Birdman of Alcatraz

“Inside the rock called Alcatraz they tried to chain a volcano they called 'The Bird Man'!”

Robert Stroud (Burt Lancaster) killed a prison guard and now faces life in solitary confinement, with nothing to do but wait out the hours. He wants a living creature to look after, and finds one in the exercise yard: a baby sparrow, helpless, which he nurses back to health. John Frankenheimer follows Stroud and his mother Elizabeth (Thelma Ritter), whose visits and fierce loyalty are the one tie he has left to the outside.