Party girl Barbara Graham (was) a fairly small-time grifter who did what she could for a buck, including prostitution and aiding her boyfriends in robberies and various hustles. She went to the chair for a murder she vehemently denied having committed...leaving her small child motherless and Susan Hayward the opportunity to tear up the screen in a highly sympathetic performance. The movie captures the spirit of the 1950s...in vivid black-and-white with which director Robert Wise was a master... Hayward reflected perfectly the glamorous but shaky character of a woman in transition, not knowing quite what she's doing or where she's going, behaving alternately tough and vulnerable while retaining the vanities expected of a good-looking gal. As Barbara Graham, the necessity of a another lifetime in order to get it right fits the Hayward profile. If ever there was a woman's movie made in the fifties, this is it.-Barry Gifford, The Devil Thumbs a Ride and Other Unforgettable Films