Love at First Bite
April. 27,1979 PGDracula and Renefield relocate to 70's era New York in search of Cindy Sondheim, the reincarnation of Dracula's one true love, Mina Harker. "Trouble adjusting" is a wild understatement for the Count as he battles Cindy's psychiatrist, Jeffrey Rosenberg, a descendant of Van Helsing, who may almost certainly, possibly, may be in love with Cindy too.
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Reviews
One of my all time favorites.
good back-story, and good acting
Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
Blistering performances.
The rating is 6.1/10 as I am writing this and all I can say is...are you kidding me? I was 21 when this film came out and laughed all of the way through it. I've also seen it on youtube recently and it is still just as funny. This movie has a very smartly written script and it is perfectly cast and well paced. You might even say it is emblematic of urban 70's life.The film opens with Count Dracula (George Hamilton) being kicked out of his ancestral home of 712 years in Transylvania because, at the time, Romania was still behind the iron curtain and the central committee plans to take over the castle and make it an Olympic training center. The exiting Dracula and his servant Renfield (Arte Johnson) are met by peasants with pitchforks and torches - and still no shoes - as though this is a 1930 Dracula film. The underlying message being that after 30 years of Communist rule, the Bolsheviks are good at taking things away from people but haven't managed to improve their lives at all in the process.At any rate, Dracula plans to travel to New York City and find the girl of his dreams, cynical model Cindy Sondheim (Susan St. James). In the process Dracula's world runs smack into urban bloodless late 20th century New York City at the height of the disco and free love era, and the results are hilarious. There are mix-ups of various kinds, and then when Dracula goes out at night to feed, he finds he is no scarier to the inhabitants of the Big Apple than a "black chicken" and is almost caught and cooked (he is in bat form) by a down and out family in the projects. Finally, he gets to meet Cindy at the disco she hangs out at every night - and though you would think she would scare off most guys - dirty apartment (think "The Dirty Girl" episode of Friends), cynical attitude towards men, her long blonde hair is actually a wig, still the count pursues.In a parallel plot, Cindy's analyst, Dr. Jeffery Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin) is actually doing something that will get your physician's license revoked in most places - he's been sleeping with his patient for nine years and is ambivalent towards any commitment towards her. Plus he's convinced her AS her analyst, that she does not want marriage, yet he thinks he has the right to be jealous when she sleeps with somebody else. Did I mention that his grandfather was Van Helsing the vampire hunter? Well, Jeffery figures out that Cindy's new lover is Dracula and spends the rest of the movie doing what his grandfather would have done - he tries to kill Dracula. However, he messes up in very comical ways, so don't think this film is ever anything but a comedy.How does this all work out? Watch and find out. If you were around at the time this film came out, and an adult in particular, you'll recognize it as a delicious bite of the 1970's and a great satire of modern life as it existed then. One of the reasons Hamilton's Dracula is so hilarious is that he does not break or bend to the ways of this new world he has been thrown into. He is doing Lugosi's old world vampire, complete with tux and tails and accent, throughout the film. One little word about commercial versions of this film. The MGM DVD removed "I Love The Night Life" and inserted generic disco music that does not fit the scene at all where Dracula dances with and seduces Cindy at the disco. The new Blu-ray from the Shout Factory has reinserted the original music, and I might finally buy a Blu-Ray player just to see the film the way I remember it.
Of all the vampire comedy movies this one has to be one of my favorites. "Lost Boys" is probably number one on the list, but it has a bit more horror elements than does this movie. This one just works as the lead George Hamilton was very good in the role of the bloodsucker. I also like the guy who was some sort of descendant of Van Helsing. I love how he kept getting the way you kill a vampire wrong to the point of shooting Hamilton's character with silver bullets in a restaurant and the last scene where he is putting on the cape thinking that is how the count attracted the ladies. All around funny movie as it really worked for me as the cast was good, the plot was good and the humor was good. I am not the biggest fan of comedies this one though really made me chuckle quite a bit. Hamilton also did a Zorro movie that was not quite as good as this one, but was also rather funny. I wonder how he did not star in more comedy type roles as that genre really suited him very well. The role of the count fit him well too, as he was a bit serious at times and at others very funny. A lot of scenes stand out in this one. Much better than most comedies they put out these days that seem to think the only thing that is funny is bathroom humor.
In 1979, one of my favourite Vampire movies was released, 'Love at First Bite'. With its cheesy dialogue, romance plot line and toned, tanned and accented 'George Hamilton' playing the sad vampire, 'Count Vladimir Dracula', this movie was a comedy success just waiting to happen.Vladimir is a Vampire with a heart. He is lonely, tired of his un-life and longing for companionship. But each and every time he has tried throughout the centuries to find his true love, something terrible always happened. And now, he is being evicted from his Transylvanian home and so has decided to move to New York to find his love, 'Cindy Sondheim', played by the beautiful 'Susan Saint James'.Cindy is a model (naturally) but surprisingly isn't as up herself as one would expect. Her character is much more self-conscious and down to earth than I had expected, which added to my enjoyment of the film.Soon enough, with the help of his servant and companion, 'Renfield', acted with such creepiness and downright filth by 'Arte Johnson', Vlad finally meets Cindy and proceeds to woo her with his deadly charm. But there is one problem. Cindy's psychologist and part-time lover, 'Dr. Jeffery Rosenberg' gets in the way, by opening up and confessing that he changed his name and that he is really a 'Van Helsing'. Jeffery then does his best to save Cindy and kill Vlad.One of my favourite scenes is set in a restaurant. Cindy and Vlad are having dinner when Jeffery bursts in, pulls out a gun and shoots Vlad three times in the chest, proclaiming that three silver bullets would kill him. But Vlad simply laughs and replies that the joke was on him, silver bullets are for werewolves. Jeffery is dragged out by the police and exclaims as he goes; 'No harm done. The man's alright. This was for a werewolf. No problem. Calm down, take it easy. I'm a Doctor, I know what I'm doing. It's alright, he's even got a little colour.' Overall, an excellent movie with a great cast and wonderful camera work and effects. The dialogue can be a bit cheesy at times, but it's definitely funny either way. There a lot of good lines throughout, but you'll have to watch it to hear them for yourself.
...what I saw was funny enough. Featuring a tan-less George Hamilton as Count Vladimir Dracula looking for a bride in 1970s New York, the movie is basically an excuse to be silly. His bride to be in this case is Cindy Sondheim (Susan St. James), and Richard Benjamin is his usual funny self as Dr. Jeffrey Rosenberg trying to protect Cindy from the count. My favorite scene was when Jeffrey holds up the "cross". Dick Shawn - in a role fairly reminiscent of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Producers" - plays an uptight cop, and Arte Johnson plays Renfield. All that I can say is that you'll definitely want to sink your teeth into this movie.