From Lye Attack To Wedding, The Title ‘Crazy Love’ Does The Film Justice
From The New York Times
By Manohla Dargis
LOVE IS BLIND, and so, too, is Linda Pugach, one of the looney-tuners in the somewhat sickening, mildly gonzo documentary "Crazy Love." In 1959, when she was 22, and known as Linda Riss, Pugach opened the door of her Bronx apartment to a thug who claimed to have an engagement present for her and instead threw liquid lye in her face. Screaming tabloid headlines ensued, along with a sensational trial, a suicide attempt, an insanity diagnosis and finally the conviction of a jilted boyfriend, Burton Pugach, a Bronx lawyer turned Bellevue-certified nut job, who after the assault, promised to buy Riss a seeing-eye dog for Christmas. Fifteen years later they were married. Crazy love? Try demented.
The couple had met two years before the assault, when Pugach, then 30, was chasing ambulances, raking in the dough and throwing his money around. Once he spotted her, he locked her firmly in his sights. She was young and lovely, if not exactly the Elizabeth Taylor look-alike claimed in the movie, with a coquette's knowing smile and a virgin's skittish caution. She liked the good times he gave her, the nights out at the clubs, the drives in his convertible. He met her for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, blasting her with attention. There was talk of marriage, but there was also a wife and a child, escalating melodrama and finally a wake-up call. Riss looked elsewhere; Pugach looked nowhere else.
Tango’s Take
Who among us hasn’t intentionally maimed a jilted lover, gone crazy, spent time in jail and then reconciled and gotten married? Oh, that’s right: no one. Somehow these guys make Joe Buttafucco and Amy Fisher look tame by comparison (by the by, it looks like Buttafucco and Fisher are back together). There’s really not much to say about Crazy Love that Manohla Dargis hasn’t said. We would like this time to paraphrase Ed O’Neill from the Wayne’s World film: “Why is it that when a man blinds his lover in the heat of battle, he’s a hero, but when a man blinds his lover in the heat of passion, it’s assault?”
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Discussion
So who can we add to the now living in SF Larry & Isla Wachowski (according to Rolling Stone’s article) group of couples, along with Burt & Linda, and Joey & Amy for Love At Any Cost? It’s no secret Larry’s a cross-dresser. Guess LA was just too tame for him. Enter another San Francisco Bay Area cross-dresser with a Significant Other Woman, or two and some secrets of his own. Just wants the women to fight for him and the best woman wins!?
OR
'Imagine, for a moment, that you grew up having to hide a deep, dark secret. One so terrible that, if revealed, people will call you a 'pervert', a 'freak', or an 'abomination'. If you're lucky you'll only be called names; reveal your secret to the wrong people and you'll get harassed, beat up, perhaps even murdered. How would you feel if you couldn't even talk to anyone about it? Every representation society provides about what you feel inside is negative. If you suppress it until you are married, you can never tell your spouse for fear of divorce, losing your job, being legally denied visitation with your children. You're in for a lifetime of shame and guilt and denial. How would you deal with it?'
You develop and live two lives. One life knows all about you and still loves you. Another life is your public mask who knows only the mask. We know we’re all addicted to That Feeling with That Special One, That Connection, no matter what the cost. That’s why following Burt & Linda, and Joey & Amy, and now this Marin couple is sooo cool. It’s all in the public records, Living Out Loud. For the Marin Crazy Love couple, the court’s public records in Marin and Reno. Will Love triumph?
