Bargain Birdman of Alcatraz

Burt Lancaster offers up a bravura effort in this highly fictionalized biographical portrait of Robert Stroud, the hardcase federal inmate who, in 1920, took up bird care as a hobby in Leavenworth (despite the title) and spent a life sentence in prison becoming a self-taught-and eminent-ornithologist. Remarkable study co-stars Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Betty Field, Telly Savalas, Edmond O’Brien; John Frankenheimer directs. 149 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: English.