Love at First Bite

Love at First Bite is a 1979 American horror comedy film directed by Stan Dragoti and written by Robert Kaufman, using characters originally created by Bram Stoker.[3] It stars George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin and Arte Johnson.[3] The original music score was composed by Charles Bernstein. The film's tagline is: "Your favorite pain in the neck is about to bite your funny bone!"

Plot
The infamous vampire Count Dracula is expelled from his castle by the Communist government of Romania, which plans to convert the structure into a training facility for gymnasts (including Nadia Comăneci). The world-weary Count travels to New York City with his bug-eating manservant, Renfield, and establishes himself in a hotel, but only after a mix-up at the airport causes his coffin to be accidentally sent to be the centerpiece in a funeral at a black church in Harlem. While Dracula learns that America contains such wonders as blood banks, sex clubs, and discotheques, he also proceeds to suffer the general ego-crushing that comes from life in the Big Apple in the late 1970s as he romantically pursues flaky fashion model Cindy Sondheim, whom he has admired from afar and believes to be the current reincarnation of his true love (an earlier being named Mina Harker).

Dracula is ineptly pursued in turn by Sondheim's psychiatrist and quasi-boyfriend Jeffrey Rosenberg. Jeffrey is the grandson of Dracula's old nemesis Fritz (sic) van Helsing but changed his name to Rosenberg "for professional reasons". Rosenberg's numerous methods to combat Dracula – mirrors, garlic, a Star of David (which he uses instead of the cross), and hypnosis – are easily averted by the Count. Rosenberg also tries burning Dracula's coffin with the vampire still inside, but is arrested by hotel security. Subsequently he tries to shoot him with three silver bullets, but Dracula remains unscathed, patiently explaining that this works only on werewolves. Rosenberg's increasingly erratic actions eventually cause him to be locked up as a lunatic, but as mysterious cases of blood-bank robberies and vampiric attacks begin to spread, NYPD Lieutenant Ferguson starts to believe the psychiatrist's claims and gets him released.

In the end, as a major blackout hits the city, Dracula flees via taxi cab back to the airport with Cindy, pursued by Rosenberg and Ferguson. The coffin is accidentally sent to Jamaica instead of London and the couple miss their plane. On the runway, Cindy finally agrees to become Dracula's vampire bride. Rosenberg attempts to stake Dracula, but as he moves in for the kill, the two fly off as bats together. A check drops down by which Cindy pays off her (enormous) psychiatry bill to Rosenberg, to which he remarks: "She has become a responsible person ... or whatever." Rosenberg keeps Dracula's cape – the only thing his stake had hit – which Ferguson borrows, hoping (since the cape makes the wearer look stylish) it will help him on his wedding anniversary. The last scene shows Dracula and Cindy, transformed into bats, on their way to Jamaica.

Cast

 * George Hamilton as Count Vladimir Dracula
 * Susan Saint James as Cindy Sondheim
 * Richard Benjamin as Dr. Jeffrey Rosenberg/Van Helsing
 * Dick Shawn as Lieutenant Ferguson NYPD
 * Arte Johnson as Renfield
 * Ronnie Schell as Guy in Elevator
 * Isabel Sanford as Judge R. Thomas
 * Sherman Hemsley as Reverend Mike
 * Barry Gordon as Flashlight Vendor
 * Bob Basso as T.V. Repairman
 * Bryan O'Byrne as Priest
 * Ralph Manza as Limo Driver
 * Michael Pataki as Mobster

Production
The inspiration for the film came about while George Hamilton was entertaining screenwriter Robert Kaufman with poolside impressions of Bela Lugosi, and thoughts turned to what would happen if Dracula lived in modern New York City.[4] A script was financed for $100,000 and later acquired by Melvin Simon, a shopping-mall entrepreneur with an interest in films.[5] Director Stan Dragoti became attached to the project through Peter Sellers, an acquaintance of Kaufman.[5]

Reception
The film was a financial success, earning about $44 million[6] against a $3 million budget[1] and ranking at number 13 on a list of the top grossing films of 1979. In fact, it was one of the highest-grossing independent films for many years. However, critical reviews were mixed, and Love at First Bite has a 67% "Fresh" rating on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews.[7]

Janet Maslin of The New York Times described Love as "[a] coarse, delightful little movie with a bang-up cast and no pretensions at all,"[3] while Dave Kehr lamented the film's "hodgepodge of flat one-liners and graceless slapstick."[8] Variety noted a "tendency to lurch from joke to joke" and observed that the story may be "silly," but Hamilton "makes it work. In the first place, he's funny just to watch."[4] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film zero stars out of four, writing that Hamilton "has no idea how to play comedy" and gave "a smug performance in a film full of tired jokes and some of the most cruel racial stereotyping you'll ever see."[9] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "It is not quite the coupling of the decade, and Ms. St. James, although sympathetic, looks occasionally distracted, as if she were expecting a phone call at any minute. But Hamilton, baying 'Children of de night, shawt opp' at the baying wolves outside, has all the energy the movie needs. His characterization, grandly sweeping, sincere, preposterous but solemn, is just right."[10] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post suggested that the film "was evidently contrived by funnymen who started to run short of gags right after thinking up the title," also observing that Susan Saint James "doesn't even seem to be trying" and that "Hamilton does an acceptable vocal impression of Bela Lugosi, but the act may have been more amusing when he was just doing it for friends."[11] Tom Milne of The Monthly Film Bulletin compared the film to the work of Mel Brooks and opined that it had "fewer belly-laughs than Young Frankenstein" but was "more consistent in its humour, partly because it pays more attention to character ... but chiefly because it adheres to its aim of producing 'a comedic Dracula, rather than a comical one.'"[12]

VHS and DVD
The movie has been released on VHS from Warner Bros Pictures on June 16, 1993, and DVD from MGM on July 12, 2005.[13] On the DVD version, the song played during the disco scene, "I Love the Nightlife" by Alicia Bridges has been removed and replaced by a different song.[14] Shout! Factory released the film in February 2015 for the first time on Blu-ray Disc (with the original disco song intact)[15] as a double feature with Once Bitten.[14]

Sequel
Hamilton purchased the film's copyright from Melvin Simon Productions[5] and has been very eager to make a sequel. In 2009, he stated:[16]

He later elaborated about the plot:

To date, a sequel has yet to go into production.