There is a potential problem shared by documentaries and by movies based partly on real events: how do you tell the story when most people know how it is going to end?  One of the things which made James Cameron's Titanic so surprising was how he crafted a fine love story around a ship which we ALL knew was going to sink.  Or Apollo 13, where most of the audience knew how the story was going to end.  Crazy Love is a film which shares that problem, although not necessarily to the same extent.  Any personal familiar with the story of Burt Pugach and Linda Riss knows most of the major pieces of the story already.  Fortunately, as it turns out, knowledge of the events does not lessen your enjoyment of the film in the slightest.  And if you don't know the details, you're in for quite a story.

I'll try not to give too much away, in case you haven't heard about Burt and Linda over the years.  Back in the 1950's, Burt Pugach, a married successful lawyer (one of the original New York City ambulance chasers) meets a beautiful young woman named Linda Riss, and becomes at first smitten, then infatuated, and eventually obsessed with her.  Their romance stalls when she discovers that he is married, although through lies and subterfuge he talks his way back into her life a few times.  Finally, she's had enough, and becomes engaged to a nice-enough young man.  At this point, Burt snaps, and decides that if he can't have her, nobody can.

Through interviews with both Burt and Linda, plus many of their friends and relatives, the first-hand accounts of a relationship turned into ugly obsession leave the viewers shaking their heads in disbelief.  Even if you know some of the story (as I did from the extensive press coverage of later events as I grew up near New York City), to have them all laid out in front of you piece by piece is a very captivating experience.  Even Burt at times comes off as a slightly sympathetic character, finding himself unable to control his emotions when his professional and personal lives were collapsing simultaneously.  Who knows where the line between love and obsession, between reality and insanity, is truly drawn?

The combination of modern interviews, old news footage, home movies, photos, newspaper clippings, and period music all work together in a marvelous fashion.  Humor, intended and unintended, is everywhere - as it has to be when dealing with a story as manic as this one.  I am not sure how widely available this film is right now, but do yourself a favor and search for it.  You'll be very glad you did!