Loved Susan Hayward's work and the famous jazz musicians in the opening scenes. But, you need to read court records and the account of the LAPD lead investigator if you care about what really happened. This movie is largely a fictional account, written and produced by people against capital punishment. Which is fine--we have freedom of speech here. Freedom for Hollywood to pass off fiction as truth, and freedom for me to call them out on it. Two examples of unnecessary fictionalizing in an attempt to gain public sympathy for the anti death penalty movement: 1. She certainly wasn't going to visit her baby when they caught up with her--she was going after a fix. They knew her main drug supplier and had him under surveillance. They followed her back to the hideout from a drug score. 2. When the main LAPD investigator reached the hideout, there was no scene with people and spotlights out in the parking lot. It was a surprise bust--they forced the door and found Barbara and one of the two male gang members naked. Neither one a big deal, bust just examples to show you how full of chit the plot was.

Many people recognize Susan Hayward as a great actress but if you ask them in what movie they thought she was remarkable, they'll usually tell you that they can't remember any particular classic in which she played. They'll tell you that they think she is a great actress for all the movies and roles in her career. Let's face it. She never played in a classic. There isn't one movie on AFI's top 100 list that stares her. But if you ask anybody what her best performance was, anybody will answer that it was her role as Barbara Graham in "I want to live". Sure the movie's not a classic. But she totally deserved the best actress Oscar she won for her role in it.

Barbara Graham (Hayward) is a tough, wisecracking prostitute. A real party-girl. Even when she gets arrested for murder, she keeps on joking around and p***ing-off the cops. But when she realizes that this thing is going to court and that if she's convicted, she could be executed in the gas-chamber, she doesn't see things the same way anymore. And when she thinks she has found a man that is willing to testify that she was with him on the night of the murder, he gets her to tell him that she was present at the scene of the crime. She tells him all this. But when he is summoned in court, he is the prosecution's witness and he appears to be a cop who has trapped her into telling all the evidence the prosecution needs to convict her.

Robert Wise's directing is pretty good but the two things that make this one worth watching are the music and Hayward's performance. John Mandel's choice of the blues for the music is excellent and allows us to hang on with Barbara until her very last second alive. Be forewarned: This one is 100% of a tear-jerker and requires nerves of steel to make it through the whole thing without crying. If you like Hayward, see it at all costs. However, Robert Wise has directed some better ones like "West side story" for example. But still, it's pretty good.