Birdman of Alcatraz

TCM's Dave Karger introduces Birdman Of Alcatraz, 1962.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces Birdman Of Alcatraz, 1962.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces Birdman Of Alcatraz, 1962.

Already jailed at Leavenworth for one murder, after killing a prison guard who helped prevent his mother’s visit, title character Burt Lancaster is visited by warden Shoemaker (Karl Malden), then Edmond O’Brien’s narration, then the first appearance as Thelma Ritter as mother Elizabeth, in The Birdman Of Alcatraz, 1962.

First a recorded Alcatraz tour promotion, then Edmond O’Brien, playing Tom Gaddis, who wrote the underlying book, unusually, addressing the camera, as we meet the title character (Burt Lancaster as Robert Stroud), and tough warden Shoemaker (Karl Malden), opening John Frankenheimer’s The Birdman Of Alcatraz, 1962.

Now sentenced to life in solitary at Leavenworth, things look bleak for Stroud (Burt Lancaster), observed by guard Ransom (Neville Brand), when a storm delivers the first bird he would adopt, in John Frankenheimer’s fact-based The Birdman Of Alcatraz, 1962.

Burt Lancaster stars as Robert Stroud, the prison lifer who became an expert on birds in Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), featuring a music score by Elmer Bernstein.