I Want to Live!
| I Want to Live! | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Robert Wise |
| Produced by | Walter Wanger |
| Screenplay by |
Nelson Gidding Don Mankiewicz |
| Based on | Newspaper articles and letters by Edward S. Montgomery Barbara Graham |
| Starring |
Susan Hayward Simon Oakland Virginia Vincent Theodore Bikel |
| Music by | Johnny Mandel |
| Cinematography | Lionel Lindon |
| Edited by | William Hornbeck |
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Production
company |
Figaro
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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120 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,383,578 |
| Box office | $5,641,711 |
| I Want to Live! | |||||
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| Soundtrack album by Johnny Mandel/Gerry Mulligan Jazz Combo | |||||
| Released | 1958 | ||||
| Recorded | May 1958 | ||||
| Genre | Film score | ||||
| Label |
United Artists UAL 4005 & UAL 4006 |
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| Johnny Mandel chronology | |||||
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| Gerry Mulligan chronology | |||||
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| Jazz Combo Cover | |||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
I Want to Live! is a 1958 film noir written by Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz, produced by Walter Wanger, and directed by Robert Wise, which tells the story of a woman, Barbara Graham, a habitual criminal convicted of murder and facing execution. It stars Susan Hayward as Graham, and also features Simon Oakland, Stafford Repp, and Theodore Bikel. The movie was adapted from letters written by Graham and newspaper articles written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Montgomery. It presents a somewhat fictionalized version of the case showing a possibility of innocence concerning Graham. Today, the charge would be known as felony murder.
The film earned six Oscar nominations, with Hayward winning a Best Actress Oscar at the 31st Academy Awards.
The film tells the story of the life and execution of Barbara Graham (Hayward), a prostitute and convicted perjurer. Graham is the product of a , and works luring men into fixed card games. At one point, she attempts to go straight but marries the "wrong man," and has a child. He is a drug addict and she ends their relationship.
When her life falls apart, she returns to her former professions and becomes involved with a man who had murdered a woman. The police arrest them, and her companions accuse her of the murder to reduce their own chances of going to the gas chamber. She claims her innocence, but is convicted and executed.
A prologue and epilogue contributed to the film by Montgomery characterize the film's content — which largely portrays Graham as innocent of the murder — as factual. But there was substantial evidence of Graham's complicity in the crime which included her taped confession to an undercover officer. Hollywood writer Robert Osborne, who later became the host of Turner Classic Movies, interviewed Hayward and asked whether or not she believed Barbara Graham had been innocent.
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Wikipedia