Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

A United Artists production. "The Story of a Real and Living Man..." Screenplay by Guy Trosper. Directed by John Frankenheimer. Bird in the hand under the opening credits. Featuring:

Burt Lancaster as Robert Stroud

Karl Malden as Harvey Shoemaker

Thelma Ritter as Elizabeth Stroud

Neville Brand as Bull Ransom

Telly Savalas at Feto Gomez

Edmond O'Brien as Tom Gaddis

Betty Field as Stella Johnson

Tom Gaddis walks up to the pier looking out at Alcatraz. He narrates: "There is a man leaving there today after 17 years imprisonment. His name is Robert Stroud." Forty-three years in solitary confinement. Last time he ate with another man was in 1916.

Gaddis relates the story, starting in 1912. Troublesome convicts being moved from McNeil to Leavenworth. Stroud breaks out a train window for fresh air. When he gets to Leavenworth he meets Warden Harvey Shoemaker, who says he has a bad record. Eighty-six rules to learn. Stroud to serve nine more years for killing a man in Alaska in 1909--the man was beating his friend Katie, a prostitute.

Stroud is very sensitive about his cellmate Anthony picking up his mother's picture. Stroud beats up another man in the laundry for asking about the incident. Stroud calls the Warden "Harvey" as he goes into the hole for 30 days. The guard says he should be put in isolation: "mean as a boar hog." "A dingbat." The warden says he can be shaped up.

When the 30 days are up, he comes out looking unrepentant. He writes his mother a letter on his four year anniversary. Stroud's mother has been to visit and left a fruit basket: they wouldn't let her visit on Saturday. Stroud grabs Kramer, a guard, who tells him he will put him on report.

The band is playing as the men eat in silence in the dining hall. Stroud asks permission to talk with Kramer. He asks Kramer not to write him up, so he can visit his mother on Friday. Kramer says he just follows the rules. Stroud calls him "dog puke." Kramer tries to hit Stroud with his club, and Stroud stabs him to death with a knife (16:30). Warden Shoemaker comes to visit: he says he hopes they hang Stroud.

Stroud has three trials: a mistrial, a life sentence (appealed), then a death sentence. His mother stands in the courtroom to denounce the sentence. She refuses to let him be executed; he says she don't know how to quit. Elizabeth Stroud went to Washington and finally got in to see Woodrow Wilson's wife. Her appeal to Mrs. Wilson is effective. Word comes in on the Leavenworth pipeline in Morse code--Stroud got a commutation to life.

The warden brings the telegram in. "You will regret this," the warden tells him, saying he has to stay in solitary confinement for the rest of his life--no work, no joint activities. Stroud says, "A man ain't whipped until he quits, and I'll never give up." Shoemaker says he'll never forget Stroud; he'll see that Stroud is punished for the rest of his life.

Gaddis narrates the routine of life in solitary (25:30). The monotony of time passing--the same routine. You always know what's coming next.

A guard asks Stroud if he wants anything to read. Stroud declines. One day, walking in the exercise yard in a storm, Stroud finds a baby bird in blown-down nest. The guard tells him to get in out of the rain. He brings the bird with its nest to his cell.

How does one feed a baby bird in solitary? Stroud makes a new nest of a sock. The sparrow keeps chirping, so Stroud mashes up bugs and feeds him with a match stick. Stroud kills bugs all over the place. Soon the bird is full grown. When Stroud puts him on the window sill, the bird refuses to fly away. Stroud tries to get him to leave; he only hops back. The guard says he's yellow. Finally Stroud gets him to fly a few feet to his finger. "Yellow, huh?' he asks the guard.

The new warden comes around. Stroud shows him that Runty can pull a cart and do other tricks, like unlocking a wooden cage. "I've never seen anything like that in my life," the warden says (38:00).

Stroud asks for birdseed, already in at the post office. The warden concurs. Shoemaker gets in his face; he's been promoted to Washington, to plan the new Bureau of Prisons. "Uniformity."

