Crazy Love poster & wallpaper
Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Bob Janoff, Linda Riss Pugach, Burt Pugach, Rusty Goldberg, Jimmy Breslin ... see more see more... , Rita Kessler , Janet Pomerantz , Margaret Powers , Berry Stainbeck

Filmmaker Dan Klores recounts the true story of one of the most bizarre romances of the 20th century in this documentary. In 1957, Linda Riss was a receptionist in her early twenties who bore a striki... read more read more...ng resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor, while attorney Burt Pugach was married and in his mid-thirties. That didn't stop Pugach from falling in love with Riss on first sight when he saw her walking past her home in the Bronx, and he quickly asked her out on a date. Riss accepted, and continued to see Pugach even after she discovered he had a wife. However, after a year of wining and dining, Riss broke off the affair, convinced that Pugach would never divorce, but continue to string her along. Pugach desperately tried to convince Riss to give him a second chance and began stalking her, but when that failed and he learned she had decided to wed someone else, he told her, "If I can't have you, no one else will have you, and when I get through with you, no one else will want you." Pugach's statement was no idle threat -- a thug hired by Pugach threw lye into Riss' face in order to scar her for life, and ended up blinding her in one eye. The crime earned Pugach a 15-to-30-year prison sentence, but less than a year after he was released on parole, a peculiar thing happened -- Linda Riss and Burt Pugach got married. Crazy Love (aka Love Is in the Air) shares the details of this very strange love affair, and how this extremely unlikely couple has stayed together for 30 years. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Flixster Users

70% liked it

5,395 ratings

Critics

78% liked it

86 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 32 min.

Directed by: Dan Klores, Fisher Stevens

Release Date: May 30, 2007

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: October 16, 2007

Get It:

Stats: 526 reviews

report incorrect info

Photos

Crazy Love Crazy Love Crazy Love (2007) Crazy Love Crazy Love
Upload a Photo | View All Crazy Love Photos

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (526)

  • flixsterman
    December 12, 2010
    flixsterman
    I've never really understood why some men can't let go of failed relationships. They call, they stalk, they cry, they hire someone to throw acid in your face, etc., etc., etc... After watching Crazy Love I understand it even less.
  • bottcorecords1
    January 30, 2010
    bottcorecords1
    Crazy Love is a documentary that recounts the story of Linda Riss and her psychotic stalker, Burt Pugach. In the late 1950s, Burt was a wealthy lawyer with his own private jet, and an egotistical personality (he was deeply insecure about his nerdish appearance, and used sex as a... read more means of boosting his self-worth). When he met the young and beautiful Linda, he became obsessed, insisting to his friends that he "had to have her" (note the possessive quality of his desire, rather than having to "meet her" he had to "have her" or own her). But Burt was a married man, and when Linda found out, she wanted nothing more to do with him. She moved on and got engaged to someone else. Burt was enraged. At first, he was going to shoot them both, but got cold feet. Then, he hired some goons to throw acid in her face, so that "no man would ever want her". This, unfortunately, succeeded, and Linda wound up being blinded (at first partially, and then later, fully). Burt was sent to prison, where he used his attorney skills to get several murderers and rapists out of jail on technicalities (by his own admission) before his eventual parole. Once out of jail (actually while he was still in jail as well), he continued to pursue Linda, and Linda, feeling that no one would ever love her with her disability, decided to be with Burt afterall. They remain married to this day. What's so horrific about this story is not that Linda wound up marrying her attacker/stalker, the real horror is simply listening to the man himself. Burt Pugach and his friends consider women as objects to possess, but human life in general is of little value to them. He's one of the worst real-life villains in cinema history, and the fact that people are willing to dismiss this story or in some way diminish his accountability just makes his vileness all the worse. There's a sense the filmmakers tried to edit this film in a way to give Burt some plausible sympathy, and I can't think of a more wrong-headed direction for them to go. Regardless of whether Linda Pugach forgave her attacker and made him her husband or married him just as some sort of personal revenge, I can't get past the fact that Burt is the lowest form of scum; I just wanted someone to shoot him in the back of the head, as people like him don't deserve to live. My personal feelings aside, the documentary itself (and the sad subject matter) is captivating.
  • neverteaseaweasel
    December 31, 2009
    neverteaseaweasel
    I just watched this movie yesterday, but i'll be damned if I remember much about it. Its entertaining enough, just incredibly ... forgettable. I really liked the style of the footage and photography and stuff. The 50's glamour has always interesting me though. So, I guess i would... read more say its good, it certainly wasn't bad anyway. Its just not that memorible. =\
  • rubystevens
    January 15, 2009
    rubystevens
    the most disturbing thing to me is the light hearted tone of the film as it unravels the tale of two so obviously sick and desperately codependent individuals. definitely crazy; dunno about love
  • bookmunki
    November 19, 2008
    bookmunki
    truth is definitely stranger than fiction
  • tsigur
    January 13, 2008
    tsigur
    It's great to see that you can have rich white trash.
  • Beefy
    December 15, 2007
    Beefy
    These people are nuts.
  • mrbungle7821
    December 11, 2007
    mrbungle7821
    [CENTER][img]http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/17/georgiarulexax0.jpg[/img][/CENTER]

