| I Want to Live! | |
|---|---|
_master_poster_art.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Wise |
| Screenplay by | Nelson Gidding Don Mankiewicz |
| Based on | Articles and letters byEdward Montgomery andBarbara Graham |
| Produced by | Walter Wanger |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Lionel Lindon |
| Edited by | William Hornbeck |
| Music by | Johnny Mandel |
Production companies | Figaro, Inc. |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 120 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.4 million[1] |
| Box office | $3.5 million[2]—$5.6 million[1] |
I Want to Live! is a 1958 Americanindependent[3]biographical film noirdrama film directed byRobert Wise, and starringSusan Hayward,Simon Oakland,Virginia Vincent, andTheodore Bikel. It follows the life ofBarbara Graham, aprostitute and habitual criminal, who is convicted of murder and facescapital punishment. The screenplay, written byNelson Gidding andDon Mankiewicz, was adapted from personal letters written by Graham, in addition to newspaper articles written byPulitzer Prize-winning journalistEd Montgomery in theSan Francisco Examiner. The film presents a highly fictionalized version of the case, indicating the possibility that Graham may have been innocent.
Released in late 1958,I Want to Live! was a commercial and critical success, garnering favorable reviews from critics for Hayward's performance, as well as the film's realistic depiction of capital punishment. The film earned a total of sixAcademy Award nominations, with Hayward winning aBest Actress Oscar at the31st Academy Awards as well as theGolden Globe Award in thesame category.
In 1950San Francisco, petty criminal andprostituteBarbara Graham faces a misdemeanor charge for soliciting sex. She returns to her nativeSan Diego, but is soon charged withperjury after she provides two criminal friends a falsealibi. She subsequently returns to prostitution and other criminal activities to make a living and begins working for thief Emmett Perkins by luring men to his gambling parlor. Barbara manages to earn a significant amount of money, and quits working for Emmett to marry Hank, her third husband. The couple have a son, Bobby, but their marriage is in turmoil because of Hank's heroin addiction and physical abuse.
Barbara forces Hank to leave, but she is soon evicted from her apartment. Desperate, she leaves Bobby in the care of Hank's mother and returns to working for Emmett, who is now associated with thugs John Santo and Bruce King. Police crack down on the operation and Barbara surrenders. During the interrogation, she is stunned when authorities accuse her of helping Perkins and Santo murder Mabel Monohan, an elderlyBurbank woman. Barbara insists that she was home with her husband and son on the night of the murder but is indicted by a grand jury. Barbara's childhood friend Peg visits her in jail and agrees to help care for Bobby.
Attorney Richard Tibrow is assigned to Barbara's case and informs her that her alibi is meaningless unless Hank can corroborate it. Barbara furtively concocts a phony alibi with Ben Miranda, supposedly a friend of a fellow prisoner. At the trial, it is revealed that Ben is a police officer who recorded her confession with a hidden microphone during their meeting. Barbara insists that she sought the false alibi only to avoid thedeath penalty, and that her admission is false. She is ultimately convicted, along with Emmett and John, and all three are sentenced to death.
Tibrow withdraws from Barbara's case and is replaced by Al Matthews. In prison, Barbara is relentlessly defiant, refusing to wear her uniform and demanding a radio. Matthews has psychologist Carl Palmberg evaluate Barbara, hoping to ultimately administer a lie detection test. After visiting with her, Carl states that while Barbara appears to beamoral, she is averse to violence. He also observes that she is left-handed, and the murder was committed by a right-handed person. JournalistEdward Montgomery, who has covered Barbara's case all along, questions her conviction and publishes a sympathetic series of articles describing her troubled life. As her execution date draws near, Barbara grows increasingly anxious. ASupreme Courtstay gives her hope that her sentence may be commuted, but it is overturned when Carl dies unexpectedly of heart disease. Al's petition for a retrial is denied, and Barbara's execution date is set.
The day before her execution, a demoralized Barbara is transferred toSan Quentin Prison, where she meets with a priest. That evening, she is angered to hear that multiple couples are seeking to adopt her son. She stays awake all night, wistfully recounting to a prison nurse her marriage with Hank. In the morning, 45 minutes before Barbara's scheduled execution,California governorGoodwin J. Knight declares a stay, but her attorney Al'swrit is invalidated and the execution is ordered to proceed. Barbara is taken to thegas chamber, but the execution is again halted when Al's amended writ is declared.
The uncertainty and desperation surrounding her fate reduces Barbara to hysterics. She is returned to her cell, where she and the prison staff wait several minutes for a response to Al's writ. They are informed that it has again been rejected and that Barbara's execution is to proceed immediately. Before entering the gas chamber, Barbara demands a mask, as she does not want to see the faces of the witnesses to what she regards as her murder. She is strapped to the chair and executed withcyanide gas. After Barbara is pronounced dead, a despondent Edward Montgomery leaves the prison. On his way out, he is met by Al, who gives him a note from Barbara thanking him for his efforts to help her.
