I Want to Live!

Very intense with probably the longer execution sequence ever on film, including a Catholic priest lighting the cigarette of the condemned. Definitely an Oscar worthy performance.

Some complain that Susan Hayward's acting is a over-the-top, but I disagree. It's one of her finest performances and that makes it one of the finest acting jobs of her era. The film itself is in incisive portrayal of a flawed woman and America's legal system.

Melodramatic but Hayward does a great job.

Susan Hayward is the definition of vulpine: crafty, smart and savvy. But her character, Barbara Graham, eventually gets cornered and outnumbered when a job goes awry. This is her true story -- a story littered by her own lies -- as told by the newspaper man who reported on her arrest for murder.

Susan Hayward is one of my favorite actresses as I adore her performances in Stolen Hours (1963) and Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947) I looked forward to seeing the performance that earned her the only Academy Award that her fellow industry professionals were willing to give her. This is a film that is just average, it's a real 1950s melodrama, but Hayward is superb as I expected she would be and she alone does enough to make the film worth watching. Director Robert Wise is obviously most famous for his work on The Sound of Music (1965) and West Side Story (1961) but he does a decent job here as he mixes Elia Kazan and Alfred Hitchcock. I think that Hayward's performance may be one of the best to have won Best Actress and I say that having seen Sophie's Choice (1982) and Gone With the Wind (1939). Prostitute Barbara Graham, Susan Hayward, becomes involved with alcoholic Henry, Wesley Lau, who she is eventually able to leave after realizing he is using her. She is also entangled with criminals who murder an old woman without her knowledge but who later push her into being arrested after they are caught. She is initially resistant to defending herself in court and due to her depression is happy at the prospect of being put to death but finds that she does want to live after all the men in her life turn against her. She relies on the help of media tycoon Ed Montgomery, Simon Oakland, to rally public support around her and keeps high spirits even as it becomes clear she will be unfairly killed. The story doesn't have a lot of clarity as I was confused as to how they managed to get a woman who was seemingly unrelated from the event on charges of murder but the film has it's fun moments as well. We get a nice setup as we see her and all of the dangerous men in her life hanging out at a club with jazz music playing as she gets up and does a little dance. We see all of the spunk and vivacity of the main character in that moment, no wonder it is the image that appears on the poster, but Hayward is able to transition successfully to making this figure appear human. Later scenes in which we witness her domestic troubles are simply staged and give the actors room to shine. We really get into the passions of the characters in these moments and even though the individual scenes sometimes don't flow together they are impressive on their own and you take away strong emotional responses from them. It is Hayward who really holds everything together as even in the moments that don't really work she is luminous. You have to accept that this film was made during the 1950s and therefore Hayward has all of the hallmarks of an actress of that era in that she is occasionally just too much! Compare her to Ingrid Bergman in Anastasia (1956) or Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and I'll take Hayward any time. She is quite charming when she has to be as we need to believe that she could win over a prison guard and a cynical reporter but we still see the sadness behind her eyes as she goes about her affairs. The excitement at the beginning of the film is encapsulated by Hayward perfectly as she throws her arms up in a carefree motion but the utter dejectedness that she brings to the role at the end of the film is touching. She is better than any of her competition in the Best Actress category in this year as she is simply brilliant but her competition also is not particularly strong. Shirley MacLaine can be wonderful but she does not do her strongest work in Some Came Running (1958) and Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables (1958) is a touch too icy for my tastes. I really like this film despite it's flaws and I think it's one of those famed rare examples of how a talented performer can lift up an otherwise average film.

I Want to Live is an amazing film. It is about a prostitute, sentenced to death for murder, who pleads her innocence. Susan Hayward and Simon Oakland give excellent performances. The screenplay is well written. Robert Wise did a great job directing this movie. I enjoyed watching this motion picture because of the drama. I Want to Live is a must see.

Grim, almost unbearably intense, I Want To Live is the story of the life and execution of Barbara Graham (Susan Hayward) a perjurer, prostitute, liar and drug addict. Robert Wise directs the uniformly fine cast with grim efficiency, telling Graham's story in a series of adroitly crafted scenes that won him a well-deserved Academy Award nomination. However, the film belongs to Susan Hayward who gives a intense, shattering performance without one false note. Her performance is so grimly focused that she is, at times, almost unbearable to watch. Susan Hayward won the 1958 Oscar for best actress in a leading role. This fabulous gritty noir melodrama, one of Hollywood's first detailed accounts of capital punishment. 10/10

The best courtroom movie ever made!

I am not a big fan of Susie’s over emoting and over communicating everything (few actresses were as unsubtle) she never underplayed anything. But she won me over still. It’s hard to resist a Grand Diva ‘I Want an Oscar!’ Performance like this, from a Master. Very well done and directed. And that long agonizing final few minutes is gut wrenching and great.

I Want To Live is so determined to reassure us that's it's entirely fact based by having not 1 but 2 disclaimers, one before the film and one after, proclaiming it be the truth. Unfortunately, the film is not a grounded in reality as it would have you believe. Doubt still exists as to whether Barbara Graham committed the murder or not, but the film sheds no light on this issue, since we never even see it taking place. We cut from her hanging with her cronies straight to the arrest. Susan Hayward turns in an admirably intense, if a little over the top performance as the woman condemned to death. She moves from sassy back talk to genuine fear impressively, but the story in which she's involved isn't given enough depth to be interesting. It also shows the setting up of the gas chamber in meticulous detail, right down to what levers need to pulled and in what order. It's interesting for sure, but it doesn't need to be so thorough and pays havoc with the pacing. The film starts lagging when Graham is transferred to Death Row, picking up a little when the torturous stays start prolonging her suffering. But the trial is the highlight, with all the dubious evidence and lies coming together to form a case our protagonist finds herself unable to fight against. As manufactured as this true story might be, it's still watchable for the lead performance and commentary on the judicial taking of a life.