I Want to Live!



I Want to Live! is a 1958 Film Noir based on the (sort of) true story of Hooker with a Heart of Gold Barbara Graham and her failed endeavor to give up a life of crime, ultimately ending up on trial for murder.

According to The Other Wiki, the movie was adapted from articles and letters written by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Ed Montgomery, who is also a character in the movie. Consequently, the film mercilessly satirizes the media and its tendency to treat truth as a secondary priority to entertainment, and the disastrous consequences it can have in regards to the legal system.

Other than that, best known for the fact that it earned actress Susan Hayward an Oscar for Best Actress in the starring role.


 * Acceptable Feminine Goals: She wants to get out of crime to raise a family.
 * Catapult Nightmare
 * Dead Man Writing:
 * Deadpan Snarker: Barbara
 * Death Row
 * Downer Ending:
 * Drugs Are Bad: Her husband is a junkie and a total jerk.
 * Dutch Angle: In the bar scene in the beginning, to convey an unbalanced and disorienting feeling
 * Excited Show Title!
 * Fiery Redhead: It's in black and white, but a close up of a news article describes her as having red hair.
 * Film Noir
 * Freudian Excuse: She came from a broken family
 * Gas Chamber
 * Girls Behind Bars: Noticeably averted
 * Hard on Soft Science: When Barbara is told that a man who came to see her is a psychologist, she says, "That's his problem."
 * Hope Spot:
 * Inkblot Test: She gets tested by the psychologist
 * Last-Minute Reprieve:
 * Miscarriage of Justice
 * No Honor Among Thieves
 * "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: At the beginning and the end, signed by a Pulitzer winning reporter who covered the real life story.
 * Paparazzi: The tabloids are all over the trial, and are clearly more interested in entertainment than the truth. We even get a warning not to believe everything we read, and Babs gets to give them a "The Reason You Suck" Speech after she's sentenced.
 * Poker: The Con she and her cohorts used to run involved her picking up a guy, getting him drunk, and then tricking him into losing all his money in a poker game. Then, they all split the winnings.
 * Precision F-Strike: When someone asks her what it feels like  she says, "How the hell do you think it feels?"
 * Product Placement: Possibly unintentional instance, given that at the time, this was not an established practice; there is a close up on the General Electric logo on a clock.
 * Really Gets Around: Subverted in regard to Barbara: A guy says he thought that there was "no such thing as not your type," and she says, "Till I met you." Zing!
 * Silence Is Golden: At the end, Ed turns off his hearing aid and all the noise around him disappears.
 * Singing in the Shower: Barbara does this, even though she's not alone. It's prison, after all.
 * Smoking Is Cool: Well, it was The Fifties.
 * Strawman News Media: Type 4 -- all entertainment, no truth.
 * The Stool Pigeon: Her cohorts frame her because they suspect she'd try to frame them. Lots of truly guilty people get off for helping to build the case against her. She Miscarriage of Justice above.
 * Title Drop: In a letter voiceover.
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Past: Not so much anymore, but it takes place in 1951 even though it was made in 1958.
 * Undercover Cop Reveal: A minor one where the bartender lets her know a man trying to pick her up is really a cop, as well as
 * Very Loosely Based on a True Story
 * Voiceover Letter: Several of the letters Barbara writes are read in her voice.