Birdman of Alcatraz Page #2

Synopsis: In 1912, the notorious and violent prisoner Robert Franklin Stroud is transferred to the Leavenworth Prison convicted for murdering a man. When a guard cancels the visit of his mother, Elizabeth Stroud, due to a violation of the internal rules, he stabs and kills the guard and goes to trial three times. He is sentenced to be executed by the gallows, but his mother appeals to President Woodrow Wilson who commutes his sentence to life imprisonment. However, the warden, Harvey Shoemaker, decides to keep Stroud in solitary for the rest of his life. One day, Stroud finds a sparrow that has fallen from the nest in the yard and he raises the bird until it is strong enough to fly. Stroud finds a motivation for his life raising and caring for birds and becomes an expert in birds. He marries Stella Johnson and together they run a business, providing medicine developed by Stroud. But a few years after, Stroud is transferred to Alcatraz and has to leave his birds behind.
Production: MGM Home Entertainment
  Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 8 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.8
Rotten Tomatoes:
82%
NOT RATED
Year:
1962
147 min
570 Views


I just came from Kramer's widow.

I couldn't look her in the eye, Stroud.

I feel responsible for her husband's death.

He warned me about you.

He told me you were dangerous,

but I wouldn't listen.

And how he's cold in his grave.

You've taken the lives of two people

and haven't felt a twinge of conscience.

What do you want me to do?

Cry? Say I'm sorry?

I'm only sorry for Kramer's wife.

- And the dead man?

- He was fixing to brain me with his club.

I protected myself.

No remorse, huh?

No pity. Just an animal.

Ain't that what these cages are for?

Animals?

I have to make out a report

about this killing.

I hope it'll help to hang you.

Stroud had three trials.

The first one was declared a mistrial.

In the second, he was sentenced

to life imprisonment.

He appealed and was granted a third trial.

On June 28, 1918,

he heard the final verdict.

Therefore it is now by the court

considered, ordered and adjudged

that you be remanded to the custody of

the warden of Leavenworth penitentiary

and kept in solitary confinement there

until the 8th day of November, 1918,

and then and there be hanged

by the neck until you are dead.

No!

This sentence is unspeakable!

You call this justice?

You don't even know

the meaning of the word, sir.

Forget it. It's "Katy bar the door" for me.

I'm done.

Sit down, Robbie.

Sit down.

Look, Ma, you fought,

you spent all your money,

you got old followin' me from jail to jail.

It's time to douse the lights.

I told you before, Robbie,

I will not let them kill you.

I'm going to Washington DC very soon.

- I haven't begun to fight.

- Time's up.

You just don't know how to quit,

do you, Ma?

Did you think Mother was gonna

let them hurt my Robbie?

Carrying a petition for clemency,

Elizabeth Stroud doggedly haunted

the offices of Washington officials,

in an effort to gain an audience

with the president of the United States.

Finally, she managed to see

Senator Ham Lewis.

He reminded her

of the president's grave illness.

Grasping at straws,

she pleaded with the senator

to make an appointment for her

with the president's wife.

Reluctantly, he agreed.

Tell me, Mrs Stroud, why do you think

the president should intervene?

Mrs Wilson, the president is known

as the symbol of compassion

throughout the whole world.

I'm sure that deep in his heart

he doesn't believe in the brutality

of an eye for an eye.

I've never seen your husband,

but I've seen pictures of him.

He has the face of a man

who has known great suffering.

I think he'd understand what it means

to have the pack yapping at his heels.

Mrs Wilson, they've turned on

your husband in his fight for peace.

- They've broken his heart.

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Guy Trosper

Guy Trosper (March 27, 1911 – December 19, 1963) was an American screenwriter. He came to prominence in Hollywood because of his scripts for two baseball movies: The Stratton Story in 1949, a big hit for James Stewart, and The Pride of St. Louis in 1952, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. This led him into a highly fertile creative period, during which he wrote the screenplays for Elvis Presley's breakout hit Jailhouse Rock in 1957, the complex western One-Eyed Jacks in 1961, and Birdman of Alcatraz in 1962, which he also produced. Trosper's last screenplay before his premature death was an adaptation of John le Carré's 1963 novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The film was released in 1965; Trosper (posthumously) and co-writer Paul Dehn received a 1966 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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