I Want to Live!

In 1953, Barbara Graham and two of her associates were arrested for the murder of an elderly widow.  Graham — a reform school alumna and previously convicted of perjury — proclaimed her innocence the entire time but was sentenced to death.  This film tells her story.  You could divide it into four sections: background, trial, attempts to appeal, and death row.  While the other parts have their compelling moments, the last is most affecting and harrowing, and possibly an inspiration for Von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark.  Graham (Susan Hayward) waits for death, trying to keep her frazzled nerves in check with sardonic humor and tough bravado, but every time the phone rings with hope of a possible stay of execution, it cuts like a razor.

The film seems to pride itself on being a true story, with both opening and closing title cards attesting to it.  But — from what I’ve read, at least — much of it is highly dramatized, and the movie goes out of its way to establish Graham as an innocent patsy while the facts say quite the opposite.  If they hadn’t been so insistent on connecting the film’s plot to real-life events, I wouldn’t care.  But I take issue with a movie that professes to be true and is loaded with bullshit (unless, as in Fargo, the “true story” doesn’t actually exist at all).

Overlooking that, however, it’s not a bad movie and has some terrific noir-esque stylizations.  The jazz score, including Gerry Mulligan’s combo, is a blast and there are shots with rich and satisfying chiaroscuro.  The film largely hinges on Hayward’s performance, for which she received an Oscar.  For the most part it’s a compelling, brassy performance, although there are definitely moments where the hamminess becomes laughable.  The supporting roles are pretty much negligible, but Hayward manages to carry the film.  If you ignore the lack of verisimilitude, it’s worth watching for the masterful final act if nothing else.  It doesn’t reach the heights of Wise’s best noirs — The Set-Up and Odds Against Tomorrow — but it sits comfortably alongside his middling ones like The Captive City and Born to Kill.  Rating: Good

IMDb