I Want to Live! (1958)

I Want to Live! 
Directed by Robert Wise
1958/USA
Figaro
First viewing

[box] Carl G.G. Palmberg: Life’s a funny thing.

Barbara Graham: Compared to what?[/box]

This noir biofilm won Susan Hayward an Academy Award.

Hayward portrays Barbara Graham as a jazz-loving wise-cracking good-time girl.  The film covers Graham’s life as she starts out a good-hearted call girl, then suffers hard times as the wife of a junkie, and finally gets involved with some hardcore criminals.  A robbery goes wrong and a 63-year-old woman is murdered.  The criminals claim that Graham was along for the crime and actually committed the murder.  Graham denies that she was even present but her belligerent demeanor, shady past, and lack of proof of her alibi convict her. She becomes the third woman to be executed in the gas chamber in California.

Director Robert Wise mounted a very stylish production of the story, with superb framing and brilliant use of black and white cinematography. The final minutes of the film depict in minute detail the preparation for Graham’s execution down to the stethoscope strapped to her body before her walk to the chamber.  Hayward is heartbreaking as she faces her death through a series of last-minute stays.  The jazz score by Johnny Mandel is fantastic.

Although the film strongly suggests Graham was innocent, as she never ceased asserting, the audience does not witness the crime.  Other accounts have concluded that overwhelming evidence pointed to her guilt.

Trailer