Friday, October 12, 2007

Crazy Love DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Documentary about Lunatic Lawyer Who Blinded His Mistress Due on DVD

Back in the Fifties, Burt Pugach was an ambulance-chasing attorney who made enough money via shady fee-splitting schemes to open up his own nightclub in Manhattan. He even had plenty left over to lavish a jet set lifestyle on Linda Riss, the attractive receptionist he fell in love with at first sight. Without letting on that he was married, he had swept the impressionable 20 year-old off her feet with private plane rides and by wining and dining her at hot spots like the Copacabana.
But while the 32 year-old adulterer was scheming to take the virginity of his naïve mistress, his poor wife was stuck at home, attending to the needs of their severely retarded daughter, 24/7. When Linda learned that her duplicitous suitor already had a family, she broke off the whirlwind relationship.
This didn’t sit well with Burt, who became insanely jealous and started stalking her. And he went ballistic upon the announcement of Linda’s engagement to a guy her own age. Promising, “If I can’t have her, nobody will,” the lunatic lawyer hired some tough brothers from the ‘hood to throw acid in her face. The lye blinded Linda, who told the police that Burt had to be behind her disfigurement.
The cops tapped his phone line and heard him hatching a plan to cover his tracks by having a hit man “kill those three niggers.” Needless to say, he was arrested, tried and convicted, and sent up the river to Sing Sing in 1959 to rot behind bars for 30 years. Ordinarily, that would have slammed the door on this shocking tale for the tabloids, except for a bizarre twist following Pugach’s early parole for good behavior.
Upon his parole, the creepy psycho tracked her down and proposed. As riveting as a train wreck, Crazy Love is a documentary which recounts all of the above, plus some of the sordid details of the couple’s ensuing, stormy 28-year marriage. Along the way, the picture serves up an array of mind-boggling updates, like the fact that Burt has continued his womanizing ways, even landing back in jail temporarily after one girlfriend accused him of breaking her wrist for dumping him after she became fed-up with his empty promises to leave Linda.
A fascinating flick for anyone looking for a new reason to hate lawyers.

Excellent (4 stars)
PG-13 for profanity, sexual references, and mature themes.
Running time: 93 minutes
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment

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