Warden Younger's decision allowed other solitary inmates to order birds. They got lots of canaries. Someone gave Stroud two. Stroud gets an empty bottle from a guard. He cuts it in half to make a water dish. He tries to get a wooden box from a guard. The guard says no, until he gets some manners from Stroud. He wants to be treated like a human being. Stroud says he's right: "I had it coming." He apologizes to the guard--his first apology in 20 years. Stroud gets the box, and cuts it up to make slats.

Another inmate, Feto Gomez, says his bird won't sing: he's sick. He offers the bird to Stroud for a year or so, then he wants him back. Stroud took seven months to make a bird cage. He wants to make another for the baby birds: "new life in prison."

Stroud finally turns Runty loose to live the kind of life outside he never can: gives him a bon voyage speech.

Gomez's bird lays five eggs. We see them start hatching (57:05). Soon Stroud's cell is full of canaries in cages--dozens of birds. Stroud loves his birds.

One day Runty comes back (1:00:00). Stroud calls him a lifer. The canaries are sick, he notices. The birds aren't singing, the guard says. Stroud thinks his birds have septic fever, a virus that is always fatal. There is no literature on treatment.

The birds continue dying--Runty, too. Stroud says he refused to leave.

Feto Gomez has a scene recalling an ugly girlfriend and her parrot: he admits he likes his birds.

Stroud completely washes and sterilizes his cell. He reads and tries different chemical mixtures. The birds keep dying. He tries buffering agents. They still die. Finally he tries citrocarbonate and potassium chlorate. He doses the birds and waits.

The next morning the canaries are singing again. He has found a cure for septic fever. He starts writing articles in bird journals, becomes a well-known figure in the field.

A widow, Mrs. Stella Johnson, comes to prison to bring him a canary--second prize in contest. She wanted to see who "Box 7, Leavenworth, Kansas" was. She has come from Shelbyville, Indiana, through St. Louis to visit. She asks if he would like to sell his bird remedies: Stroud's Specifics. She knows he killed two men. He agrees immediately to form the new company. She decides to move to Leavenworth. He asks to look through her purse (which seems an act of obvious intimacy). We learn his mother is living in Leavenworth, too, which presages conflict between the two women.

Albert Comstock comes to Leavenworth as the new warden. He brings Stroud in to tell him: no pets, no business enterprises. The warden says inmates have too many pets. Sixty days to get rid of the birds. Stroud has been raising birds for eleven years, and doesn't want to give them up.

Stroud decides to generate a publicity campaign to build support for his retention of the birds. His mother and Stella Johnson differ over who his best supporter is. Stroud resolves this by marrying Stella in a made-up personal civil ceremony--front-page news.

Harvey Shoemaker arrives with an offer to let him keep the birds and turn the profits over to the government--with his salary set at $10 a month. The Bureau of Prisons is willing to bend the rules to avoid the bad publicity. "The public has a short memory," Shoemaker tells him, as he leaves to take over Alcatraz (1:29:30).

Stroud's mother comes to visit. She is obviously upset with him, because now Stella comes first. Ma wants to be number one with Robbie again. She blames women for his troubles, like the woman in Alaska. (Is Ma trouble number one, in her own right?) "She only wanted the publicity," Ma says of Stella, probably meaning it was good for business. Stroud is disbelieving. "Give her up, Robbie," Ma says, but instead he turns against Ma. He sees that his mother wants to keep him in prison under her control.

Mrs. Stroud walks home. A reporter asks her about an upcoming parole hearing. She says he is better off in prison: she opposes his release. It makes all the papers. Stroud burns his mother's picture. "As far as I'm concerned she's dead."

Stroud takes his supply of grain alcohol and gets drunk--setting free the birds in his cell while he drinks a "Leavenworth cocktail." When he awakes the guard has brought him a used microscope in a wooden case. He looks through the lens.

Gaddis says the microscope is a lantern for Stroud in his study of birds. He decides to do a complete reference book--Stroud's Digest of the Diseases of Birds. It took seven years to complete.

The warden asks the prison doctor his opinion. The doctor responds that Stroud is a genius. With a third grade education, he has become a scientist. The doctor says if Stroud were paroled he could study human diseases. The warden says he won't get parole because of his attitude: the Bureau views him as a nuisance and a troublemaker.

