{"id":3796,"date":"2024-09-03T21:11:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T21:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3796"},"modified":"2024-10-12T22:14:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T22:14:33","slug":"love-at-first-bite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/03\/love-at-first-bite\/","title":{"rendered":"Love at First Bite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Love at First Bite <\/strong>(1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American International\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (vampirism, language, some sensuality, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Stan Dragoti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert Kaufman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Charles Bernstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Edward Rosson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 13, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, Dick Shawn, Arte Johnson, Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Barry Gordon, Eric Laneuville, Ronnie Schell, Bob Basso, Bryan O\u2019Byrne, Michael Pataki, Hazel Shermet, Stanley Brock, Danny Dayton.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $43.8M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0In my book, there are a few truly great horror-comedies. The short list consists of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, An American Werewolf in London, The Return of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead and the original Fright Night. Sorry, not a huge fan of Mel Brooks\u2019 Young Frankenstein. I like it, but not enough to include it on my list.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d also count the 1979 vampire spoof Love at First Bite<\/strong> among my favorite horror-comedies. It stars George Hamilton as the most famous bloodsucker in movie history. Of course, I\u2019m talking about Count Dracula. Right off the bat, this is ideal casting. Hamilton is famous for his debonair style; it made him a perfect romantic lead. With Love at First Bite<\/strong>, the actor with the eternal suntan shows a real flair for comedy. The premise of the movie is GREAT! In a sentence, Dracula takes a bite out of The Big Apple.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Set in then-modern day 1979, Dracula spends every waking hour in his castle pining for his true love. He\u2019s convinced that supermodel Cindy Sondheim (James, Kate & Allie) is the current reincarnation of the girl he first met 700 years earlier. One night, Communist government officials show up to inform him that he has 48 hours to vacate his castle as they plan to convert it into a training facility for gymnasts. The people of Transylvania aren\u2019t sorry to see him go. Dracula and his bug-eating manservant Renfield (Johnson, Laugh-In) decide to go to New York so he can find Cindy and declare his eternal love for her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0NYC sure knows how to welcome foreign tourists. A mix-up at the airport results in Dracula\u2019s coffin being sent to a black church in Harlem. Needless to say, the mourners are surprised to see a white man rise from the coffin mid-eulogy. The Count is forced to walk through Harlem at night to get to his hotel in Manhattan. Naturally, a group of street thugs target the white guy dressed like a maitre d\u2019. They try to mess with Dracula, but they\u2019re no match for somebody that can melt switchblades and telekinetically throw one of them through the front window of an appliance store. Naturally, this guy grabs a TV before fleeing the scene. Ah, the political incorrectness of the late 70s!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Dracula quickly learns that navigating life in New York is no easy task. It\u2019s like the people are so used to craziness that a bat flying around doesn\u2019t even faze them. One guy thinks it\u2019s his ex-wife come to interrupt him with his girlfriend, calling her \u201ca skinny-legged yenta\u201d while shooing her away. A Puerto Rican family thinks it\u2019s a black chicken and tries to catch and cook it. When Dracula finally finds somebody\u2019s neck to bite, it\u2019s a wino and he wakes up with a hangover. Fortunately, there\u2019s a little good news. Renfield finds out that Cindy goes to the same discotheque each night. It\u2019s the perfect place for Dracula to hook up with her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here\u2019s where Love at First Bite<\/strong> experiences a hiccup. One of the movie\u2019s most famous scenes has Dracula and Cindy disco-dancing to Alicia Bridges\u2019 \u201cI Love the Nightlife\u201d. Unfortunately, it\u2019s replaced by some generic disco song on the DVD release (same thing with the VHS release back in the 80s). The makers couldn\u2019t get the rights to the song, I guess. The problem is that the new song doesn\u2019t match the choreography. You can tell Hamilton and James are dancing to a different song. It doesn\u2019t exactly ruin the movie, but it sure takes something away from it. It was a great scene with the original song. The producers thought so too as it was prominently featured in the trailers and TV ads. I remember wanting to see the movie based solely on that brief clip. Thankfully, it was restored for the 2015 Shout Factory Blu-Ray release. That\u2019s the only version I\u2019ll ever watch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, back to the storyline. Dracula declares his undying love for Cindy and she tells him she\u2019s not really into the commitment thing. Well, she may not fully understand his idea of commitment. His plan is to turn her into a vampire so they can spend eternity together. To do this, he must bite her on the neck three times. Like any budding relationship, there are complications. She already has a sort-of boyfriend, her psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Rosenberg (Benjamin, The Sunshine Boys). Also, he just happens to be a descendant of Dracula\u2019s nemesis Van Helsing. When Rosenberg sees the first bite mark on Cindy\u2019s neck, he immediately deduces that Dracula must be in town. He takes it on himself to do what his grandfather couldn\u2019t, kill Dracula. The problem is that Rosenberg is a complete idiot. He tries to use a Star of David instead of a cross. He also tries shooting Dracula with silver bullets. The incredulous vampire informs him \u201cthat is a werewolf\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Love at First Bite<\/strong> has been around for nearly 40 years. I\u2019ve seen it many times and it still makes me laugh. Some of the lines are absolutely priceless! Here are a few of my favorites. I\u2019d like to start with one that was also a favorite of my mother\u2019s:<\/p>\n

Puerto Rican guy: \u201cCome back, black chicken!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dracula (to howling wolves): \u201cChildren of the night, shut up!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dracula (to Cindy when she offers him wine and weed): \u201cI never drink wine and I do not smoke s***\u201d<\/p>\n

Dracula (to Renfield): \u201cI\u2019m going out for a bite to drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directed by Stan Dragoti (Mr. Mom), Love at First Bite<\/strong> is beautifully cast. Diminutive Arte Johnson is a perfect Renfield using the accent he perfected on Laugh-In. I\u2019m a little sorry he didn\u2019t try to work in \u201cvedy interesting\u201d. James is good as flaky Cindy who justifies her messy apartment by claiming housework killed her mother. Dick Shawn (It\u2019s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) plays a NYC detective who thinks Rosenberg\u2019s claims of a vampire in New York are preposterous\u2026. that is, until a local blood bank is robbed. Benjamin has some funny moments as well. Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford (yep, George and Weezy!) cameo as a preacher and a judge respectively.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s funny to look at Love at First Bite<\/strong> now and see what New York looked like back then. This movie is a comic delight from beginning to end. Sure, it\u2019s totally dated with all the casual unprotected sex and racial stereotypes but it\u2019s still very, VERY funny. This Dracula spoof does not suck!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love at First Bite (1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American International\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (vampirism, language, some sensuality, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Stan Dragoti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert Kaufman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Charles Bernstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Edward Rosson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 13, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, Dick Shawn, Arte Johnson, Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Barry Gordon, Eric Laneuville, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thats-some-funny-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Love-at-First-Bite-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5062,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions\/5062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}