In 1912, the notorious and violent prisoner Robert Franklin Stroud (Burt Lancaster) is transferred to the Leavenworth Prison convicted for murdering a man. When a guard cancels the visit of his mother Elizabeth Stroud (Thelma Ritter) due to a violation of the internal rules, he stabs and kills the guard and goes to trial three times. He is sentenced to be executed by the gallows, but his mother appeals to President Woodrow Wilson that commutes his sentence to life imprisonment. However, the warden Harvey Shoemaker (Karl Malden) decides to keep Stroud in the solitary for the rest of his life.

One day, Stroud finds a sparrow that has fallen from the nest on the yard and he raises the bird until it is strong enough to fly. Stroud finds a motivation for his life raising and caring birds and becomes an expert in birds. He marries Stella Johnson (Betty Field) and together they run a business, providing medicine developed by Stroud. But a few years after, Stroud is transferred to Alcatraz and has to leave his birds behind.

"Birdman of Alcatraz" is an impressive film based on a true story of a prisoner that finds a purpose of life raising and caring birds and becoming a recognized ornithologist by himself. Burt Lancaster has a top-notch performance in the role of Robert Franklin Stroud and the footages with birds are impressive. However, it seems that Stroud did not have the glamour of the character performed by Burt Lancaster and was actually a psychopath. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "O Homem de Alcatraz" ("The Man of Alcatraz")

As evil-incarnate a person Robert Stroud was, he was also an interesting man and interesting enough to warrant a film based on him. Burt Lancaster did have his fair share of great performances, such as 'The Train', and does deserve more credit now. As does director John Frankenheimer as a director, responsible for the masterpiece that is 1962's 'The Manchurian Candidate' and for the equally excellent 'The Train'.

'Birdman of Alcatraz', along with those two, is one of Frankenheimer's best films. It also contains one of Lancaster's best performances. Whether it is believable as a biopic in terms of accuracy is debatable, as it is very loose in this regard, and it is wholly dependent on whether you agree with the significantly less evil way Stroud is portrayed. On its own terms though as an overall film, 'Birdman of Alcatraz' is excellent film-making and up there with the great prison films.

Perfect it isn't, with my only real complaints being the somewhat overlong length, especially in the final act, and finding for my tastes Telly Salvalas too hammy.

Lancaster however is truly marvellous, Stroud is very different to how he was in real life but that is more down to how he is written, and on his own terms he is actually extremely well written here, rather than Lancaster. Who brings a lot of intensity and nuance to the role, was not expecting that for such a part. Karl Malden is another standout, his character is also interesting and Malden brings to him the same qualities Lancaster did for Stroud except with a crueller streak. Thelma Ritter excels in an atypically unsympathetic role, stealing her scenes, and Neville Brand was seldom better.

Frankenheimer's direction is as ever accomplished if not quite as tension filled or as visually innovative of his direction for 'The Train' for example. A big standout in 'Birdman in Alcatraz' too is the quite masterful cinematography, which is brilliantly atmospheric and really captures the claustrophobic and grim nature of prison life. While there may not be any iconic main theme here like for 'The Magnificent Seven' and 'The Great Escape', Elmer Bernstein's score is suitably haunting.

Script is very intelligent and thought-provoking, taut enough while allowing breathing space yet not rambling. Regardless of it playing fast and loose with the facts, the story is still very compelling. It captures prison life's grimness adeptly and is also very moving in places, yet also with degrees of hope. The characters all intrigue and are not stock, really admired the complexity given to Stroud which was not expected at all.

In summary, great film. 9/10

Burt Lancaster received his third Oscar nomination for portraying the real life character of Robert Stroud who when this film was released was still in federal penal custody at what we'd now call a halfway house. The film is based on Robert Gaddis's book about Stroud and his incarceration and it was written to attract publicity to Stroud's effort to become a free man before he died. Edmond O'Brien is Gaddis and he's seen briefly at the beginning and end of the film and he narrates the story.

Knowing all this what you are seeing in Birdman of Alcatraz is Stroud as he would like to have seen himself if in fact he ever saw the film. In real life Stroud was not all that noble a creature. Remember the man did commit a murder to get there and murdered a prison guard while in Leavenworth.

Which leads us to the heart of the story. Even states that don't have capital punishment, make an exception if one kills a corrections officer while incarcerated. It has to be so because what else is to do with them if they're that incorrigible. Corrections Officers go among the prison population without any weapons and they're outnumbered by quite a bit. So when Lancaster kills Crahan Denton the guard, it was the only outcome for him.

Stroud had a determined mother played by Thelma Ritter who wangles an appointment with Edith Bolling Wilson, the First Lady while President Wilson is still suffering the effects of a stroke. Edith to all intents and purposes was the acting President of the United States and Thelma appealed to her woman to woman. President Wilson commuted Lancaster's sentence to life in prison.

Warden Karl Malden however has the say in just how Lancaster will serve his life sentence. It's to be in solitary confinement. But while there he develops an interest in birds after picking up an injured sparrow. Pretty soon he's got himself a regular aviary. And a man with a third grade education became an expert on bird diseases, developed medicines and wrote a book on the subject.

He even marries through a technicality a widow played by Betty Field. When he does marry her, he loses the support of Thelma Ritter however who ceases to advocate for a further commutation of the sentence.

Lancaster's performance is one of his best. The role calls for him to be on screen 95% of the time and he ages from an angry and homicidal convict to a grand old man of the prison. It's I'm sure how Robert Stroud saw himself.

Others paint a less flattering picture of Stroud. The most common thing said by those who didn't like him was that he was an instigator of trouble, but always backed away when it started. His critics would have you believe he probably started the prison riot that we see him ending at Alcatraz.

My two favorites among the supporting cast are Neville Brand who plays the prison guard in solitary who befriends Stroud and Telly Savalas as his fellow con in solitary. These are some of the best work that either of those guys ever did on screen.

It probably didn't help Lancaster's Oscar bid that he had won for Best Actor two years earlier for Elmer Gantry. He lost to Gregory Peck for Best Actor in 1962.

John Frankenheimer's direction is flawless and while it's not the real Robert Stroud, it's a great cinematic achievement.