I Want to Live! (1958)

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

. . . begins "Babs'" tirade in open court about 58:20 into I WANT TO LIVE! This kind of perked up the curiosity of "Rocky," my viewing partner, and myself. What WAS "the rest of the story" to Babs' Real Life HANDMAID'S TALE-like public shaming and execution? Rocky decided to research the epilogue to Babs' woeful wrecking, after his survey of the Internets showed that no one had yet put all the relevant facts together in one place. As it turns out, Babs' Courtroom Curse was pretty potent. In July, 1955 (the month after she got offed in San Quentin) "Ben-the-Crooked-Cop" who framed Babs for murder got crushed by a garbage truck making a left turn while on motorcycle patrol. In September of that year, "Rita" the jailhouse snitch, was struck dead by lightning while enjoying her undeserved freedom on a swimsuit-optional beach. (This was literally a "bolt out of the blue," since there was only one tiny cloud in an otherwise azure sky.) "What about 'Bruce'? you ask. Three weeks after Rita got fried, this Real Killer turned "State's Evidence" was decapitated by a flying piece of Quonset hut during a windstorm. Later Babs' "Gassing Judge" slipped on an icy patch in his garage Up North Christmas Eve, dying of carbon monoxide poisoning from his still-running car. Though the San Quentin warden was fatally shanked during the New Year's Day Prison Uprising, his two chief chemists were spared from any harm THAT day. You see, they were already lying stone cold dead on slabs in a Bavarian mortuary, killed by a faulty heater in the chalet where they were staying to gain insights on "fine tuning" the Golden State's efforts to emulate the Third Reich. Last, but not least, California Gov. "Gipper the Terminator" (who'd denied Babs' final plea for a mere carriage of justice) was melted down with "Jim Hoffa," of course, in a vat of molten metal.

Just like the phony and 1/4 truth "Birdman of Alcatraz", "I Want to Live" is Hollywood trying to preach to the simple citizen type Americans.I guess every generation needs to learn just how corrupt and political Hollywood is. They have no room to preach about Morals.Barbara Graham was not only was guilty of Murder by being involved in conspiring to rob Mabel Monohan, she personally murdered the elderly women. The Jury Says So!This is Hollywood's Statement on the horrors of the Death Penalty. I may agree with them, but lying to the American people and the world doesn't help. The Truth Will Out and you end up hurting the cause.Now to the movie, it is actually well done and Hayward certainly deserved her Academy Award. I have been a Simon Oakland fan all my life and this is very first. The other Reviewers covered the excellent acting and riveting ending.. Gripping is my word for the final 1/2hr.Just remember, Hollywood is filled with disgusting rotten people just like any other business. It is just when them businesses try and preach to Us simple folk how we should vote and causes we should support that they overstep. They Should best Keep Their Mouth Shut and just entertain us.

it is her film. a strange film because, without be great, it is more than touching. the story of a prostitute and her guilty. a film about a murder. and about life in a different perspective. Susan Hayward has the huge science to explore each nuance of her character . and this did the film more than one of many sad stories about the waste of life. because it is easy to be prey of melodramatic solutions in this genre of role. it is easy to ignore the limits. or to give to public only a sketch or shadow. and this subtle art to propose a living Barbara Graham, with her superficiality, hopes, courage, fears defines a film who remains, after a half of century, not remarkable but special.

"I Want To Live!" is an incredibly powerful drama about a woman who was found guilty of murder in the early 1950s. The events depicted are claimed to be factual and the convicted murderess is portrayed as the innocent victim of a flawed judicial system which found her guilty because of her lack of credibility as a witness, her previous criminal behaviour and the testimony of other criminals who had their own ulterior motives. The lack of hard evidence against her makes the outcome of the trial seem to be a travesty and this plays into the strong position that this movie takes against the use of capital punishment.Following the failure of her third marriage, Barbara "Bonnie" Graham (Susan Hayward) who'd been involved in petty crime throughout her life, returns to work with one of her previous bosses Emmett Perkins (Philip Coolidge). She's unaware that Perkins and his associates John Santo (Lou Krugman) and Bruce King (James Philbrook) had recently carried out an attempted robbery during which an elderly widow called Mabel Monahan had been pistol-whipped to death. It comes as a great surprise, therefore, when she, Perkins and Santo are arrested by the police and charged with involvement in the old lady's murder.Despite her protestations of innocence, Graham becomes the prime suspect after Perkins, Santo and King all claim that she was responsible for the killing. Perkins and Santo think that if she's convicted, it will reduce their chances of being sentenced to death and King is granted immunity for turning state's evidence. Graham is subsequently found guilty of murder and is sentenced to be executed at San Quentin prison. A whole series of appeals and stays of execution then follow as every effort is made to prevent Graham's sentence from being carried out.Barbara Graham is depicted as a sympathetic character who, as the product of a broken home, had known no other way of life than being involved with the criminal fraternity. Her various convictions provide evidence of her reprehensible lifestyle but her propensity to eschew self-interest to help others (as she does in the circumstances which result in her being found guilty of prostitution and perjury) is also shown as a redeeming quality. Similarly, the circumstances under which she's tricked into incriminating herself by a fellow prison inmate and an undercover police officer are also conveyed as being just as odious as the way in which she was betrayed by her criminal associates.Judged purely on its merits as a drama, "I Want To Live!" is top class and Robert Wise's direction is terrific as so much pace is injected into the early part of the movie and then later it slows down very effectively as the tension intensifies when the story's conclusion approaches. Susan Hayward's Oscar-winning performance is also integral to the film's success because so much of the focus is on her throughout. Her ability to capture her character's range of emotions and behaviours at different stages of her life is flawless and a considerable achievement by any standards.