Love at First Bite

I have several vampire flicks in the cabinet, but only one of them is actually a horror flick (Bram Stoker's Dracula). Of the other 2, only this one is about Dracula, the other (Once Bitten) is about a female vampire who bites virgins to stay young (which technically makes her either a succubus or incubus, I can't remember which, and really don't care). Love At First Bite, as the name implies, is a story of love amongst the Vampires. (ed. note: You can also add the entire Blade trilogy, Innocent Blood, Van Helsing, and to a lesser extent, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)

The story starts with the Count being evicted from his ancestral castle by the Communist party, so they can use it for a gymnastic training center (now remember, Transylvania is part of Romania (which my pre-collapse spell checker insists on spelling as Rumania), and when this film was made, Romania was communist, and the most famous Romanian at the time was the gymnast Nadia Comanici). Faced with the prospect of living in government quarters, Dracula (George Hamilton) and his faithful servant Renfield (Arte Johnson) decide to go to America to search for his one true love, who this century is a big time New York fashion model (and played by Susan St. James, the half of Kate and Allie that wasn't Jane Curtain). Getting Dracula to fit in with modern America is not an easy task however. Renfield gets the wrong casket at the customs desk at the airport, and Dracula wakes up at a funeral instead of his hotel. Then, in order to get past the tight security around Susan, he changes himself into a dog, only to get caught by the dog catcher. He does find some good things though, lots of blood at a blood bank (pre-packaged in plastic disposable necks), and he even gets a relationship going with the Susan. Unfortunately, her old boyfriend / psychiatrist (Richard Benjamin), is also the descendant on one of Dracula's old enemies. But, since no one believes him except for one, old, broken down cop, Dracula is able to confess his love to Susan, who agrees to the three bites needed for her to become a vampire too. They change into bats and fly to the Caribbean, telling Renfield to meet them there with his coffin. But the Psychiatrist isn't left in the cold, Susan pays off her outstanding bill, and Dracula leaves his cape for the old, broken down cop.

This film is from the late 70's so it seems pretty dated these days. I'm kind of surprised that this movie hasn't become part of the '70's retro thing that's been going on lately. It's a very funny movie, and has George Hamilton and his really, really bad accent saying some really silly things. Johnson is sillier in his version of Renfield than Tom Waits was in his, but you'd expect that in a film like this. Besides, where else can you have such a good time while looking at those fabulous 70's clothes?