Birdman of Alcatraz on Arte: Burt Lancaster and his passion for birds

In Birdman of Alcatraz, John Frankenheimer tells the story of a life behind bars through an unexpected passion: the study of birds. Arte is showing this 1962 drama, in which Burt Lancaster plays Robert Stroud, a prisoner serving a life sentence after two murders.

Imprisoned in Leavenworth, Kansas, Stroud takes in a sparrow and learns how to care for it. This event leads to a breeding operation, research and the writing of ornithology treatises. The story follows this work, carried out in a prison cell, before the prisoner is transferred to Alcatraz.

Known in its original version as Birdman of Alcatraz, the film is adapted from Thomas E. Gaddis’s biography by screenwriter Guy Trosper. Burnett Guffey’s black-and-white cinematography accompanies this story, with Karl Malden as the prison warden and Thelma Ritter as Stroud’s mother.

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