According to historian Kathleen Cairns,I Want to Live! "implied that Graham's guilt or innocence was largely irrelevant, that the real crime was committed by a justice system that framed her and a media that abetted the effort... In reality, the film took liberty with many facts of the case."[4] The film also suggests that Graham, though believed to havesociopathic tendencies in real life, was dangerous only to herself as a result of her loveless childhood and abusive mother.[4]
A prologue and epilogue contributed to the film by Edward Montgomery, the journalist who covered Graham's case for theSan Francisco Examiner, characterize the film's content, which largely portrays Graham as innocent of the murder, as factual. However, there may have been substantial evidence of Graham's complicity in the crime, including her taped confession to an undercover officer.[5] In an interview withRobert Osborne, Susan Hayward admitted that her research on the evidence and letters in the case led her to believe that Graham was guilty.[6]
Despite some of the liberties taken with Graham's story, the film's depiction of the California gas chamber was regarded as accurate.[7][8]
The film's screenplay was originally written byDon Mankiewicz based on letters by convicted murdererBarbara Graham, who was executed in 1955, and a series of articles by journalistEdward S. Montgomery.[9] In early 1958, after a draft of the screenplay was completed,Nelson Gidding was commissioned to write a redraft and tighten the narrative as it "lacked focus" and contained too many pages concentrating on Graham's troubled childhood.[10] Gidding's redraft omitted any depiction of the murder of Mable Monohan as well as Graham's months spent atSan Quentin State Prison during her appeals.[10]
When questioned about taking the controversial role, Susan Hayward said: "I just had to play her. If I hadn't thought they should make [the film], I wouldn't have played the part."[10]
Principal photography began in March 1958. Production was stopped after Hayward contractedmeasles.[11]
To ensure that the execution sequence was depicted as accurately as possible, Wise attended a public execution at San Quentin.[10] Hayward commented after completing filming that her simulated experience of execution convinced her that the practice was "medieval."[10]
In addition to Mandel's score, the film features jazz themes performed byGerry Mulligan's combo. Twosoundtrack albums were released byUnited Artists Records in 1958.[12]
Although some sources state that the film grossed $3.5 million,[2] theWalter Wanger biographyWalter Wanger, Hollywood Independent indicated that the film grossed $5,641,711, with a net profit of $2,455,570.[1] Hayward was entitled to 37% of the film's overall profit.[13]
Upon release,I Want to Live! was met with a largely favorable critical response, with many critics heralding the film as an "indictment against capital punishment," citing its clinical, harrowing depiction of execution.[14] ProducerWalter Wanger received numerous congratulatory letters praising the film after its release, including those from writersArthur Miller,Paddy Chayefsky,Leon Uris andAlbert Camus, all of whom were ardent opponents of capital punishment.[15]
Variety magazine published a favorable review: "There is no attempt to gloss the character of Barbara Graham, only an effort to understand it through some fine irony and pathos. She had no hesitation about indulging in any form of crime or vice that promised excitement on her own, rather mean, terms ... Hayward brings off this complex characterization. Simon Oakland, as Montgomery, who first crucified Barbara Graham in print and then attempted to undo what he had done, underplays his role with assurance."[16]
Film criticBosley Crowther ofThe New York Times wrote: "Miss Hayward plays it superbly, under the consistently sharp direction of Robert Wise, who has shown here a stunning mastery of the staccato realistic style. From a loose and wise-cracking B-girl she moves onto levels of cold disdain and then plunges down to depths of terror and bleak surrender as she reaches the end. Except that the role does not present us a precisely pretty character, its performance merits for Miss Hayward the most respectful applause."[17]
Gene Blake, the reporter who covered the actual murder trial for theLos Angeles Daily Mirror, called the film "a dramatic and eloquent piece of propaganda for the abolition of the death penalty."[18]
By March 1959,Billboard noted that the popularity of the film and of Mandel's and Mulligan's albums "prompted a rush of jazz film scores" and cited as examplesDuke Ellington's score forAnatomy of a Murder, the release ofThe Five Pennies (a biopic about the jazz band leaderRed Nichols) and the 1960 documentaryJazz on a Summer's Day.[19]
In a 1993 reappraisal, film criticDanny Peary wrote that Hayward is "...the actress of that era [the 1940s and '50s] who most needs rediscovery, and the best film to start with isI Want to Live!."[20]
The review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes reports a 94% approval rating based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10.[21]
MGM Home Entertainment releasedI Want to Live! onDVD on May 7, 2002.[26]Kino Lorber reissued the film on DVD featuring a restored print in October 2015.[27] In November 2016,Twilight Time released the film onBlu-ray disc in a limited edition of 3,000 units.[28]
I Want to Live! wasremade for televisionin 1983. The television film featuresLindsay Wagner,Martin Balsam,Pamela Reed,Harry Dean Stanton,Dana Elcar,Ellen Geer,Robert Ginty andBarry Primus.
