The Birdman of Alcatraz
1962, NR, 143 min.
Directed by John Frankenheimer, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Neville Brand, Telly Savalas, Edmond O’Brien.

Burt Lancaster gives an outstanding performance as prisoner Robert Stroud, who, during his 53-year imprisonment, became a world authority on birds. The movie gives a sense of the enormous span of time this man spent in jail and it is undoubtedly one of Frankenheimer’s most meditative films.

This article appears in July 23 • 1999 (Cover).

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.