    [COLOR=DarkRed][FONT=Arial]Alpha Dog - One part navel-gazing, one part slow-moving train wreck, director Nick Cassavetes ([I]The Notebook[/I]) long-in-the-works true-life saga about a bunch o... read moref suburban wannabe gangsters is something of a chore because you want to punch every character in the face at multiple times. The tale revolves around a kidnapping that spirals into the brilliant notion that the best way to avoid jail time is to kill the kidnapee, never mind the fact that dozens of eyewitnesses can place kidnappe to kidnappers/eventual murderers. These kids are dumb and caught up in their machismo. [I]Alpha Dog[/I] resembles, in many ways, Bully, but that film felt more authentic in its lascivious lifestyle. Justin Timberlake proves that he can be a decent actor, which is more than what can be said about Sharon Stone, who in one highly regrettably but unmissable moment, dons a fat suit, overacts like hell, and breaks down altogether. It's stupefying to watch and simultaneously the high/low point of the flick.

    Nate's Grade: C


    Bridge to Terabithia - Much less a [I]Narnia[/I] knock-off and more of a coming-of-age tale. It's a simple story with loads of familiar elements (the strict tough love father, the bully who just needs a friend, the free-spirit kid that goes against conventions) but it plays every moment with a satisfying level of integrity. When a late revelation occurs that shakes up everything, the impact stings and we realize all the steady groundwork that has stealthily been going on. Not everything works, particularly Zooey Deschanel as a music teacher that strums her guitar and does little else, but this is a family movie that has much more on its mind than most.

    Nate's Grade: B


    Crazy Love - A fine documentary subject and intriguing characters, but this film doesn't feel like it has any reason for being as long as it is or even existing outside the realm of a TV special. Constructed mostly from interviews, there's not much in the way of visual representation, and after a while the subject (boy meets girl, boy must have girl, boy hires man to toss acid in girl's face, girl eventually goes back to boy?) starts to peter out of material. There's definite shock and puzzlement to this bizarre tale of so-called love, and a whole lot of psychological disorders and dependencies, but there isn't too much of a full-blown movie here. The material could have been adequately covered as a special on the History Channel of some other cable outlet.

    Nate's Grade: B-


    Georgia Rule - Without a doubt, the funniest movie you'll see all year about incest! Someone slap that blurb on the DVD cover. This extremely awkward (comedy? drama? disaster?) spends far too much of its many minutes focusing on Lindsay Lohan's character arguing that she was molested by her step-dad (Cary Elwes) and him denying the allegations. The women in this cross-generations flick are all damaged and stubborn and kind of stupid; Felicity Huffman, playing Lohan's drunken mom, is oblivious to the point of defying reality. Lohan gives another dismal performance playing a party girl that's been run out of town because of her loose ways (must have been a stretch for her to play). This Gary Marshall-helmed disaster doesn't know what it wants to be, so the drama and comedy feel strained and stranded and neither fits well with the other. The icky incest storyline is given so much attention that the film practically goes off the rails to serves its purpose. This movie began as a mess with a studio exec issuing a public flogging of Lohan for her poor onset behavior, and now it arrives as a mess. Strong, quirky women; hard-earned life lessons; recovering emotional wounds; redemption by Act Three; small town color; sad, widowed men destined to be paired with wronged women. You've seen this stuff all before, except, hopefully, for the incest.

