Love at First Bite **** (1979, George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin) – Classic Movie Review 7972

George Hamilton’s 1979 vampire spoof movie Love at First Bite is his best film in 20 years – an unexpectedly funny Dracula send-up, with Hamilton out for the Count as Vladimir Dracula in New York, where he romances Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James).

Vladimir Dracula and his sidekick Renfield (Arte Johnson) have been expelled from Transylvania by the socialists, but they go to New York and take a bite out of the Big Apple, where psychiatrist Dr Jeffery Rosenberg (Benjamin Richard) thinks that the Count’s attentions to his gal Saint James are a pain in the neck.

Many try and few succeed with horror spoofs, so this is a comedy to remember, and Hamilton gives a performance to treasure. The playing is sharp all round (especially also Johnson, Dick Shawn as Lieutenant Ferguson and Sherman Hemsley as the Reverend Mike). And above all the New York Jewish laughs come thick and fast in the screenplay written by Robert Kaufman. So, happily, the movie ends up much more of a bite to the funny bone than a pain in the neck.

Director Stan Dragoti went on to Mr Mom and She’s Out of Control. Hamilton went on to spoof Zorro in Zorro: The Gay Blade.

Also in the cast are Isabel Sanford, Barry Gordon, Ronnie Schell, Bob Basso, Bryan O’Byrne, Michael Pataki, Hazel Shermet, Stanley Brock, Danny Dayton, Robert Ellenstein, David Ketchum, Lidia Kristen, Eric Laneauville, Susan Tolsky, Robin De Adler, David Landsberg and Rolfe Sedan.

Love at First Bite is directed by Stan Dragoti, runs 96 minutes, is made by Melvin Simon Productions and American International Pictures, is released by American International Pictures, is written by Robert Kaufman, from a story by Robert Kaufman and Mark Gindes, is shot by Edward Rosson, is produced by George Hamilton, Robert Kaufman and Joel Freeman, is scored by Charles Bernstein and is designed by Serge Krizman.

RIP Stan Dragoti, director of Love at First Bite, Mr Mom, The Man with One Red Shoe (1985), Dirty Little Billy (1972), Necessary Roughness and She’s Out of Control, who died on 13 July 2018 at 85.

Arte Johnson (1929–2019).

RIP Arte Johnson, who died on 3 July 2019, aged 90, very funny on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (1967-1971) and as Renfield in Love at First Bite. Most of his work was on TV, but he also played Monty in Miracle in the Rain (1956), Lester Aldrich in The Third Day (1965), Paul in That Funny Feeling (1965), Sullivan in The President’s Analyst (1967) and Jackie in P J (1968).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7972

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