I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses (1978) User Reviews

Not a very good movie based on an infamous true story

[Stanley-6 · 5/10 · 1 June 2008]

This is a poorly-acted and sloppily-made film based on the infamous Demeter murder case that happened in Mississauga back in 1973. Just a couple of years before, the same filmmaker made Recommendation for Mercy, a fictionalized account of the Steven Truscott case.

This movie takes liberties with some of the facts, but is substantially true to the real facts. Peter Demeter was an immigrant real estate developer that got rich and married a former model. When she was found dead in their garage, he was arrested and, with the help of friends-turned-prosecution witnesses, convicted of either committing or contracting her murder. An award-winning book, By Persons Unknown, written by George Jonas and Barbara Amiel, is an excellent account of the case.

The print that I saw was old and scratchy. It is not a remarkable film in any sense, but it is an interesting take on a small piece of Canadian history.

A film apparently inspired by the prominent Canadian murder case involving Peter and Christine Demeter.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 28 December 2004]

I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses begins with Magdalene Kruschen (Elke Sommer) being brutally murdered in her garage by repeatedly being hit over the head with a metal pipe by an unknown intruder. It's widely reported throughout the media that her husband, a successful millionaire businessman named Charles Kruschen (Donald Pilon) has been arrested and is standing trial for having arranged the murder of his wife. Most of the film after this opening sequence is set in court, as various key people testify and are questioned by Charles lawyer called Mr. Barrington (Richard Davidson). First up in the dock it's Charles himself. He tells the tale of how he escaped Budapest, Hungary in 1954 because of anti-communist activities. During this sequence an on screen caption says 'the film you are about to see is fiction although the basic idea for the film was inspired by an actual event, the circumstances and characters have been deliberately and extensively altered so that any resemblance to the actual events or actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.' Shouldn't that message have come at the very start of the film? And not 10 minutes in? Two others helped him to escape, his best friend Gershen Isen (Chuck Shamata) and Tibor Zanopek (Goerge Touliatos). Zanopek is shot and Charles and Isen have to leave him behind. Once they reach Canada they worked in a slaughterhouse before Isen became a photographer and Charles made his money in property. One by one other people involved with the case are cross examined including Pauline Corte (Cindy Girling) who admits she was having sexual relations with Charles. Isen who claims Charles spoke to him about killing Magdalene. George Weiller (George Chuvalo) who was hired by Magdalene to kill Charles. Magdalenes cousin, Cynthia Elliott (Linda Sorensen) who is Charles alibi. A murderer named John MacGregor (Miguel Fernandez) who escaped from a mental hospital on the day of Magdalenes death and attempted to kill a 16 year old girl near Magdalenes house shortly before she was found. And the investigating police officer, Chief Parker (Cec Linder) who seems convinced that Charles is guilty and bends the rules to try and prove it. Lots of other revelations come out during the trial like Zanopek survived and recently contacted Charles whom he resents for leaving him behind. Charles and Magdaline had a very unhappy relationship and she taunted him by spending $27,000 of his money on a brand new Porsche for herself. The fact that Isen hated Charles and was blackmailing Magdaline with naked pictures of her that he took while they had sex with each other. Did Charles pay someone to kill Magdaline? Was it someone else? Does anyone care? You'll have to watch it to find out! Written and directed by Murray Markowitz this is a fairly unremarkable thriller. The problem is the way it's put together. Most of the film is told in flashback, we never quite know the time line of the events being shown as one person recounts their story at a time. Even more confusingly there are flashbacks within flashbacks and dream sequences within flashbacks and the narrative is all over the place. It becomes incredibly annoying to watch. And the worse part of this film? The ending. After sitting through all the flashbacks and sorrid goings-on, nothing is resolved satisfactorily. I mean come on Murray, we just sat through 80 odd minutes of crap your responsible for, so the least you can do is tell us who did it and why! There's a fair amount of sex and nudity but nothing too explicit, and there's not much gore either although when Magdalene is beaten with the pipe there is quite a bit of blood. A somewhat confusing film with a real let down and annoying ending, give this one a miss.

