Strains of disco/organ music accompany the first glimpse we see of Castle Dracula, with lightening and plenty of dry ice; the children of the night providing harmonies to Dracula's organ playing is dismissed with a curt 'Shut up!' Dracula's slave Renfield chuckles a very Dwight Frye-sounding chuckle. It is clear from the outset, this is a light-hearted homage by a production team clearly in love with vampiric cinema.
The mighty George Hamilton, perma-tanned and pearly of tooth is perfect in the role of The Count. His delivery is more reminiscent of Bela Lugosi's accent even than Martin Landau's award winning performance. Hamilton is more talented than he is often given credit for, I think.
One of those words that doesn't really mean anything, 'schmaltzy', seems to describe the worst excesses of this; the greatest crime is its dated-ness. Comedy is notoriously difficult because it is so subjective, but at its heart 'Love at First Bite' is a well observed (even Hamilton sauntering down a street in downtown New York is reminiscent of Bela Lugosi's sojourn down the streets of Universal's 'London' from the 1931 classic), surprisingly well-played comedy, in which Count Dracula's long lost love is Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James), a famous fashion model. The Count's journey to find her takes him through various modern day nightmares; his bewilderment when encountering disco music for the first time is entirely understandable. Equally, his crumpled expression when Sondheim sees him initially and assumes he is a waiter is a highlight. Sondheim's psychiatrist Jeffrey Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin) is The Count's protagonist, and it is telling he is viewed as the befuddled 'bad guy.' Rosenberg is a distant relative of Van Helsing. Michael Pataki, who fleetingly played Dracula in 'Zoltan, Hound of Dracula' the year before, appears in a brief scene in a lift.
As the film goes on, the various homages to earlier Dracula projects give way to more knockabout comedy fare. Just when the joke is in danger of wearing thin with a car chase, Sondheim finally decides to become a vampire and the two bats are last seen wobbling towards Jamaica, where The Count's coffin has mistakenly been taken.
The mighty George Hamilton, perma-tanned and pearly of tooth is perfect in the role of The Count. His delivery is more reminiscent of Bela Lugosi's accent even than Martin Landau's award winning performance. Hamilton is more talented than he is often given credit for, I think.
One of those words that doesn't really mean anything, 'schmaltzy', seems to describe the worst excesses of this; the greatest crime is its dated-ness. Comedy is notoriously difficult because it is so subjective, but at its heart 'Love at First Bite' is a well observed (even Hamilton sauntering down a street in downtown New York is reminiscent of Bela Lugosi's sojourn down the streets of Universal's 'London' from the 1931 classic), surprisingly well-played comedy, in which Count Dracula's long lost love is Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James), a famous fashion model. The Count's journey to find her takes him through various modern day nightmares; his bewilderment when encountering disco music for the first time is entirely understandable. Equally, his crumpled expression when Sondheim sees him initially and assumes he is a waiter is a highlight. Sondheim's psychiatrist Jeffrey Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin) is The Count's protagonist, and it is telling he is viewed as the befuddled 'bad guy.' Rosenberg is a distant relative of Van Helsing. Michael Pataki, who fleetingly played Dracula in 'Zoltan, Hound of Dracula' the year before, appears in a brief scene in a lift.
As the film goes on, the various homages to earlier Dracula projects give way to more knockabout comedy fare. Just when the joke is in danger of wearing thin with a car chase, Sondheim finally decides to become a vampire and the two bats are last seen wobbling towards Jamaica, where The Count's coffin has mistakenly been taken.