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Ginger's Susan Hayward Message Board: To reach If You Knew Susie by Trish Sharp, click the profile photo at www.facebook.com/susanhaywardclassicfilmstar and you will see the link.

Ginger's Susan Hayward Message Board
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Susan Hayward Movie of the Month/January/I Want To Live

If you want to join on this project, watch I Want To Live by the end of February and comment about the film here.

Re: Susan Hayward Movie of the Month/January/I Want To Live

I started watching I Want To Live tonight.. have seen about the first 15 fifteen minutes. I had forgotten about how stark it it, and how the jazz soundtrack adds so much to the film. That first scene in the nightclub, with the jazz combo, and the B girls, the drinking, dancing, and swooning to the jazz music just grabs you and pulls you into the movie.

The black and white is really beautiful on the dvd.

We see "Barbara" as the ever fun loving party girl, tough talking, with a soft touch.

My favorite line I heard tonight was when
"Barbara" was getting arrested for prostitution, and as she was leaving with the cop, the guy she had been with said something to the effect, "Gee, life's a funny thing," and Susan/Barbara says, "as compared to what?"

Well, she got suckered in by two of her friends and was sent to prison for perjury. Then we have the scene where after serving part of her sentence, Barbara is let out on parole. Now, she looks more dowdy, very unglamorous, but she'll get that part of her life back for a while as I recall.

This film is almost documentary in the way it looks.

Re: Re: Susan Hayward Movie of the Month/January/I Want To Live

got a little more in on this film tonight.
The "marriage failure" scene has always been so depressing. Barbara holding the screaming baby, slapping Hank, then Hank hitting Barbara, all of this going on in their small, meager, apartment -- Barbara trying to go straight-she couldn't do it.
Susan could play desperation in such a believable way. Wow, you can really feel the stifled way in which she is living.

You can really get a view of Susan's great walk in this part of the film when she has left Bobby, her baby to taken care of by someone else, and she makes that long slinky, sexy ( and not even trying to be!) walk to the bus stop while the cops are observing her.

She's about to get arrested. Here comes that famous poster scene as she walks out of the warehouse clutching that little stuffed tiger. I can't imagine anyone else playing the role of Barbara Graham.