Boring courthouse crime drama with few nasty bits.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 5/10 · 6 September 2012]

Elke Sommer plays money-hungry model Magdalene who is married to wealthy Charles.However their marriage is on-the-rocks.Both of them hire killers to eliminate one another."I Miss You,Hugs and Kisses" by Murray Markowitz is based on a true story of Canadian murder of Christine Demeter.The film is cheaply made and deadly dull.The relationships between main characters are uninteresting and the film is ugly and dreary.Why it was classified as video nasty is beyond me.There are some nasty scenes of violence and different scenarios in which Magdalene is murdered.The nastiest bit is when serial killer stabs to death his victim and performs an act of necrophilia on her body.Not to mention Murray Markowitz's film boasts Howard Shore's first feature score and offers a bit of graphic sex.5 bloody bashings out of 10.Only for video nasty completists.

Dull as a brick and should never have made the Video Nasty list

[The_Void · 2/10 · 18 October 2007]

Having now seen seventy three of the seventy four films that were banned as 'Video Nasties' in 1984, I think I'm in a pretty good position to state that the DPP and whoever else was involved in making the list didn't really know what they were doing as many of the films on the list really didn't deserve to be there; and this one is one of the best examples of this fact. The film gets off to a decent start, as we see a woman (played by Elke Sommer) battered to death in a garage. It's not all that gory, but it's an intriguing start that lead me to believe the rest of the film might be at least half decent. It's not, however, as most of the rest of the film is made up of court scenes and flashbacks, and the worst part of is that it's not even interesting. The film was apparently loosely based on a murder case that I'm not familiar with. This is actually quite annoying as film versions of real life events are meant to dramatise them, and I find it hard to believe that the real life murder case wasn't more interesting than this film! Overall, I have no idea why this film was banned, but clearly it's obscure for a reason and if you aren't watching it for the same reason as me, then you really shouldn't be watching! My advice is simply to avoid it...

Incredibly dull affair

[tomgillespie2002 · 23 August 2012]

Elke Sommer (the premier German actress (sic)), plays Magdalene Kruschen, a gold digging model, whose marriage to rich Charles, loses its verve. Each of them conspires to hire killers to knock off one another. The film is structured using court room scenes, mixing this with flashbacks to the events that are discussed on the stand. Based upon the true-life murder of Christine Demeter, one of the most famous crimes in Canadian modern history, this film, with its made-for- television aesthetic, is cheep, and fundamentally flawed.

We follow as the married couple (the names were changed for legal reasons), as they conspire against each other, Charles embarking on an affair with the young Pauline Corte (Cindy Girling - Miss Canada 1977). Magdalene, simply f***s anyone with money, power, and connections with killers-for-hire. It's an incredibly dull affair, pacing through severely wretched people, and their petty affairs. And of course, what these "wonderful" characters want, is the large insurance payoff in the event of deaths.

Whilst taking much of the real-life crime, it obviously needs to change it slightly. But it is left a little ambiguous as to Charles' actual guilt. He is (as in life) convicted of hiring a murderer, we are left guessing as to whether he actually did it. Still, awful film, with very little merit - although Howard Shore composed the score (his first feature film), and we of course know his subsequent scores include David Cronenberg's output, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Unremarkable

[SMK-4 · 4/10 · 31 January 1999]

Pretty much an ordinary thriller. The only remarkable thing about it is that it was once banned in the UK, i.e. it was one of the infamous nasties. However, it is difficult to see how it would deserve such a distinction -- its goriness is very mild by horror movie standards.

Belongs on Lifetime.

[lastliberal · 4/10 · 19 April 2009]

This is one of the two Canadian video nasties on the list, and was released by Britain's censors within a few years after just over a minute of cuts.

It opens with the murder of Magdalene Kruschen (Elke Sommer) in her garage, the arrest of her husband Charles (Donald Pilon), and the subsequent trial.

