I Want to Live!

Rating:
Summary: I WANT AN OSCAR!...
Review: A memorable film from the 50's based allegedly on the true story of a woman named Barbara Graham who went to the gas chamber for a murder she swore she didn't commit. As played by Susan Hayward (who won an Oscar), Graham is a party girl and sometime thief/prostitute involved with some very shady small time crooks. An old woman is robbed and killed in the process and the crooks let Graham take the rap. Graham is also the mother of a small child---an angle played up in the press as she waves her son's toy tiger at the cameras. What sticks in your mind, though, are the scenes where she's back and forth from her death row cell to the gas chamber as she waits anxiously for a stay from the governor. These scenes are nerve-racking and make me cry when I watch this movie. Hayward is vivid and believable in these scenes as she is throughout the movie. I recommend this film for people who like watching stellar performances in off-beat films. A fine b&w case study of crime, psychodrama and powerful acting. Don't pass this one up.

Rating:
Summary: Bravado Performance Heightens Intense Drama
Review: Barbara Graham was a known prostitute with criminal associates. In the early 1950s, Graham and two men were accused of and arrested for the brutal murder of elderly Mable Monahan during the course of a robbery. Convicted and sentenced to death in California's gas chamber, Graham protested her innocence to the end--and many considered that she was less a criminal than a victim of circumstance and that she had been railroaded to conviction and execution. The celebrated 1958 film I WANT TO LIVE follows this point of view, presenting Graham as a thoroughly tough gal who in spite of her background was essentially more sinned against than sinner, and the result is an extremely intense, gripping film that shakes its viewers to the core.

The film has a stark, realistic look, an excellent script, a pounding jazz score, and a strong supporting cast--but it is Susan Hayward's legendary performance that makes the film work. She gives us a Graham who is half gun moll, half good time girl, and tough as nails all the way through--but who is nonetheless likeable, perhaps even admirable in her flat rebellion against a sickeningly hypocritical and repulsively white-bread society. Although Hayward seems slightly artificial in the film's opening scenes, she quickly rises to the challenge of the role and gives an explosive performance as notable for its emotional hysteria as for its touching humanity.

As the story moves toward its climax, the detail with which director Wise shows preparations for execution in the gas chamber and the intensity of Hayward's performance add up to one of the most powerful sequences in film history. Ironically, Hayward privately stated that her own research led her to believe that Graham was guilty as sin--and today most people who have studied the case tend to believe that Graham was guilty indeed. But whether the real-life Barbara Graham was innocent or guilty, this is a film that delivers one memorable, jolting, and very, very disturbing ride. Strongly recommended, but not for the faint of heart.

Rating:
Summary: Bravado Performance Heightens Intense Drama
Review: Barbara Graham was a known prostitute with criminal associates. In the early 1950s, Graham and two men were accused of and arrested for the brutal murder of elderly Mable Monahan during the course of a robbery. Convicted and sentenced to death in California's gas chamber, Graham protested her innocence to the end--and many considered that she was less a criminal than a victim of circumstance and that she had been railroaded to conviction and execution. The celebrated 1958 film I WANT TO LIVE follows this point of view, presenting Graham as a thoroughly tough gal who in spite of her background was essentially more sinned against than sinner, and the result is an extremely intense, gripping film that shakes its viewers to the core.

The film has a stark, realistic look, an excellent script, a pounding jazz score, and a strong supporting cast--but it is Susan Hayward's legendary performance that makes the film work. She gives us a Graham who is half gun moll, half good time girl, and tough as nails all the way through--but who is nonetheless likeable, perhaps even admirable in her flat rebellion against a sickeningly hypocritical and repulsively white-bread society. Although Hayward seems slightly artificial in the film's opening scenes, she quickly rises to the challenge of the role and gives an explosive performance as notable for its emotional hysteria as for its touching humanity.

As the story moves toward its climax, the detail with which director Wise shows preparations for execution in the gas chamber and the intensity of Hayward's performance add up to one of the most powerful sequences in film history. Ironically, Hayward privately stated that her own research led her to believe that Graham was guilty as sin--and today most people who have studied the case tend to believe that Graham was guilty indeed. But whether the real-life Barbara Graham was innocent or guilty, this is a film that delivers one memorable, jolting, and very, very disturbing ride. Strongly recommended, but not for the faint of heart.

Rating:
Summary: Catered Susan Hayward movie
Review: I can't believe I'm the only one to give this a negative review. There was only one reason this movie was made and that was to give the oscar to Susan. Daring prison drama hardly! Hayward screams, whines, and jumps on her cot for two hours. The movie is also very dated.

Rating:
Summary: Catered Susan Hayward movie
Review: I can't believe I'm the only one to give this a negative review. There was only one reason this movie was made and that was to give the oscar to Susan. Daring prision drama hardly! Hayward screams, whines, and jumps on her cot for two hours. The movie is also very dated.

