Love at First Bite
A 1979 comedy film directed by Stan Dragoti and starring George Hamilton (!?) as the tannest Count Dracula ever to appear on film.
The world-weary count is evicted from his ancestral home by the (Communist) Romanian government and, along with his bug-eating assistant Renfield (Arte Johnson), travels to modern-day New York City in search of his soulmate, currently reincarnated as flaky fashion model Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James). In winning her heart, he must deal with bumbling assassination attempts from her long-suffering psychiatrist/quasi-boyfriend Jeffery Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin), who is "Fritz" Van Helsing's grandson.
Much, much better than it probably sounds, the film provided the role of a lifetime for Hamilton, and the rest of the cast turns in excellent performances as well.
Hamilton has tried on numerous occasions to get a sequel filmed, but the concept remains mired deep in Development Hell.
- Annoying Laugh: Renfield, copied from Dwight Frye in the original movie Dracula.
- Badass Cape
- Big Blackout: New York City suffers one of these during the climax.
- Bill, Bill, Junk, Bill
- Black Cloak
- Black Dude Dies First: The only corpse in sight, and he dies before the movie even starts.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Rosenberg knows how to pick locks using a credit card.
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: In the VHS and DVD releases of the film, the disco song perfectly used in a crucial scene ("I Love The Nightlife") was replaced with some third-rate generic (and presumably royalty-free) tune.
- Cursed with Awesome
- Dracula
- Fake Nationality: An in-universe example: Rosenberg the psychiatrist adapted that name "for professional reasons."
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Both stars of the TV series The Jeffersons appear in cameos.
- Hypnotic Eyes: In a comedic subversion, Dracula only uses these on men, even when faced with women who are being aggressively unhelpful.
- I Do Not Drink... Wine: "...and I do not smoke shit."
- In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You:
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Cindy's Agent: What are ya gonna do, eat your lunch in my office? |
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- Intoxication Ensues: "What was that maniac drinking!? Tastes like the Volga river at low tide!"
- Jive Turkey: More than one black character.
- Kiss of the Vampire
- Mugging the Monster: "It's folks like you that give this neighborhood a bad name!"
- Pocket Protector: How Dracula survived being staked by the original Van Helsing.
- The Renfield
- Ruritania: 1970's Romania. "I think they're from the government (...) They're wearing shoes."
- Running Gag: Rosenberg can never get his vampire lore straight.
- Shout-Out: Dracula quotes a line from the 1934 film Death Takes A Holiday:
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I am [Dracula] a great power -- but I am humbled before you. [1] |
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- Multiple Roots references thoroughly date this piece.
- The Taxi
- Vampire Dance: He likes the night life..
- Vampire Fiction
- ↑ Note that Frederick March's Death also spoke in a cheesy eastern European accent. If the line works, it works, right?