It is supposedly based upon a famous murder case in Mississauga, Ontario. It is not a horror film, but a film about a rich man (Pilon) and his beginnings in Canada (animal abuse as he worked in a chicken-processing plant), his affairs (nudity), and his plans to kill his wife (blood and violence).

Why someone who is married to a supermodel would have affairs is beyond my comprehension, but he did with Pauline (Cindy Girling). But, then again, Christie Brinkley's fourth husband was apparently doing the same thing. Maybe his wife buying that Porsche was the straw that broke the camel's back, but why would a millionaire get angry over $27,000? He certainly didn't know his best friend Gershon (Chuck Shamata)was having and affair with her.

Maybe is was the escaped serial murderer/necrophiliac that escaped and raped a girl after killing her that put it on the banned list. The defence used that to throw off suspicion since Charles had an alibi.

But they didn't need that as the police were the most incompetent I have ever seen - absolutely laughable in these days of CSI.

The film quality was extremely poor. Most of it was out of focus. The acting was atrocious. The blood was minimal, and the nudity was brief. It had to be the dead chickens that were cut out of the British version - or the necrophilia. Suffice it to say I will not get the censored version to find out.

Video nasty completist

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 22 September 2021]

Also known as Drop Dead Dearest and Left for Dead, this Canadian movie is based on the case of Peter Demeter, a Hungarian-born, Toronto-based real estate developer convicted in 1974 of hiring a hitman named "The Duck" to murder his wife in what may be the longest trial in Canadian history. It was also one of the more sensational ones, as Demeter's wife Christine was a much young and more attractive person than her husband.

Even better, both Peter and Christine were trying to kill one another to collect a $1 million dollar insurance policy. While Peter claimed he was innocent, he was later charged with trying to arrange the kidnapping and murder of the son of his cousin, who was managing his affairs.

Elke Sommer plays Christine, here known as Magdalene Kruschen, in the fictionalized retelling of the real tale. Compared to the other section 2 video nasties, this doesn't really seem up to the gory label, but there you go. It was eventually released in the UK as Drop Dead Dearest in 1986 by Heron Video after 66 seconds of head blows, clubbings and a scene where a woman's dead body being sexually caressed was all cut from the film.

More courtroom drama than vile exploitation - and therefore not a video nasty that anyone but the completists track down - this was the last movie by writer, director and producer Murray Markowitz.

Not your typical video nasty that's for sure

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 12 October 2012]

I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses is yet another obscure 70's movie that has attained cult film status purely on the basis of its presence on the infamous British video nasty list. Without this notoriety films such as this one would be more or less forgotten. It does have to be reiterated once again though that this movie, similar to many others on the video nasty list, is really not very shocking at all. It's in essence a courtroom drama that uses flashbacks to tell its story. And it's seemingly based on a notorious true Canadian crime. In it, a woman is murdered and her millionaire husband is accused. The narrative then looks back and considers the roles of several people.

The only familiar face for me was the German actress Elke Sommer who starred in a couple of Mario Bava films earlier in the 70's. She is good enough as the femme fatale murder victim. In fact, the opening of the movie is certainly unusual, with the name actress being brutally murdered right away. It's intriguing for sure but ultimately the film as a whole is not especially well done. It really feels like a TV movie most of the time, which is why the occasional nasty moments are so jarring, such as the murder and especially a scene of necrophilia, the latter of which must surely have cemented the film's 'nasty' status. Also of note is a soundtrack by Howard Shore. It sounds really familiar to a lot of the work he did for David Cronenberg and it does have a decent icy ambiance at times.

It's obvious that this film does not have a very good reputation. And perhaps that's not surprising. It's not violent enough for those seeking a video nasty and it's too salacious for anyone seeking out a courtroom drama. It doesn't seem to be aimed at a very wide demographic at all. But, you know what? I've seen a lot worse than this. Its mystery may not have been exactly the best but it did keep me interested nevertheless. And, you know how I said earlier that it began a little strangely; well wait until you see how it ends. It's hardly a typical ending that's for sure.

