I Want to Live! [Hong Kong]

Director: Robert Wise Robert Wise

Overview

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. The product of a broken home, Graham works as a shill, luring gullible men into crooked card games. She attempts to go straight, marries the wrong man, and has a baby. When her life falls apart, she returns to her former profession and is involved in a murder. Despite her claims of innocence, she is convicted and executed. 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. The final scenes, which lead up to Graham's execution, are exhausting in their emotional intensity as the audience is spared nothing of Graham's agony, despair and desperation when she finally loses the long battle to save her life. Whether one sees Graham as a murderer or a hapless victim of society, the power and relentless, sordid reality of her story leaves an indelible memory in the mind of the viewer.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/13/2007
UPC:	4897007031375
Original Release:	1958
Source:	SUPER D INDEPENDENT DIST.
Language:	English
Sales rank:	27,187

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Susan Hayward	Barbara Graham
Simon Oakland	Ed Montgomery
Theodore Bikel	Carl G.G. Palmberg
Virginia Vincent	Peg
Wesley Lau	Henry Graham
Philip Coolidge	Emmett Perkins,Actor
Lou Krugman	Jack Santo
James Philbrook	Bruce King
Bartlett Robinson	District Attorney
Gage Clark	Richard Tibrow
Joe De Santis	Al Matthews
John Marley	Father Devers
Dabbs Greer	San Quentin Captain
Raymond Bailey	Warden
Alice Backes	Nurse
Gertrude Flynn	Matron
Russell Thorson	Sergeant
Stafford Repp	Sergeant
Gavin MacLeod	Lieutenant
Peter Breck	Ben Miranda
Marion Marshall	Rita
Olive Blakeney	Corona Warden
Lorna Thayer	Corona Guard
Evelyn Scott	Personal Effects Clerk
Jack Weston	NCO
Leonard Bell	San Francisco Hood
George Putnam	Himself
Bill Stout	Newsman
Jason Johnson	Bixel
Rusty Lane	Judge
S. John Launer	San Quentin Officer
Dan Sheridan	Police Broadcaster
Wendell Holmes	Detective
Gerry Mulligan	Musician
Art Farmer	Musician
Bud Shank	Musician
Frank Rosolino	Musician
Pete Jolly	Musician
'Red' Mitchell	Musician,Actor
Gage Clarke	Richard Tibrow
Shelly Manne	Musician
Brett Halsey	Actor
Johnny Mandel	Composer

Technical Credits

Nelson Gidding

Don Mankiewicz

Robert Wise	Director
Nelson Gidding	Screenwriter
Don Mankiewicz	Screenwriter
Walter Wanger	Producer
Lynn Stalmaster	Casting
Fred Lau	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

I Want to Live! is one of the screen's most powerful films. While Susan Hayward was often inclined to accept melodramatic scripts, nothing in her career tops her Oscar-winning performance as prostitute and con artist Barbara Graham, struggling to avoid execution in California's gas chamber. Graham's real-life struggle was well-known to the audiences of 1958. In lesser hands, a film of this sort could have become exploitative, but Hayward and director Robert Wise know just how far to take the material. The final thirty minutes are paced with an unrelenting intensity. Watch carefully for Hayward's performance in the death chamber scene, as she displays fear, anger, and a desire for whatever dignity there is left to find. All of the film's tech credits are good without being showy -- indeed, had they been more prominent, the film's effect might have been thrown out of balance. This is Hayward's film all the way, and she gives one of the greatest performances of any era.