The Woman Who Wanted to Live

"The Woman Who Wanted to Live" stars Charles Bronson as Roy Bardon, wounded thief on the run, who kills the attendant when he robs a gas station. The next car to drive up belongs to Nita (Lola Albright), who is forced to help Roy make his getaway, promising him anything so long as he allows her to live. The unlikely pair must contend with road blocks, flat tires, and a trio of delinquents aiming to rape the girl. Bronson's encounter with the punks almost looks to be a trial run for "Death Wish." Lola was riding high on the successful PETER GUNN series, which led to a concurrent singing career, while Bronson was soon to abandon television by 1967 for a starring movie career in Europe.

A very evil man, played by Bronson, murders a gas station worker during a robbery, and seems to do it for fun instead of necessity.

Not planning his getaway, and honestly the criminal element is usually this stupid, he grabs the first woman who comes to the gas station.

He kidnaps the woman, and she begs for her life, so he lets her live just long enough to be of some use.

This is the day of wild country land and woods, before every square foot of America became part of a city, or so it seems.

So, there is a lot of seclusion in these days, on the road while driving.

However, a gang of tough kids make the scene, and instead of escaping into a bit more merciful hands, the woman helps the killer.

I did figure out the switch ending from the beginning, but it isn't what one would call "obvious", even today.

An odd thing you'll notice if you watch a lot of episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" is that although many shows are about murder and feature the seemingly perfect crime, many times in Hitchcock's epilogues he'll essentially say "the killer was later caught and paid the price for their crimes". This really was dumb, as in some ways it undoes a wonderful episode with a moralistic message tacked on clumsily at the end. I assume the sponsors or networks must have insisted on this. "The Woman Who Wanted to Live" is yet another example of this...and a really inappropriate one.

When the story begins, Charles Bronson plays a nasty robber. He holds up a service station for just a few dollars and soon shoots and kills the attendant as a car arrives at the station. He then forces the woman in the car to drive him to safety, as the police are looking for him. During this getaway, he's pretty clear to the woman that he'll kill her and where it goes from here, you'll have to see for yourself.

As I mentioned above this episode features one of those dumb epilogues which undoes so much of the good you see in the show. Plus, the moralizing at the end really doesn't make any sense. See this for yourself...and see if you agree with me that the ending really detracts from an otherwise excellent episode that I might have scored 8 or 9 otherwise.

Charles Bronson apparently had a death wish already in the sixties. He is a cold blooded killer who guns down a gas station attendant and then forces a pretty young woman (Lola Albright) to drive him. Actually, he wanted the car but she negotiated driving to save her life. She is sort of a Scheherazade always coming up with another maneuver, not taking opportunities to escape. I enjoyed the three punks that drove up in a stereotypical jalopy and tried to threaten the girl who was changing a tire. Anyway, I did get a kick out of this one.

What a tale, under the watchful direction of Alan Crosland, Jr, who makes this an eye opener.

Charles Bronson, in an early role, and showing what a terrific actor he was destined to be, plays a maniac who kills a gas station attendant, and also taking a hostage. Lola Albright (Lisa) is forced to drive him away and what an incredible journey to follow.

There's many twists, and an ironic scene where Lisa is in harms' way (again), only to be saved by Bronson from a gang of punks. Comes the second half of the story where the impossible comes into play --or so we think. Lisa begins to admire the heroics of her two-fisted captor.

Will they live happily ever after?

Textbook definition of creative writing, thanks to Bryce Walton, who wrote five other episodes for Hitch. Surprisingly, Walton began his career writing for CAPTAIN VIDEO.

Lola Albright, remembered for PETER GUNN, and perhaps why she was cast, turns in an unforgettable performance. This story has it all; drama, thrills and plenty of atmosphere, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Hitch had to love the isolation.

10 Stars. SEASON 7 EPISODE 18 remastered Universal dvd box set. 16 hrs running time. The entire half hour series is now on dvd in a single box set. 35 hrs. Released 2022.