Stroud meets with Stella. He tells her he has an encouraging letter--a Kansas professor says if he gets out he might get a research grant. Stella is encouraging, and Stroud tells her he'll try to keep the faith.

In the very next scene, the guard brings him a transfer letter: Alcatraz. They're coming to move him, in the middle of the night. He is told to bring only the clothes he is wearing, no birds. Stroud tells the guard to tell Stella not to follow him. He tells the guard to retire on his pension. He walks out of the cell, saying he can use a rest.

Next stop: Alcatraz. He rides over on the boat. Shoemaker is the warden. Stroud is put in segregation, "D" Block; Bob and Harvey meet in a stairwell. Shoemaker walks him down the tier. He tells Stroud he will go into segregation but doesn't have to stay there forever. They shake hands.

Feto Gomez brings the food cart around. They have a good reunion. Feto says the warden isn't such a bad guy. He thinks he might get paroled before he dies. He promises to bring Stroud extra mince pies. Gomez has done 23 years. (Stroud must have done about 34 at this point.)

Stroud plays handball on the yard with Fr. Burns. He says he has a new writing project: the history of the federal prison system from 1790 to 1930, when the Bureau of Prisons was created. We don't see him doing research or writing, but when Stroud returns to his cell one day, Shoemaker is reading the manuscript. (How did Stroud get access to all the historical documents he needed?) Shoemaker says they are going to confiscate his manuscript; it is too critical of the Bureau.

In what appears to be the crucial ideological confrontation between the two men, Stroud argues that his conclusions about penology are valid. Shoemaker is really angry: he asked cooperation but got defiance. "Not once have you ever shown a sign of rehabilitation." Stroud cites the definition in the Latin root habilis: "to invest again with dignity," not to become a rubber-stamp for behavior (2:03:00). (Note: my dictionary says habilis means "suitable," not dignity.)

Stroud maintains that conformity is what Warden Shoemaker wants, robbing prisoners of their individuality. They hate society as a result, and over half return to prison. The warden shows who has the power over ideas: he leaves with the manuscript. (Note: if Stroud is correct, how would we go about rehabilitating prisoners?)

Stroud has a visitor: Stella has come to see him. No contact visit: they talk through glass over the telephone. She wants to move to San Francisco, so she can see him. She says there's still hope. He says forget it, it's the end of the line. "Pretend that I'm a dead man," he tells her. "Go on back to Shelbyville, Indiana, and open up a pet store, specializing in parakeets." He tells her goodbye; they touch hands through the glass (2:10:00).

In May 1946 a prison riot--which is actually an escape attempt--breaks out. Inmates get two guns from the gun gallery and seize control of D Block. They let all the prisoners out of their cells. Stroud returns to his cell amid the riotous confusion. The escape plan fails. The convicts wait.

Military troops attack the block, blasting it with grenades and machine guns. One of the inmate leaders is shot. They ask Stroud for help in treating him. Stroud tells the wounded man he has a serious stomach wound but he'll live. The inmate says he'd rather die than serve his 25 year sentence. Stroud says he can't believe it. When the inmate does die, Stroud remarks that he wasn't hurt that bad. Another inmate says what's wrong with dying: why live in a maggot-pile like this? Stroud says life is too precious a gift: "The first duty of life is to live."

Finally all the leaders are dead. Stroud takes the rifle and pistol and speaks on the PA to Warden Shoemaker. He throws the guns out. He gives his word there are no more guns. Shoemaker believes him--after 35 years together.

Stroud is transferred off the Rock in 1959, six years after Shoemaker dies. Stroud is being sent to the federal prison hospital at Springfield. Interviewed on the pier with Alcatraz in the background, Stroud tells the press: "If you San Franciscans had any civic pride, you's blow that place out of the water."

Stroud meets Gaddis, who had published the book on him in 1955, for the first time. (Why didn't Gaddis interview Stroud? Wouldn't the Bureau have allowed it? Why didn't he call the book, Birdman of Leavenworth, since Stroud never had birds at Alcatraz? Would anyone have known what he meant?)

At age 72, Robert Stroud is in his 53rd year of imprisonment, still being denied parole (2:29:00).