When they met, it was moider!

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 14 June 2009]

Successful businessman Charles Kruschen (Donald Pilon) is accused of bludgeoning to death his beautiful but manipulative model wife Magdalene (Elke Sommer). As the trial draws to a close, Charles reflects on the events leading up to the terrible incident...

A supposed dramatic account of a real life murder case, Canadian courtroom drama I Miss You Hugs And Kisses could be mistaken for the kind of mid-afternoon entertainment normally lapped up by bored housewives and easily pleased geriatrics: with its unexceptional whodunit plot crammed with intrigue, adultery, blackmail, and murder, one could be excused for thinking that Angela Lansbury or Dick Van Dyke might pop up in the final reel to solve the case.

However, the lurid treatment given by director Murray Markowitz to his well-worn material ensures that this particular mystery features no such familiar household names and will always remain an unlikely choice for daytime TV. In fact, in the UK, I Miss You Hugs And Kisses was considered so upsetting that it was even included on the official DPP Video Nasty List. Beat that, Jessica Fletcher!

During the series of flashbacks that are used to flesh out the story whilst also revealing a collection of equally viable suspects, viewers are treated to graphic killings (Sommers head is staved in and a young woman is stabbed in the stomach), nudity and sex, genuine slaughterhouse footage, and even a touch of necrophilia (one of the possible murderers, an escaped lunatic, enjoys raping his victims after he has killed them). Although not overly shocking by today's standards, these scenes seem so out of place in this otherwise routine thriller that they actually manage to be disturbing.

I Miss you Hugs And Kisses hasn't garnered much praise here on IMDb, and it is true that, with an ending that completely fails to resolve issues, the film can leave viewers feeling extremely frustrated, but I still say give it a go: it's certainly not the worst film on the Video Nasty list.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

"Magdalene! Oh My God! Ohh! Myyy! Goooddd!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 24 August 2021]

I MISS YOU, HUGS AND KISSES stars Elke Sommer as fashion model Magdalene Kruschen who is brutally bludgeoned to death in the movie's opening seconds. This may send gorehounds into ecstasy, believing they've hit the jackpot.

Hold your horses!

While the beginning is jarring, it quickly settles into a courtroom drama with Magdalene's husband on trial for her murder. The rest is a series of flashbacks, piecing together what happened to the victim.

This is supposed to be a mystery / thriller, but it's hamstrung by the dull courtroom scenes and a lackadaisical story line. It all feels as though it was put together by accident. Perhaps this is due to it's being based on "true events". However, it just comes off as piecemeal and disjointed.

Within this drab tale are the infamous "dead chickens" and "necrophilia in the park" sequences that jump out unexpectedly, like a crazed jack-in-the-box!

Personally, I'm a huge fan of Ms. Sommer, but this is a dismal abomination!...

Not bad at all!

[RodrigAndrisan · 7/10 · 8 June 2018]

This film deserves more than 3.8 stars, the story is very realistic (inspired from a real fact) and interesting, the quality of acting is very high, good direction. With the exception of Elke Sommer, known from "Deadly Than the Male", "Shot in the Dark", "Among Vultures", "Ten Little Indians", all the other actors are not big names, but everyone is very convincing.

Peter Demeter is my great uncle

[alicia-74122 · 5 October 2023]

I discovered 2 years ago he is my great uncle and this movie was made about their story. He is currently serving 5 life sentences in Bath Ontario and is still alive although very bad health from what I have read. Very interesting family story that stem outside of him but certainly this is an out of the ordinary tale that unfortunately affected many. I have not found the connection of his daughter who I suppose is my cousin (from Ishtvan Demeter ((Steven) if she's reading) . Immigrants of Hungary was common to Toronto in the late 70's given the civil war. My gramma opened a small restaurant when she got here and called it little Budapest! Although Peter is a sociopath, I love understanding that history, especially for the mental health aspect.