Bennett, Breen, and the Birdman of Alcatraz: A case study of collaborative censorship between the production code administration and the federal bureau of prisons

Eldridge, David

Abstract

In bringing to the screen the life of murderer Robert Stroud in Birdman of Alcatraz (United Artists, 1962), filmmakers encountered official obstruction from the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, James V. Bennett. Campaigning for the release of Stroud, Burt Lancaster retaliated by exposing Bennett’s efforts to censor the film as evidence of a personal vendetta against the prisoner. However, new archival research demonstrates how the Bureau had collaborated with Hollywood’s own censorship body, the Production Code Administration, for many years - and that Birdman was in fact the culmination of a decades-long struggle to control all films about Alcatraz.

Citation

Eldridge, D. (2016). Bennett, Breen, and the Birdman of Alcatraz: A case study of collaborative censorship between the production code administration and the federal bureau of prisons. Film History, 28(2), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.2979/filmhistory.28.2.02

• Journal Article Type: Review
• Acceptance Date: May 7, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jun 17, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 27, 2022
• Journal: Film History
• Print ISSN: 0892-2160
• Electronic ISSN: 1553-3905
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1-31
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/filmhistory.28.2.02
• Keywords: Birdman of Alcatraz
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/439826
• Additional Information: This is the preprint of an article accepted for publication in Film History, 2016.