User Reviews

Lola Alblright, everybody's dream girl from the early 1960s, gives a fine understated performance in "The Woman Who Wanted to Live." The star is top-billed Charles Bronson, but Lola steals the show. Bronson plays a murderous and wounded escaped convict who kills a gas station attendant during a robbery. Lola happens to be the next customer and Bronson quickly abducts her and uses her and her vehicle for his getaway. After driving for a few miles, Bronson decides to just shoot his captive and take the car. Ms. Albright begs for her life and convinces him that he'd be a lot less conspicuous to the police if she were driving and they were "together." After much cajoling, Bronson goes along with his hostage and the two begin to strike up an almost normal "working" relationship. He begins to trust her, especially after he falls asleep in the car for a while---and she doesn't even run away to call the cops. When the car gets a flat, Lola even does the dirty work of changing tires. While laboring away at that nasty chore, a trio of young hoodlums pull up to their car and the boys threaten Lola with possible rape. Bronson, fully awake now but unseen by these thugs, gets out of the car and, after knocking one of the gang silly, pulls out his gun and chases them all away. Lola is suitably impressed with her "knight in shining armor." Later, the two newfound friends end up checking into an out-of-the-way motel and it looks like their love affair can now blossom to its inevitable fruition. Not quite. Lola forgot to tell Charlie why she was at that service station earlier in the evening. Hint: it wasn't for a full tank of gas. "The Woman Who Wanted to Live" definitely had her reasons. This entry was directed for Hitchcock veteran Alan Crosland, Jr. and he keeps the action moving at a good pace with no dead spots. Bronson and Albright demonstrate some chemistry together and it throws off viewers from Lola's real intentions. Ms. Albright, one of the sultriest singer/actresses of her day, was a pleasure to watch in everything she did, even in this brief 22 minute potboiler.

Gas station operator, Fred, is closing up for the evening when Ray Bardon (Charles Bronson) stops by, with a gun, intent on robbing the place. Fred thinks he spots a chance and reaches for the robber, but is shot, dead. This came just after he explained that the truck outside is having its motor overhauled and he has no car keys AND no car to drive home. Just after Fred is shot, a car pulls up to the station and immediately the driver honks her horn. When no one comes out, she quickly gets out of the car and enters the station, seeing the body on the floor. Before she can react, Ray shows himself and makes her drive him on his escape.

Now I instantly figured she is Fred's ride home. The way she honked, then entered the station did not say "another customer" but "Fred's driver" to me. Other reviewers here apparently were fooled. The woman, Lisa, scared Ray is about to shoot her too, volunteers to drive him away, even going so far as to say, "I'll do anything you want" professing that she just wants to live.

Ray doesn't trust her, but because the cops put a bullet in his arm on his escape from prison earlier, he has limited use of his left arm, so he agrees to let her drive him to safety.

Along the way they get a flat tire. One-good-armed Ray rests in the car while Lisa does the changing. A car of hoodlum hot rodders drives by, backs up on seeing a beautiful woman changing a tire. Lisa tries to chase them away, but only makes them mad. Then they spot her companion, lifting his head from his reclining position. He hauls himself out and punches out the trio's tough guy. When the other two pull weapons, he trumps them with a gun, quickly chasing them away.

The pair keep driving into the night. Ray is sleepier and sleepier. He begins trusting her when she doesn't try to escape while he dozes off. She convinces him to check into a motel with her, pretending to be husband and wife to the disinterested "Hotel Manageress" as the credits call her. I know how waiters and hosts were given their feminine versions, but this is the first time I've ever heard "manageress."

**ENDING SPOILER ALERT*** Ray goes to sleep in the motel room, and awakens to find Lisa pointing his own gun at him, as she explains that the love of her life was Fred, the man Ray killed at the station. She didn't try to get away because she wanted to exact revenge...and promptly does so. Hitchcock explains later that she was arrested for taking the law into her own hands. She should have staged it more to look like she struggled with him for the gun and it went off.

My criticism of the beginning is because I remember the good ol' days when you pulled up to the pumps at a gas station, running over a hose that made a bell sound to alert the attendant. You would expect it might take him more than 5 seconds to appear to help, so you likely wouldn't honk your horn until waiting for half a minute or so. And once you did honk, if nobody appeared, you would likely honk again.

But Lisa pulled up at closing time for the station and gave a quick little honk immediately. Since we had just seen that Fred had no car keys as he explained he had no working vehicle, it would surely be expected that someone was coming to pick him up. Her actions clearly said she wasn't stopping for gas.

This was a rather intense episode, with our heroine's life at stake many times. And we had the extra attention getter wondering why she seems to almost want to NOT get away from the bad guy. That part was not clear at all. I will admit that I thought she had quite the opposite reason for wanting to drive Ray for some distance, but turned out to be so wrong. I think this one deserves a 9.

Like CB many actors get caught up with a tag ( death wish) but if you really know your acting he's one of the best ever. That's why I love Alfred Hitchcock and Twilight Zone because you get to marvel at their young abilities before they launched movie careers. Mirrors Eastwood with their careers but both were meant for Westerns. This particular episode was so great. Lola ( who plays the woman/ driver) comes across as so damn sultry even though she's supposed to be a terrified hostage victim. Spoiler alert**. If you see for the first time you just seem to believe she wants a new and fresh start and possibly be on the run with her ' kidnapper"

I would have been disappointed if Charles Bronson had never appeared in an 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' story. He appeared in other series like 'The Twilight Zone', 'One Step Beyond' and even showed up in a Roy Rogers television program as a boxer. This was his third and last time he showed up in a Hitchcock, while his character just about made it to the end of the story.

The story is a pretty good one. Bronson portrays a criminal on the run with a bullet wound in his arm. Making his way to a gas station at closing time, he holds up the attendant, and winds up shooting him as the man (Ray Montgomery) makes a threatening move. About the same time, a woman rolls up to one of the pumps and enters the station when no one answers her car's horn. Seeing an opportunity to grab a car and a hostage, Ray Bardon (Bronson) forces Lisa (Lola Albright) to drive him away as she pleads for her life, knowing that he had already killed the garage employee.

What keeps you guessing as the viewer is why Lisa didn't take a chance on running away during any number of times the opportunity presented itself. An unexpected flat tire which drew the attention of three Dragon gang members would have been a favorable moment, as well as any time Bardon got woozy from his gunshot wound and lack of sleep. The closing scene provides the startling answer, as we learn that Lisa was bent on exacting her revenge on the man who killed her companion, the unfortunate garage attendant! In hindsight, the only difficult thing to accept about the story is how Lisa was able to keep her composure for so long in order to put the thug Bardon out of his misery.