    Nate's Grade: C-


    Evan Almighty - This big-budget sequel goes heavier on slapstick and poop jokes but also crams in environmental messages. I was wondering how the filmmakers were going to angle the whole Noah flood thing without it being world destroying, because nothing says funny like everyone drowning to their deaths. Steve Carell tries hard to make the material work and I give him points for trying. This sentimental comedy has some moments of lively levity, mostly from Carell being bewildered at what is happening, but the film eventually succumbs to some weak, half-hearted messages about treasuring family and producing acts of kindness (I won't bother spoiling the regrettably inane acronym of ARK). The supporting cast is wasted, none more than Lauren Graham as Carell's underwritten wife. The Lord works in mysterious ways and so too do movie executives. Upping the budget doesn't mean the laughs have been super-sized as well. [I]Evan Almighty[/I] is passable entertainment thanks to Carell. It's hard to be preachy when you have so many jokes about poop.

    Nate's Grade: C+[/FONT][/COLOR]
  • lesleyanorton
    November 5, 2010
    lesleyanorton
    U.S dcumentary about two people locked in a battle of co-dependency masquerading as love. You know it will all end in tears. It's the same old story you read in novels & the paper every day, with the added media-friendly shock value of what he actually did to her and what she ac... read moretually did afterwards. Having experienced the pathological liar boyfriend myself (though mine was the sleazy serial-cheaty type, not the acid-throwing type) it was a good reminder of the lengths that people will go to maintain their self-deception - when it fulfils their needs.
    Love, pah.

  • zeravenyoej
    December 18, 2007
    zeravenyoej
    O_O wow. these mofos ARE crazy

View All Crazy Love Reviews

Critic Reviews

Andrew Sarris
September 22, 2007
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

It's too easy to feel superior to these two people and their marriage in hell for the sake of some easy (or even uneasy) laughter. Full Review

Manohla Dargis
September 22, 2007
Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Far too readily tends to play this pathetic story for laughs.

Steven Rea
September 22, 2007
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

A Bronx tale full of jaw-dropping behavior and jaw-dropping hairdos. Full Review

Kerry Lengel
July 5, 2007
Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic

Particularly because many viewers have already seen the TV-news version, almost any other genre would have been even more compelling -- a fictionalized drama, perhaps, or Truman Capote-style narrative... Full Review

Roger Moore
June 20, 2007
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

You can't make this stuff up. Full Review

Richard Roeper
June 18, 2007
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

It's an amazing story.

Bruce Westbrook
June 15, 2007
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle

... though Crazy Love remains a far cry from heartening, it is more amusing than disturbing, especially given the cranky yet symbiotic couple of today. Full Review

Tom Long
June 15, 2007
Tom Long, Detroit News

Crazy is the word for it, and if writer-director Dan Klores seems a bit too sympathetic at times, he still lays out a twisted story of obsession that ends in well-maintained mutual madness. Full Review

Terry Lawson
June 15, 2007
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

... Crazy Love is something less than artful, while being completely compelling in its attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible. Full Review

Chris Vognar
June 15, 2007
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

Dan Klores' crazy relationship doc Crazy Love takes a tale tailor-made for sensationalist treatment and sculpts it into a riveting three-act drama. Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Cast

More Like This

This list looks lonely.
Add a suggestion!

Facts

No facts approved yet. Be the first

Crazy Love : Watch Free on TV

Crazy Love Trivia

  • What flick has John Cusack winning a regatta and falling in love for Demi Moore?  Answer »
  • She was Audrey Hepburn, fell in love with a guy with a orange cat, she fought bad guys with Jackie Chan, fell in love with the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and she played with Freddie Prinze Jr. in a crazy Horror film... Who is she??  Answer »
  • In the movie Drive Me Crazy, what did the Valentine's Day card that Nicole gave to Dave in the 5th grade say?  Answer »
  • Name the actor that can be accredited to the following movies? Mr. Deeds The Waterboy Spanglish 8 crazy night Punch Drunk Love Anger Management The wedding singer Click Happy Gilmore  Answer »
More Crazy Love Trivia

Movie Quizzes

No quizzes for Crazy Love. Want to create one?

Video Clips

Upload a Video |

All Crazy Love Videos

Meet Other Fans

Add Crazy Love to favorites

Recent News

No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?