Line #22 Film/IWantToLive


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6	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i_want_to_live_1958.jpg]]
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8	''I Want to Live!'' is a 1958 FilmNoir directed by Creator/RobertWise, based on the ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory sort of]]) true story of HookerWithAHeartOfGold Barbara Graham and her failed endeavor to give up a life of crime, ultimately ending up on trial for murder.
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10	According to Website/TheOtherWiki, the movie was adapted from articles and letters written by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Ed Montgomery, who is also a character in the movie. Consequently, the film mercilessly satirizes the media and its tendency to treat truth as a secondary priority to entertainment, and the disastrous consequences it can have in regards to the legal system.
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12	Other than that, best known for the fact that it earned actress Creator/SusanHayward an [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]] for Best Actress in the starring role.
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15	!!Tropes featured in this film include:
16	* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: [[TimeMarchesOn Not so much anymore,]] but it takes place in 1951 even though it was made in 1958.
17	%%* CatapultNightmare
18	%%* DeadManWriting: [[spoiler: Or woman, rather.]]
19	%%* DeadpanSnarker: Barbara.
20	%%* DeathRow
21	%%* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: All of Barbara's attempts to appeal her death penalty are futile, and she dies on the gas chamber.]]
22	* DrugsAreBad: Barbara's husband is a junkie and a total jerk.
23	* DutchAngle: The bar scene in the beginning is shot this way, to convey an unbalanced and disorienting feeling.
24	* FieryRedhead: While the film is in black and white, a close up of a news article describes Barbara as having red hair.
25	%%* FilmNoir
26	* FreudianExcuse: Barbara coming from a broken family is put forward in an appeal for clemency.
27	%%* GasChamber
28	* GirlsBehindBars: Noticeably averted. Barbara being in jail is realistically miserable and isn't played for titilation.
29	* HardOnSoftScience: When Barbara is told that a man who came to see her is a psychologist, she says, "That's ''his'' problem."
30	* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: Barbara is portrayed a lot more sympathetically than in real life. The movie makes it seem like she was really innocent, when in reality it was proved that she did murder Mabel Monohan pretty much just ForTheEvulz when she turned out not to have the jewels she was looking to steal (this is why she got the death penalty in the first place.)
31	* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: At one point it looks like Barbara will get an appeal, but she doesn't.]]
32	* InkblotTest: Barbara gets tested by the psychologist like this.
33	* LastMinuteReprieve: [[spoiler: Subverted. It was just to give her lawyer a chance to finish his argument, and it only delayed the inevitable.]]
34	* MiscarriageOfJustice: The movie makes it seem like Barbara was really innocent, thus making her guilty sentence this.
35	* NoHonorAmongThieves: Barbara's cohorts frame her because they suspect she'd try to frame ''them.''
36	* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: At the beginning ''and'' the end, signed by a Pulitzer winning reporter who covered the real life story.
37	* {{Paparazzi}}: The tabloids are all over the trial, and are clearly more interested in entertainment than the truth. We even get a warning not to believe everything we read, and Babs gets to give them a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech after she's sentenced.
38	* PrecisionFStrike: When someone asks her what it feels like [[spoiler:to hold her child and know she's going to be executed soon,]] she says, "How the ''hell'' do you think it feels?"
39	* ProductPlacement: Possibly unintentional instance, given that at [[TheFifties the time,]] this was not an established practice; but there is a close up on the General Electric logo on a clock.
40	* ReallyGetsAround: Subverted in regard to Barbara: A guy says he thought that there was "no such thing as 'not your type'," and she says, "Till I met ''you.''" Zing!
41	* SilenceIsGolden: At the end, Ed turns off his hearing aid and all the noise around him disappears.
42	* SingingInTheShower: Barbara does this, even though she's not alone. It's prison, after all.
43	* SmokingIsCool: [[ValuesDissonance Well, it was]] TheFifties.
44	* StrawmanNewsMedia: Type 4 -- all entertainment, no truth.
45	* TheStoolPigeon: Barbara's cohorts frame her because they suspect she'd try to frame ''them.'' Lots of truly guilty people get off for helping to build the case against her. See MiscarriageOfJustice above.
46	* TitleDrop: In a letter voiceover.
47	* UndercoverCopReveal: A minor one where the bartender lets her know a man trying to pick her up is really a cop, as well as [[spoiler: the reveal at the trial that the man who promised to perjure himself to get her off was a cop, too.]]
48	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: It is based on a real-life crime, but as mentioned in HistoricalVillainDowngrade, it plays fast and loose with the facts; Barbara is portrayed a lot more sympathetically than in real life, making it seem like she was really innocent, when in reality it was proved that she was guilty of murder.
49	* VoiceoverLetter: Several of the letters Barbara writes are read in her voice.

Context Film / IWantToLive