Rating:
Summary: The film that changed my attitude!
Review: I feel that many cold-blooded criminals that're in jail probably deserve the death penalty, but when we can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they actually did the crime, then it's time to admit a mistake & let the falsely accused go free! This is a prime example of criminal justice gone wrong. The heartbreaking true story of Barbara Graham, who was wrongfully executed for a grisly murder she didn't commit. I knew the story before watching this, yet up to the very end I kept on hoping that Barbara, brilliantly played by Susan Hayward, would be granted another trial to prove her innocence. The tension is almost as unbearable for the viewer as it is for poor Barbara as she counts the hours & finally minutes before her execution. I'll admit, early in the movie it's difficult to sympathize with someone so amoral, but by the time she's pleading for her life we all feel terrible about her situation. I haven't seen many of Susan Hayward's movies, but her performance in this (which won her an oscar) is equal to anything Bette Davis or Joan Crawford ever did (& that's saying a lot!). If you're looking for a great Susan Hayward film, you've found it! This powerful film convinced me that the death penalty is not the best way to deal out justice. Consider Charles Manson: Now of course he deserves to die, but don't you also think he deserves to rot in jail the rest of his life? Whatever your current opinion about the death penalty, I gurantee this movie will make you think twice!

Rating:
Summary: Great film, just a few BIG inaccuracies...
Review: I love this film, in part b/c I have a preference for gritty, dark drama and the "underworld", even though I have no inclination to experience it in real life. The music in this film kicks major tail and adds much to the film; I just ordered the CD today. I don't think you'll find a more realistic filming of the death chamber preparation than this one. The actors who play Perkins and Santo, the other two people convicted and exucuted for the Mabel Monahan murder, are dead ringers for the real people. Susan Hayward succeeds in bringing out the many sides of the real Barbara's personality.

About the inaccuracies...Some of the reviewers here obviously were taken in by the film's implication that Barbara was innocent. She, in fact, was every bit as guilty as Perkins and Santo. She was also a laudanam and heroin addict, contrary to the film script, and had abandoned her (fourth) husband AND her (third) son before the murder ever took place, not afterwards. The film shows her being tailed by informants after leaving her son at his grandmother's; she had actually been out scoring drugs. The apprehension of Perkins, Santo and Babs took place in the early morning, without being a media or spectator event, and the police busted down the apartment door to find the trio engaged in a menage a troi that was far too scandalous for viewers in 1958. Ditto the fact that Babs carried on a lesbian affair with one of the other female inmates, the same one who introduced her to the undercover cop she tried to use as an alibi.

As for the crime itself? The story told by the first witness for the prosecution was the real version: Babs had been the one to knock on the door and convince Monahan to let them in, pretending their car wouldn't start, and had helped to pistol-whip and gag her. There was also another witness who confessed to police, and was never seen from again. Even though his testamony couldn't therefore, be used in court, it was identical to that of the other witness, who turned state's evidence to avoid being prosecuted. The film DOES get right the fact that Babs bribed what turned out to be an undercover cop into being her alibi, but who had been hired to get a confession out of her.

It's perfectly fine to want to make a film that questions the validity of the death penalty. Just don't take a real-life crime story, where there was no doubt as to the guilt of ANY of the people executed for the crime, and change well-documented facts to suggest otherwise.

It's still a great story and a great film that you won't forget easily.

Rating:
Summary: I saw the original movie with Susan Heyward in it.
Review: I saw this movie about 8 times,I can't get enough of it. This was a real tear-jerker.It was very sad but very touching.I did't like the ending as it made me cry like a baby, I mean really cry!!

Rating:
Summary: Unforgetable
Review: I saw this movie for the first time when I was in high school. I have never seen another movie which moved me more or stayed in me like this film. I have admired Susan Hayward ever since and have yet to find another actress who can come close to her talent. "I Want To Live" will always be at the top of my favorites list.

Rating:
Summary: fantastic drama, a tour-de-force by Hayward
Review: I WANT TO LIVE is a stunning film starring the amazing Susan Hayward in her Oscar-winning triumph. Director Robert Wise (THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE SAND PEBBLES, STAR!) gives us an unforgettable film noir classic.

The film tells the true story of convicted murderess Barbara Graham (Susan Hayward - TAP ROOTS, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS) who was sentenced to the gas chamber for her part in the robbery and murder of an elderly lady. Professing her innocence right up to the end, Barbara is a sly, sardonic but always-likable woman who wins the heart of the audience. Hayward's tour-de-force performance as Graham is vastly rewarding. Her multi-faceted portrayal of Graham is truly amazing.

Highly recommended.

The DVD includes the trailer.