I Want to Live is a 1958 film noir starring Susan Hayward in a story based on real events about a beautiful woman who supports her party girl life style by using her good looks to lure men into gambling rackets. When her seemingly-innocent crimes lead her into some serious charges, the whole country tunes into her trial to find out what went wrong. Hayward plays Barbara Graham, the woman nicknamed "Bloody Babs" by the press for her participation in a murder-robbery that earned her a ticket to the California gas chamber. The film is a fictionalized account of the events of Graham's life leading up to her trial. The screenplay, written by Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz, draws information from Graham's personal letters and the newspaper articles written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Montgomery. I Want to Live is a gripping account of a woman's life gone wrong, featuring an inspired performance that won Susan Hayward the Academy Award for Best Actress.moreless