I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses

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.

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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.

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.

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!...

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.