Produced and directed by Don Siegel. Screenplay by Richard Tuggle, based on the book by J. Campbell Bruce. Rebuilt Alcatraz for the movie set. Featuring:

Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris

Patrick McGoohan as the Warden

Jack Thibeau as Clarence Anglin

Fred Ward as John Anglin

Roberts Blossom as Doc

Paul Benjamin as English

Frank Ronzio as Litmus

January 18, 1960. San Francisco, California. Heavy rain falling. Shot of San Francisco Bay. Frank Morris is loaded on a boat for the crossing to Alcatraz. Moved inside the prison. No dialogue yet, for first five minutes.

Morris gets a very close physical. He is walked down the tier naked. "Welcome to Alcatraz," the guard says, as the cell door closes, lightning flashing through the block.

Out for chow the next day. No forks. Another big inmate is making eyes at Morris. Litmus feeds spaghetti to his pet mouse. Litmus--his name comes from his complexion, red or blue.

The Warden sends for Morris. "Frank Lee Morris." Orientation speech. "If you disobey the rules of prison, they send you to us... Inmates have no say in what they do... Work is a privilege." Morris can't think of any visitors who might come to see him. The Warden says, "We don't make good citizens, but we make good prisoners." (16:00)

Morris is an escape artist. All the rotten eggs in one basket. No successful escapes from Alcatraz, the Warden says. (The basic conflict is established.) The file says Morris's IQ is superior. Morris steals the warden's fingernail clipper and hides it in the back of his Bible.

Shower time. Wolf introduces himself. "I'm looking for a new punk." Morris punches him and knocks him down in response.

Morris temporarily assigned to the library to work. A black inmate, English, tells him about killing two men in a bar in Alabama. (So why is he doing time in a federal prison?)

Morris delivers books and magazines down the tier. On the yard, he sees Doc painting. Doc puts mums as his signature in every painting. Doc warns him about Wolf.

Morris joins a black convict sitting on a bleacher step. The convict tells him how difficult it is to escape--steel and security, solid rock, a mile swim through cold water, 12 counts a day, one long count.

Morris is assigned a permanent job in the carpentry shop, at 15 cents an hour. "I always knew crime would pay," he says (28:50).

Litmus tells Morris about the ventilator shafts overhead. Wolf comes at Morris with a knife; Morris fends him off. Guards fire warning shots. Both men are put in D Block. Morris gets hosed down with a fire hose. "Warden doesn't like inmates fighting." Morris cowering, not exactly a figure of strength and resistance to the system. He is put back in his cell.

Morris meets his new next-door neighbor, Charley Butts. On the yard, Litmus introduces himself as Al Capone.

The Warden finds Doc's paintings, including one with an unflattering likeness of himself. He orders Doc's painting privileges taken away. The paintings are removed. In the carpentry shop, Doc is acting strange, Morris thinks. Doc takes a hatchet and cuts off the fingers of his left hand (43:05). The guard falls down in shock. Morris picks up Doc's fingers and gives them to the guard: "Here, put that in your report." English tells Morris that the Warden took away Doc's painting privileges. The Warden calls it an accident, says Doc should have been more careful with his paintings.

Morris meets the Anglin brothers in the chow hall. They were in Atlanta together. They speculate about busting out. Morris starts picking at the grill over his vent with his nail clippers.

In conversation, it comes out that Morris doesn't know his birthday. "What kind of childhood did you have?" Charley Butts asks. "Short." Butts gets a woman visitor, who tells him his mother is dying. Butts tells Morris he wants in on any escape plan.

Morris tells the Anglins and Butts about his escape plan (56:00). They're in. Morris starts digging in the corroding concrete. He steals a spoon from the dining hall to dig with. He files down a dime to make the solder for an improved digging tool.

Morris almost gets caught digging at the grill. (Don't the guards shake down the cells often?) He finally exposes the entire grill and knocks it out, using a wedge stolen from the carpentry shop. He now has access to the ventilator shafts.

The other three are in on the escape plan. Morris makes a fake grill cover. The others starts work on their own grills. Butts starts painting, so he can have colors for the dummy masks they are making. They put the masks together, using hair from the barbershop. Morris goes exploring in the ventilator shaft (1:14:00). At the top is another barred grill, out of reach.

Morris has taken up playing the accordion. He steals a fan from the music room to use as a drill motor, and a pen knife from the doctor. He and one of the Anglins go up top to drill through the shaft cover to the roof.

Litmus has a heart attack and dies in the dining room in front of the Warden, who uses the death to remind the men that many men will not get out of Alcatraz alive.

They're going out Tuesday night. The guard comes around the shake down Morris's cell. The Warden looks right at the fake grill but doesn't notice.

When Wolf threatens Morris, the men decide to move the escape up a day. Wolf tries to get close enough to stab Morris on the yard, but English diverts him.

Morris and the Anglin brothers get on top of the prison. Butts chickens out. They get their equipment on the roof. The searchlight is playing around, harbor noise in the background. Finally Butts calms down and tries to catch up. The others get over the fence and down to the water. They blow up their raincoat life preservers and take to the water (1:45:40).

Inside, Butts gives up and goes back to his cell, where the guard finds him the next morning. The guard has come to get Morris to move him to another cell. "Get up, Morris, it's moving day." He discovers the dummy head and sounds the alarm.

A helicopter delivers the Warden to Angel Island. Did the escapees drown? The Warden wants to think so, but then he finds a chrysanthemum, which doesn't grow on the island. He throw the mum back into the water. No trace of the three men was ever found. Alcatraz was closed less than a year later (1:50:00). Dummy head under the closing credits.