Love at First Bite (1979)

George Hamilton is the only Dracula with style and a tan. Seriously, there is no seriousness in this hip update on the Count that just won't die. Now he lives in New York, after being evicted from his own castle in Transylvania. Inconceivable! And, George Hamilton plays Dracula to the hilt. It would be easy to say that George Hamilton is the whole show, making Dracula a three-dimensional character and relate-able to the viewers, but he is not. Arte Johnson is equally fantastic as his eccentric and offbeat sidekick, Renfield, and his laugh is too much. He can really get into character and the viewer senses he is enjoying himself a lot in his role. Equally great is Richard Benjamin as a psychiatrist who has loved patient Susan Saint James for years and has proposed to her, but she does not love him and has turned him down repeatedly. When she meets Dracula and falls for him and Dracula gives Benjamin a run for his money for her affection, Benjamin goes ballistic. Benjamin is so good at dead-pan delivery, by that I mean he says his unbelievable lines with so much conviction and seriousness, as to really get you to believe him. Susan Saint James is good too, but with three excellent over-the-top performances by Hamilton, Johnson, and Benjamin, she is left in the dust and is kind of boring in comparison to the other much-animated actors. Three great performances like these in a movie like this is rare and they make "Love at First Bite" a must-see for Movie Comedies 101. Cameos by "The Jeffersons" Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford are a hoot, too. But does she really want to be one of the un-dead forever? With George Hamilton, she might begin to live!

It's a bit odd, that even while I really liked watching this movie, I still have to say it's a far from great or truly recommendable one.The comedy of the movie is quite good and makes this movie a fun one to watch. It's some typical spoof stuff but what else did you expect from a movie titled "Love at First Bite", that tells you the story of Dracula, set in modern times. The entire concept might sound a bit lame but they came up with some pretty good and creative stuff, which makes this movie different from other similar genre movies, that attempt to place an old horror icon in modern times. Really, even while this is a comedy, it's not half as lame as some other, more serious movies, that use a similar sort of concept.But still, its story at the same time forms a problem for this movie. I literally couldn't understand what its premise was all about and why Dracula needed to go to New York to find a particular girl. Because of this, I never could get into the story and therefore also started to care less about anything happening in it. The movie its story doesn't seem solid enough and they don't really let it play a role in the movie. It gets pushed to the background too easily and relies mostly on its characters and the actors who are portraying them, to do some good and fun stuff.And this still is the case for most of the movie. Yes, the actors still make this a good watch, with a surprising George Hamilton playing the lead role. When I think off George Hamilton, I don't really think first of comedy as well. But he was surprisingly great and entertaining in his role as the famous blood sucking count. Same goes for the supporting cast really, with actors such as Arte Johnson and Richard Benjamin playing some good and fun roles.It's a a fun but at the same time also messy and quite poorly told comedy. A more competent director could had probably still turned this into a far more successful and classic movie! The potential for it was all there really.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

"Got the Dracula thing right!, 30 October 2004 Author: marykateanswer42 from Kalamazoo Michigan I'm big on the older vampire films--Bela Lugosi, Frank Langella (although Gary Oldman was darned sexy). "Love at First Bite" was a brilliant spoof of the original Dracula." Have you seen Dra'cula, the Spanish version, also shot in 1931? If not, it's a real treat. Their scenes were filmed at night when the American actors left for the day, using the same sets.Many critics thought the Spanish version was superior than Bela Lugosi's film directed by Tod Browning. Perhaps it was the effective atmosphere of a "darker" castle; perhaps the Spanish actors were more sensuous.Helen Chandler, as Mina Harker, was a very proper British woman, complete with all buttons on her wrists and neck covered - nothing was left to the eye.In the Spanish version (which I agree was a better produced film) Lupita Tovar, playing the Mexican equivalent of Mina - Eva Sewart, is downright sensuous if not sexy! For 1931, this is a big deal! When the missing reels were found in Cuba in the 1980s and made into a VHS tape, this was my first viewing of this wonderful film. In the prologue, Senorita Tovar was watching the movie with her grandson and when she appeared with a fairly open blouse, her grandson said, "Wow Grandma! Now I know why Granddad married you!" A delightful film for all vampire film lovers to watch, and now that it's out on DVD, to purchase.But Love at fist bite is still the best spoof of the Vampire genre, I think much better than "Dracula - dead and loving it."

There are many reasons to rate this movie as a 10. The movie itself establishes a theatrical epiphany that creates an open door of possibility for any viewer(s). As a movie classic, it displays human-like qualities of both frailty and stamina through-out the work.The lead character is portrayed in a custom-made suit of personality and other durable qualities. The story has to be seen to really be appreciated. Certainly, it will rank as a classic, even in the year 2016."Love at First Bite" is a film that any good collector must have in their library, as a simple show piece and even a calendar review on any given Sunday.