I Want to Live! (1958)

Susan Hayward finally won her Best Actress Oscar (on her fifth and last nomination) playing Barbara Graham in this “true” story. Ms. Graham was a small-time crook who “hung out” and partied with the wrong type of people. Because of these associations and her own actions she was sentenced to death for her involvement with a couple of killers. Her letters as she fought to escape the gas chamber and newspaper writer Ed Montgomery’s articles were used to develop the Oscar-nominated Screenplay (Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz’s only Academy recognition). Director Robert Wise was also nominated as was its B&W Cinematography – Lionel Lindon’s (Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)) last nomination Editing – William Hornbeck’s (A Place in the Sun (1951)) last nomination and Sound. Notable supporting actors include Simon Oakland as Montgomery Virginia Vincent Theodore Bikel and Gaven MacLeod.

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