For years I thought I imagined seeing this, but recently my brother remembers seeing the same thing.
This movie was on television years ago (before cable). Immediately after the execution, there's another scene. Another female prisoner has been hassled by other prisoners to confess to the crime. In agony the second prisoner admits that she's the one who was really guilty. However the confession comes seconds too late.
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I am not confused with another movie. I know this is not the ending usually seen, but for some reason someone tacked on a suspenseful ending when this showed on network television at least 25 years ago. Maybe two endings were filmed. I don't know.
sharePerhaps this was some writer's imagination to a TV show about this film that was the ending but it certainly wasn't included in the original movie. Once she was executed, I don't know if anything more was done as to investigating whether or not she was really innocent. If that occured, I never read about it. Anyone else know if this happened??
"The Gods haven't made it easy to be a human being."
I've never seen any ending in the movie except the reporter going out to his car after the execution and turning his hearing aid off.
Maybe, you are thinking of the TV movie. I've never seen that.
There was no need to do any more to investigate Barbara's innocence. The San Quentin warden told at least two individuals some time after the execution that she had confessed to him. He gave his reasons for not disclosing this to the press: (1) Prison officials should not get involved with questions of guilt or innocence but should just simply follow the rulings of the courts, and (2) If Barbara's friends and relatives thought her innocent, the warden did not want to be the one to ruin that for them.
shareI don't think this proves her guilt. It wasn't sworn testimony, and now amounts to little more than hearsay. I don't know anything about the warden, personally, but it is possible he may have had his own reasons for reporting this which had little to do with the truth. It may have been something he convinced himself of as a way to assuage his own guilt feelings about possibly participating in the execution of an innocent person. Perhaps he manipulated her into saying something approaching a confession (much as was shown in the film). Who knows? One thing is certain, even today, with the added safeguards, hundreds of people have been sentenced to death who have not been guilty. (About 130 of these have been discovered and set free since 1978--and at least one was found too be innocent to late.)
In any case, subsequent court rulings have made the tactics used to get her "confession" as shown in the film, strictly off-limits and any info gathered in such a manner would be inadmissible. Thus, if the trial had been held today, the jury would probably have found her not guilty.
Peace.
"Nothing in this world is more surprising than the attack without mercy!"--Little Big Man
I don't think this proves her guilt. It wasn't sworn testimony, and now amounts to little more than hearsay.
Famous American Crimes and Trialsshare
Volume III: 1913–1959
Frankie Y. Bailey and Steven Chermak
"In March 1960, then-Governor Brown called the legislature into special session to consider a bill to suspend the death penalty. The next-to-last speaker was Deputy District Attorney J. Miller Leavy, who opposed the bill. In the course of his testimony, Leavy stated that he learned in 1959 that Barbara Graham had orally confessed to the murder of Mabel Monahan during a private conversation with San Quentin Warden Harley Teets."
"According to Marin County District Attorney William Weissich, Teets (who died of a heart attack in 1957) made the statement as he and Weissich drove to San Quentin on August 30, 1957. Weissich did not reveal this information until 1959, when he was contacted by prosecutor Leavy in connection with a proposed book (later published as The Case of Barbara Graham in 1962). As the reporter’s transcript of the 1960 hearings reveals, much effort was expended on determining when Graham could have spoken to Teets privately. The hearing’s findings on this issue were inconclusive."
Interesting!
Fighting for Truth, Justice, and making it the American way.
Same movie title, 2nd version for television with Lindsay Wagner playing Barbara Graham. The movie version with Susan Hayward ends with Simon Oakland (the reporter) turning off his hearing aid after he witnessed the execution.
The television version ends the way you stated it?
I saw the original movie with Susan Hayward at a movie theater in 1958, and I can tell you that it ended with Simon Oakland turning off his hearing aid as he walked to his car.
shareAre you getting this movie confused with "Why Must I Die?" (1960) starring Debra Paget?? I am sure from what you say, THIS is the film you are thinking of.
"Which one do you want, Biff? Doug? Skippy? No, don't take Skippy, he has asthma."
Why Must I Die. With Terry More as the innocent woman executed and then someone to late confesses.
shareSounds like you might be confusing this with WHY MUST I DIE?, a 1960 cheapie inspired by the case starring Terry Moore and Debra Paget. There was never any scene like you describe in I WANT TO LIVE.
shareThe is no tacked on ending to this film. Whoever started this thread confused "Why must I Die?" with "I want to Live." The endings are completely different as shown by the lone Simon Oakland dramatically turning off his hearing aid after the execution.
shareWhen I was a very little boy (I mean 5 or 6 years old) I saw 'Why must I die?" and I was so moved by the ending scene, with the real murderer confessing her crime and a guard telling her 'it's too late, she's been executed' or something like that. I was so young and I couldn't remember the film's title, but I could never forget that scene. In time, I persuaded myself the movie was 'I want to live', and I was so excited when I bought the DVD... only to find out - at the very ending - that it was not the movie I remembered. Reading this thread, I finally discovered the truth: my never forgotten childhood's movie was 'Why must I die?', and I'm astonished to see that I was not the only one who mistook one for another. Thanks to everyone.
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