Editing I Want to Live! (section)

===Development===
The film's screenplay was originally written by [[Don Mankiewicz]] based on letters by convicted murderer [[Barbara Graham]], who was executed in 1955, and a series of articles by journalist [[Edward S. Montgomery]].{{sfn|Cairns|2013|pages=111–112}} In early 1958, after a draft of the screenplay was completed, [[Nelson Gidding]] was commissioned to write a redraft and tighten the narrative as it "lacked focus" and contained too many pages concentrating on Graham's troubled childhood.{{sfn|Cairns|2013|p=112}} Gidding's redraft omitted any depiction of the murder of Mable Monohan as well as Graham's months spent at [[San Quentin State Prison]] during her appeals.{{sfn|Cairns|2013|p=112}}