I Want to Live! (1958)
After four nominations for Best Actress, Susan Hayward finally took home an Oscar in 1958 for her bold performance in I Want to Live! She was very good in this film, and there really wasn’t any other actress in Hollywood who could have played the part, but I always wished she would have won the Oscar in 1955 for I’ll Cry Tomorrow. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better performance in Hollywood history.
In this true story that finally won Suzy the gold, she plays Barbara Graham, a coarse woman with a bit of an unsavory past. She falls in with the wrong crowd, and when they’re all found at the scene of the crime, she’s arrested for murder. She’s one tough broad, and won’t take her death sentence lying down. The film follows her as she fights for appeals and maintains her innocence.
This isn’t a feel-good movie, but given the subject matter, it’s not really expected to be. It’s a bleak black-and-white film, which is perfect because of the black-and-white fate of Suzy. The reason why I Want to Live! is so special and so uniquely Suzy is because she injects a vulnerability into the character instead of making her a one-dimensional tough broad. Yes, Susan has that fantastic low voice and that fantastic shoulder-first walk, but she also breaks down in tears as says goodbye to her infant son.
Nominated for Best Director, Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, and Sound, this is a universally hailed classic from the 1950s. Even to modern audiences, it’s praised as incredibly realistic, often compared to Dead Man Walking. It’s rather difficult to watch, though, so even though Suzy won the Oscar for it, it’s not one I like to see over and over again. But since she does give an excellent, heart wrenching performance, and since she’s my favorite classic actress, I do watch it every couple of years. It’s hard to stay away from her beauty, strength, and talent, and since I’ve only ever seen her in one comedy, I know I’m in for a heavy drama when I pop in a Susan Hayward movie. She really is the queen of comedy; as Rupert Everett says in My Best Friend’s Wedding, “The misery, the exquisite tragedy, the Susan Hayward of it all.”
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "Classic Cinema Central Seleus B" for posting!
More Susan Hayward movies here!
Be sure and check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of 1983's I Want to Live here!
In this true story that finally won Suzy the gold, she plays Barbara Graham, a coarse woman with a bit of an unsavory past. She falls in with the wrong crowd, and when they’re all found at the scene of the crime, she’s arrested for murder. She’s one tough broad, and won’t take her death sentence lying down. The film follows her as she fights for appeals and maintains her innocence.
This isn’t a feel-good movie, but given the subject matter, it’s not really expected to be. It’s a bleak black-and-white film, which is perfect because of the black-and-white fate of Suzy. The reason why I Want to Live! is so special and so uniquely Suzy is because she injects a vulnerability into the character instead of making her a one-dimensional tough broad. Yes, Susan has that fantastic low voice and that fantastic shoulder-first walk, but she also breaks down in tears as says goodbye to her infant son.
Nominated for Best Director, Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, and Sound, this is a universally hailed classic from the 1950s. Even to modern audiences, it’s praised as incredibly realistic, often compared to Dead Man Walking. It’s rather difficult to watch, though, so even though Suzy won the Oscar for it, it’s not one I like to see over and over again. But since she does give an excellent, heart wrenching performance, and since she’s my favorite classic actress, I do watch it every couple of years. It’s hard to stay away from her beauty, strength, and talent, and since I’ve only ever seen her in one comedy, I know I’m in for a heavy drama when I pop in a Susan Hayward movie. She really is the queen of comedy; as Rupert Everett says in My Best Friend’s Wedding, “The misery, the exquisite tragedy, the Susan Hayward of it all.”
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "Classic Cinema Central Seleus B" for posting!
More Susan Hayward movies here!
Be sure and check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of 1983's I Want to Live here!
Hot Toasty Rag Awards:
Best Actress of 1958: Susan Hayward
Hot Toasty Rag Nominations:
Best Director: Daniel Mann
Best Dramatic Screenplay