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Click to see a beautiful charcoal portrait of Susan...

"I WANT TO LIVE!" 1958

AN OVERVIEW OF "I WANT TO LIVE" BY GINGER HAYDON "I Want To Live", starring Susan Hayward, and directed by Robert Wise, is one of the most chilling films ever made. Susan Hayward portrays the character of real-life Barbara Graham who was sentenced to death by gas for the 1953 murder of Mabel Monahan, a 60 year old California woman, during the process of a robbery. Graham claimed innocence up until her last breath. Susan Hayward pulled out all of the stops in this one. She wasn't afraid to play the role with all of the rawness and hardness that her character's life implied. She seemed to be on a roller coaster of emotions --going from courage to fear, toughness to vulnerability,fun loving party girl to introspective and sad woman, in virtually every scene. Little wonder  that she won the Best Actress oscar that year. The final scene where she was led, blindfolded to the gas chamber, and then slowly succumbed while the press and various prision officials looked on, is enough to turn one's blood cold-and it's a scene that never quite leave's one mind.  The jazz score throughout the film adds tension and actually helps to tell the story. (Check out the link within this webpage to Robert Wise's interview. In this interview he elaborates on this factor regarding the music.) This movie would never had made the impact that it did if it had been filmed in color. The black and white add to the starkness and seediness of the mood of the film and the characters portrayed.

ROBERT WISE INTERVIEW

YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE A FACTUAL STORY. IT IS BASED ON ARTICLES I WROTE, OTHER NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES, COURT RECORDS, LEGAL AND PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS, PERSONAL INTERVIEWS-- AND THE LETTERS OF BARBARA GRAHAM ........ Edward S. Montgomery, Pulitizer Prize Winner San Francisco Examiner

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After being nominated four times previously for a Best Actress Oscar, Susan Hayward finally won the award for her portrayal of Barbara Graham in "I Want To Live!", a harrowing drama based on fact. The LA Police Department and many people in the film industry tried to dissuade producer Walter Wanger from tackling the subject of a woman executed in the gas chamber, and containing an anti-capital punishment message. Wanger was vindicated by the industry, if not the police, when the picture won praise and made over $3 million. Graham, a cardsharp, thief and prostitute, was sentenced to death for murder, despite some doubt about her guilt. Among those fighting to save her were a psychologist (Theodore Bikel) and a journalist Ed Montgomery (Simon Oakland) from whose articles the script by Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz was derived. The main wallop packed by Robert Wise's clinically realistic direction was the long final sequence as Graham prepares for death, and the scene in the gas chamber. Much of the film's force also depended on the gritty performance by Hayward, who showed the vulnerability but also the toughness of the woman. Virginia Vincent, Wesley Lau ,and Philip Coolidge had other roles. The director,(Robert Wise)  the screenwriters, the cinematographer (Lionel Lindon) and the film editor (William Hornbeck) received Oscar nominations.--excerpted from "The United Artists Story " by Ronald Bergan- Crown Publishers Incorporated, New York

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