Drama based on a true story, starring Burt Lancaster and Karl Malden. Convicted murderer Robert Stroud narrowly escapes execution when he kills a guard during a prison struggle. Placed in solitary confinement, Stroud's life is changed when a sick bird flies into his cell and he sets about healing it with homemade medicine.
Real-life killer Robert Stroud was apparently quite unlike the tough, taciturn inmate portrayed by Burt Lancaster here in director John Frankenheimer's thought-provoking study of one man's attempt to survive an unforgiving prison system. Stroud used his years in solitary confinement to become a world authority on ornithology, despite the cruel injustices meted out by the prison warden (convincingly played by Karl Malden). Lancaster was Oscar-nominated for his performance, which is ranked by many to be one of the finest of his career. He is well supported by fellow nominees Telly Savalas and Thelma Ritter, and by Streets of San Francisco star Malden. Burnett Guffey's masterly black-and-white photography perfectly captures the claustrophobia of life in jail.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Robert Stroud | Burt Lancaster |
| Harvey Shoemaker | Karl Malden |
| Elizabeth Stroud | Thelma Ritter |
| Stella Johnson | Betty Field |
| Bull Ransom | Neville Brand |
| Tom Gaddis | Edmond O'Brien |
| Roy Comstock | Hugh Marlowe |
| Feto Gomez | Telly Savalas |
| Kramer | Crahan Denton |
| Jess Younger | James Westerfield |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | John Frankenheimer |
