Love At First Bite (1979)

When Count Dracula (George Hamilton) is expelled from Transylvania by the current Marxist regime, he and his servant Renfield (Arte Johnson) head for New York where he hopes to meet the top fashion model (Susan Saint James) he has fantasized about for years. This loopy comedic parody of the Dracula movies was a surprise hit in 1979. While its humor is slapdash hit and miss, it remains surprisingly funny 30 something years later though its ethnic humor is a bit dicey. Like Leslie Nielsen in AIRPLANE and NAKED GUN movies, the previously bland but eternally tanned George Hamilton reinvented himself as a comic actor and showed a talent for self parody. The film is basically an extended skit but it manages to sustain itself for the majority of the film but shows signs of exhaustion toward the end. Three supporting turns by expert farceurs keep the film from being The George Hamilton Show. Johnson, Dick Shawn and especially Richard Benjamin whose turn as Van Helsing's psychiatrist grandson is priceless. The film seemed to cry out for a sequel which never materialized which is perhaps just as well. Hamilton followed this up with a Zorro parody which which was nowhere near successful. Directed by Stan Dragoti. With Isabel Sanford, Sherman Hemsley, Barry Gordon and Susan Tolsky.