BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ

I'm pretty sure that when I first heard of the 1962 film BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ, my overactive young imagination conjured up various scenarios, none of which were true.

First, "Birdman" sounds a lot like "Wolfman". Him, I knew about. So I naturally assumed that this film was about a were-bird of some kind, a hideous half-man, half-bird creature. With a title like this, it had to be a horror film, right?

If not that, then perhaps it was about a costumed superhero, you know like Batman. A masked crime fighter, maybe with the ability to fly, who lived in some place called "Alcatraz." No?

When I finally found out what "Alcatraz" was (a place I eventually visited in 1994), I figured, oh, this guy builds a pair of mechanical wings and escapes from prison by flying over the walls. Nope.

Of course, none of those six-year-old me fantasies proved correct. What BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ turned out to be is a remarkable true story, brought to life by a terrific cast, a literate screenplay and assured direction by a mid-century master American filmmaker.

Let's start with the supporting cast for a change. Consider this line-up: Karl Malden, as an evil warden (Malden also played a vicious bad guy in Marlon Brando's ONE EYED JACKS (1961), one of my favorite Westerns, by the way), tough guy Neville Brand, who usually played thugs and crooks, as a sympathetic prison guard, Telly Savalas (with some hair!), as a fellow prisoner and veterans Hugh Marlowe (another warden) and Whit Bissell (a doctor) in small but important roles.

Towering above them all is the magnificent Burt Lancaster as Robert Stroud, the real prisoner who gained the name "Birdman of Alcatraz" through a lifetime of studying birds while behind bars. Technically, Stroud did the bulk of his research while imprisoned (for life) at Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. When he was eventually transferred to Alcatraz, he wasn't allowed to take any of his animals with him. Nonetheless, by that time he had become a much renowned expert on various avian diseases. But despite his knowledge and fame outside of prison walls, he was never released from prison and spent the rest of his life behind bars.

Based on the book by Thomas E. Gaddis (played in the film by Edmond O'Brien, who also serves as narrator), Guy Trosper's screenplay is a measured, compelling examination of a man shut off from society who finds solace and redemption through his study of the animal world. John Frankenheimer's direction is masterful and the performances are all uniformly first rate.

But it's Lancaster who owns this film. His performance is dazzling, a brilliant transformation of a man who starts off angry at the world only to eventually become a noble, heroic figure. Lancaster manages to dial down his usual swagger and larger-than-life screen persona to depict Stroud as a bent, but never broken, man.

BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ earned four Academy Award nominations: Best Actor (Lancaster), Best Supporting Actor (Savalas), Best Supporting Actress (Thelma Ritter, as Stroud's mother) and Best Black and White Cinematography.

Highest Recommendation.