The majority of the humor is silly and threaded together with a sketch comedy vibe.
1979’s Love at First Bite takes place in disco-era New York City as Count Dracula (George Hamilton) looks for supermodel Cindy Sondheim (Susan St. James), who he believes to be his reincarnated lover, Mina Harker. Evicted from his Transylvanian castle by the government, Dracula and his faithful assistant, Renfield (Arte Johnson), find themselves acclimating to American culture as viewed through a not-so politically correct script by Robert Kaufman (Freebie and the Bean).
Taking most of its cues from the classic 1931 film version of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, this lighthearted parody also pits the count against Jeffrey Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin), a Jewish psychiatrist who also happens to be the great-grandson of his arch-nemesis, Van Helsing. Most of the film’s best humor derives from the conflict between Dracula and Rosenberg over the attention of Ms. Sondheim. The highlight being a showdown between the two over who can hypnotize who first.
George Hamilton makes for an appropriately goofy Count Dracula. His accent, blatantly aping Bela Lugosi’s, and vampiric stare coupled with the fish-out-of-water situations elicit a fair number of chuckles. However, it’s Richard Benjamin who gets the majority of the big laughs with his over-the-top attempts to take out Dracula.
Unfortunately, the movie is a product of its time. Racist jokes and references to the then-recent TV miniseries, Roots, abound. It’s hard to believe that such casual racism is found in a comedy that, otherwise, isn’t especially mean-spirited. The majority of the humor is silly and threaded together with a sketch comedy vibe.
If you’re looking for a film to follow up Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein on a movie night with friends, Love at First Bite would work much better than Brooks’ own attempt to tackle the subject, Dracula: Dead and Loving It. It’s nowhere near as classic as Brooks’ take on Frankenstein and it hasn’t aged as well but it’s still worth a look if you enjoy that type of humor.
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
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