CATCH A CLASSIC

Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) TCM, 9 p.m.

Best Actor Oscar nominee Burt Lancaster is mesmerizing in this highly fictionalized 1962 biographical portrait of Robert Stroud, the hard-case federal inmate who, in 1920, took up bird care as a hobby while he was sentenced to solitary confinement at Leavenworth Prison, where he was allowed to keep birds (when Stroud was later moved to Alcatraz, he was not allowed to keep them). Whether with or without birds at hand, Stroud spent a life sentence in prison becoming a self-taught — and eminent — ornithologist. John Frankenheimer directed this remarkable study, which co-stars Karl Malden, Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Thelma Ritter, Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Telly Savalas, Neville Brand and Edmond O’Brien. Birdman of Alcatraz is the centerpiece of this evening’s lineup of Lancaster classics; preceding it is Trapeze (1956), a drama set under the big top co-starring Gina Lollobrigida and in which the actor put his skills as a former circus acrobat to use. Following Birdman are Brute Force (1947), a film noir that was Lancaster’s second movie and which also features Hume Cronyn; Seven Days in

EVERETT COLLECTION May (1964), John Frankenheimer’s political thriller co-starring Kirk Douglas, Fredric March and Ava Gardner; and The Crimson Pirate (1952), a comedy/adventure swashbuckler.