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I Want to Live!

I Want to Live!

Drama · Crime · 1958

Brazen perpetual offender Barbara Graham tries to go straight but she finds herself implicated in a murder and sent to death row.

Movie details

I Want to Live!

“The murder trial that shook the world!”

1958 Drama · Crime 2h 0m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.9 / 10

Community rating

Brazen perpetual offender Barbara Graham tries to go straight but she finds herself implicated in a murder and sent to death row.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over I Want to Live!?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.

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An ex-con trying to go straight must face a crazed criminal out for revenge.

Winged Creatures

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A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Robert Wise

Written by

Nelson Gidding · Don Mankiewicz · Ed Montgomery

Susan Hayward

Susan Hayward

Barbara Graham

Simon Oakland

Simon Oakland

Edward S. 'Ed' Montgomery

Virginia Vincent

Virginia Vincent

Peg

Theodore Bikel

Theodore Bikel

Carl G.G. Palmberg

Wesley Lau

Wesley Lau

Henry L. Graham

Philip Coolidge

Philip Coolidge

Emmett Perkins

Lou Krugman

Lou Krugman

John R. 'Jack' Santo

Court is in session

Put I Want to Live! on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Auteur Devotee

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.