Blu-ray Release: Birdman of Alcatraz

Blu-ray Release Date: Nov. 11, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time


Birdman of Alcatraz

Burt Lancaster is the Birdman of Alcatraz.

The 1962 prison drama Birdman of Alcatraz stars Burt Lancaster (Twilight’s Last Gleaming) and was directed by John Frankenheimer (Seconds, The Train).

The classic film is a largely fictionalized version of the life of Robert Stroud, a surly federal prison inmate convicted of murder who is held in permanent isolation. Stroud adopts an orphaned baby sparrow as a pet…and then another…and then many, many others. He ultimately redeems himself by becoming a renowned bird expert who others refer to as the “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

Interestingly, despite the film’s title, much of the action is set at Leavenworth where Stroud was jailed with his birds.

Adapted by Guy Trosper from the 1955 book by Thomas Gaddis, the film also stars Telly Savalas (The Slender Thread) and Thelma Ritter (Boeing Boeing). Both were nominated for Academy Awards for their Supporting roles, joining Best Actor nominee Lancaster and Diretor of Photography Burnett Guffey for Best Cinematography.

As supplier Twilight Time prints up only 3,000 copies of each title, the time to pre-order your Blu-ray discs directly from distributor Screen Archives NOW!

About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.