birds, and becomes famous as an expert on them. But he is abruptly transferred to Alcatraz, where he is not permitted to keep birds.

Special, often brilliant work in the acting, direction, screenplay and cinematography departments burns this thoughtful, beautifully crafted tale into the memory.

Lancaster was Oscar-nominated as Best Actor, and Thelma Ritter as Best Supporting Actress, Telly Savalas as Best Supporting Actor as fellow con Feto Gomez, and cinematographer Burnett Guffey for Best Black-and-White Cinematography were all also nominated for their outstanding contributions.

Guy Trosper provides the distinguished screenplay from the 1955 book by Thomas E Gaddis, though the true-life story is largely fictionalised, especially apparently in the mild-mannered characterisation of Stroud.

Lancaster met Stroud in February 1963, saying he told him one of the reasons he had been denied parole was he was an ‘admitted homosexual’. Stroud was watched closely by prison guards at Alcatraz due to his gay tendencies. Stroud told Lancaster: ‘I am 73 years old. Does that answer your question about whether I would be a dangerous homosexual?’

The original US version runs 147 minutes but it was cut to 143 minutes.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1438

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/