IMDb RATING
7.5/10
7.6K
YOUR RATING
A prostitute sentenced to death for murder pleads her innocence.A prostitute sentenced to death for murder pleads her innocence.A prostitute sentenced to death for murder pleads her innocence.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 6 wins & 16 nominations total
Gage Clarke
- Attorney Richard G. Tibrow
- (as Gage Clark)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA woman named Betsy Ann Smith from Wakefield, Virginia won a bit part in this film as a prize on The Price Is Right (1956).
- GoofsWhen Barbara's son is brought to the jail for a visit and the presence of the news media upsets Barbara, she retreats to an interior area of the jail and pounds on the wall in frustration. The "brick" wall gives slightly as she throws her weight onto it.
- Quotes
Barbara Graham: I never even knew the dame.
Police lieutenant: You know she's been murdered, don't you?
Barbara Graham: Yeah. So was Julius Caesar. I didn't know him either.
- Crazy creditsThe film opens with this statement: The pitiless story told in this film is a true story. This story had to be told to the whole world; the whole world should see it and hear it. What good are films if they do not make us face the realities of our time? Here is the reality of our time, and we have no right to be ignorant of it. The day will come when such documents will seem to us to refer to prehistoric times, and we shall consider them as unbelievable that in earlier centuries witches were burned or thieves had their right hands cut off. Such period of true civilization is still in the future, but this film has the honor of at least contributing to its coming". Albert Camus - Nobel Prize winner.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Clock (2010)
- SoundtracksMy Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Featured review
This is the story of Barbara Graham, party girl and petty criminal, who was charged, along with two men, in the March, 1953, real life slaying of Mabel Monohan, a wealthy and elderly widow who lived in Burbank, California. Technically, "I Want To Live" is a high quality production. It has excellent B&W photography, superb editing, a jazzy score; and, it features Susan Hayward's Oscar winning performance as Barbara Graham, a young woman portrayed as independent-minded, tough as nails, feisty, defiant, vulnerable, and a good mother.
Both at the beginning and at the end of this Robert Wise directed film the viewer is informed that the story is "factual". But the screenplay never delves into the actual "facts" of the murder. We don't learn anything about the victim, her relationships, the crime scene, or any of a thousand important details that must surely have surrounded this high profile case. Instead, the film focuses entirely on Graham, and goes out of its way to portray her as innocent, in the Monohan murder.
Even a cursory review of available literature suggests that the film, while "factual" in some respects, is fictional in others. For example, in reality, the police did not capture Graham and her two male friends in a warehouse at night, as the film portrays; they captured the three in a seedy apartment in daytime. The film omits her addiction to heroin. In more than one way, the film presents Graham sympathetically, and as a victim of the criminal justice system. There's an interesting story about the film's producer, and his motivations for making this film the way he did.
Nevertheless, I am not convinced, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she was guilty, mainly because I do not have access to the detailed "facts" of the Monohan case. After all these years, the truth regarding the murder has become cloudy, obscure.
It is the thick fog surrounding the real life case that makes the film's final thirty minutes so gut-wrenching, as we await Barbara Graham's fate. Suspense is heightened by a deadline-induced outcome that will either be black or white, all or nothing, but certainly not gray. In setting out to portray a woman wrongly accused of murder, the filmmakers have thus created an ending that is amazingly effective.
"I Want To Live" is a well made Hollywood production with riveting suspense. But keep in mind the film presents only the case for the defense, which may or may not be consistent with the truth.
Both at the beginning and at the end of this Robert Wise directed film the viewer is informed that the story is "factual". But the screenplay never delves into the actual "facts" of the murder. We don't learn anything about the victim, her relationships, the crime scene, or any of a thousand important details that must surely have surrounded this high profile case. Instead, the film focuses entirely on Graham, and goes out of its way to portray her as innocent, in the Monohan murder.
Even a cursory review of available literature suggests that the film, while "factual" in some respects, is fictional in others. For example, in reality, the police did not capture Graham and her two male friends in a warehouse at night, as the film portrays; they captured the three in a seedy apartment in daytime. The film omits her addiction to heroin. In more than one way, the film presents Graham sympathetically, and as a victim of the criminal justice system. There's an interesting story about the film's producer, and his motivations for making this film the way he did.
Nevertheless, I am not convinced, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she was guilty, mainly because I do not have access to the detailed "facts" of the Monohan case. After all these years, the truth regarding the murder has become cloudy, obscure.
It is the thick fog surrounding the real life case that makes the film's final thirty minutes so gut-wrenching, as we await Barbara Graham's fate. Suspense is heightened by a deadline-induced outcome that will either be black or white, all or nothing, but certainly not gray. In setting out to portray a woman wrongly accused of murder, the filmmakers have thus created an ending that is amazingly effective.
"I Want To Live" is a well made Hollywood production with riveting suspense. But keep in mind the film presents only the case for the defense, which may or may not be consistent with the truth.
- Lechuguilla
- Jun 13, 2005
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Barbara Graham Story
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,383,578 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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