#1. Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

Storyline: 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.

Plot Keywords: prisoner, warden, guard, mother, wife, moving, touching ...

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#2. Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

Storyline: The true story of three inmates who attempt a daring escape from the infamous prison, Alcatraz Island. Although no one had managed to escape before, bank robber Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) masterminded this elaborately detailed, and, as far as anyone knows, ultimately successful, escape. In twenty-nine years, this seemingly impenetrable federal penitentiary, which housed Al Capone and "Birdman" Robert Stroud, was only broken once by three inmates who were never heard of again.

Plot Keywords: prisoners, warden, brother, gritty, thrilling, alcatraz island, criminal justice system ...

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#3. The Rock (1996)

Storyline: Stanley Goodspeed, who lives in Washington, D.C., is a biochemist who works for the F.B.I. Soon after his fiancée Carla Pestalozzi announces that she is pregnant, Stanley gets a call from F.B.I. Director James Womack. Womack tells Stanley that San Francisco's Alcatraz Island has been taken hostage, along with eighty-one tourists, by Marine General Francis Xavier Hummel who, for years, has been protesting the government's refusal to pay benefits to families of war veterans who died during covert military operations. The death of his wife Barbara on March 9, 1995 drove General Hummel over the edge, and now he's holding hostages in order to get his point across. Stanley is needed because General Hummel has stolen some VX gas warheads and has announced that he will launch them onto San Francisco unless his demands are met. Stanley knows how to disarm the bombs, but he needs someone who knows Alcatraz well enough to get him inside. That man is former British Intelligence Agent John Patrick...

Plot Keywords: renegade, marine, fbi agent, enemy, scientist, thrilling, alcatraz island ...

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#4. Point Blank (1967)

Storyline: Mal Reese is in a real bind - owing a good deal of money to his organized crime bosses - and gets his friend Walker to join him in a heist. It goes off without a hitch but when Reese realizes the take isn't as large as he had hoped, he kills Walker - or so he thinks. Some time later, Walker decides the time has come get his share of the money and starts with his ex-wife Lynne who took up with Reese after the shooting. That leads him on a trail - to his wife's sister Chris, to Reese himself, then onto Big Stegmam, then Frederick Carter and on and up the line of gangsters all in an effort to get money from people who simply won't acknowledge that he's owed anything.

Plot Keywords: thief, traitor, ex-wife, sister, man, bleak, fiery ...

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#5. Murder in the First (1995)

Storyline: Henri Young stole five dollars from a post office and ended up going to prison - to the most famous, or infamous, prison of them all: Alcatraz. He tried to escape, failed, and spent three years and two months in solitary confinement - in a dungeon, with no light, no heat and no toilet. Milton Glenn, the assistant warden, who was given free reign by his duty-shirking superior, was responsible for Young's treatment. Glenn even took a straight razor and hobbled Young for life. After three years and two months, Young was taken out of solitary confinement and put with the rest of the prisoners. Almost immediately, Young took a spoon and stabbed a fellow prisoner in the neck, killing him. Now, Young is on trial for murder, and if he's convicted he'll go to the gas chamber. An eager and idealistic young attorney, James Stamphill, is given this impossible case, and argues before a shocked courtroom that Young had a co-conspirator. The true murderer, he says, was Alcatraz.

Plot Keywords: attorney, warden, convict, guard, sister, prostitute, dark ...

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#6. The Enforcer (1976)

Storyline: Picking up three years after the events in Magnum Force (1973), a threatening terrorist group called "The People's Revolutionary Strike Force" declare war on the city of San Francisco and demand a ransom to be paid, otherwise they plan to blow the city apart. While Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is in limbo following his unorthodox method during a robbery, he's sent to dispatch the terrorist group, by playing their game by being dirtier than ever. But this time, he has a new partner, Inspector Kate Moore (Tyne Daly), which might prove the task to be somewhat more difficult than ever, unless the two can work together.

Plot Keywords: dirty harry callahan, policewoman, mayor, terrorist, partner, vietnam vet, unrestrained ...

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#7. The Last Gangster (1937)

Storyline: Gangster Joe Krozac is in prison for ten years. Reporter Paul North is fired by his newspaper for writing articles sympathetic to Krozac's wife and young son. She divorces Krozac and marries North. When Korzac gets out he goes looking for his former wife and son.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Keywords: gangster, wife, reporter, henchman, brother, son, melodramatic ...

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#8. Malaya (1950)

Storyline: After living abroad for several years, journalist John Royer returns to the United States just after the U.S. enters World War II. His boast that he could easily smuggle rubber, a key wartime natural resource, out of Malaya has him tasked with doing just that. He manages to get someone from his past, Carnaghan, sprung from Alactraz and together they head off to South East Asia posing as Irishmen. Once there, Carnaghan lines up some of his old cronies and with Royer and a few plantation owners plans to smuggle the rubber out from under the Japanese army's watchful eye.—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: journalist, adventurer, editor, government agent, girlfriend, old friend, gritty ...

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#9. Seven Miles From Alcatraz (1942)

Storyline: After Pearl Harbor, convicts at Alcatraz prison live in fear of bomb attacks, driving Champ Larkin and his pal Jimbo to a desperate escape attempt which lands them on a tiny lighthouse island, where they take over. The five inhabitants are stymied in their efforts to summon aid. But the island also figures in the schemes of a big Nazi spy ring; which will win out, the gangsters' greed or their patriotism?—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: convict, gangster, lighthouse keeper, young woman, spy, nazi, suspenseful ...

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