George Hamilton makes for a superb spoof Count Dracula: his hilarious cape-swishing imitation of Bela Lugosi is spot on, with a wonderful Transylvanian accent and well-observed mannerisms. Likewise, Arte Johnson is terrific as the Count's snickering, bug-eating acolyte Renfield. It's a great shame, then, that Love At First Bite doesn't do either performance justice, the script a weak mish-mash of predictable gags, only a handful of which will raise a laugh.
The plot sees Dracula and Renfield evicted from their Transylvanian castle, the pair travelling to New York where the Count romances super-model Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James), who the vampire believes to be the reincarnation of his one true love. Trying to stop the bloodsucker is Cindy's previous suitor Dr. Jeff Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin), a descendant of vampire slayer Van Helsing. Mired in the disco-era, the film features dated dance scenes and horrible fashion, with the occasional stereotypical depiction of minorities: a black petty thief, an enthusiastic Evangelical preacher, a poor hungry family who mistake a bat for a black chicken, and a honky-hating black court judge, plus a couple of gay jokes.
The film does give us the classic "Children of the night, shut up!" gag, and Dracula learning American slang from an out-dated book made me snigger (Hotsy-totsy. Boop-boop-a-doo.), but for me, the funniest line was "I had her, but he took her up the elevator shaft" - however, I'm not even sure whether that was actually an intentional joke or just my smutty mind working over-time.
The plot sees Dracula and Renfield evicted from their Transylvanian castle, the pair travelling to New York where the Count romances super-model Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James), who the vampire believes to be the reincarnation of his one true love. Trying to stop the bloodsucker is Cindy's previous suitor Dr. Jeff Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin), a descendant of vampire slayer Van Helsing. Mired in the disco-era, the film features dated dance scenes and horrible fashion, with the occasional stereotypical depiction of minorities: a black petty thief, an enthusiastic Evangelical preacher, a poor hungry family who mistake a bat for a black chicken, and a honky-hating black court judge, plus a couple of gay jokes.
The film does give us the classic "Children of the night, shut up!" gag, and Dracula learning American slang from an out-dated book made me snigger (Hotsy-totsy. Boop-boop-a-doo.), but for me, the funniest line was "I had her, but he took her up the elevator shaft" - however, I'm not even sure whether that was actually an intentional joke or just my smutty mind working over-time.