Rex’s Film Reviews … Bird Man of Alcatraz

Starring Burt Lancaster in the role of Alcatraz lifer Robert Stroud, this film is based on the true story of a murderer who at first is to be hanged (he goes in to Leavenworth prison in 1819.), until his mother pleads to Washington all the way to the president to stay the executioner’s hand. Her ploy works, and Mr. Stroud’s life is spared, however he still gets a life sentence for murdering someone while inside prison, this time one of the guards that rub him the wrong way catches a shank to the chest in the mess hall. Faced with life in prison doled out by the warden (Karl Malden), Stroud continues to lash out at everyone around him until one rainy afternoon in the courtyard, he notices a birds nest in a broken branch on the ground. He nurses this baby sparrow back to health, and then goes on to becoming an internationally renowned expert on birds and their diseases. Telly Savalas, or Kojak as most people remember from Television, co-stars as Stroud’s chatty prison neighbor, who “loans” Robert Stroud two canaries to care for for a year. Running at 2hrs. and 29 minutes, and was released in 1962, however this film has the feel of a much older period in time. You see everyone’s age progression throughout the film with the help of Hollywood makeup FX. Oscar-nominated in at least two different categories for its portrayal of real events.