{{Short description|1979 American comedy horror film by Stan Dragoti}} {{For|the Three Stooges film|Love at First Bite (1950 film)}} {{distinguish|Love at First Byte (disambiguation) {{!}} Love at First Byte}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Love at First Bite | image = love_at_first_bite.jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Stan Dragoti | producer = Joel Freeman | screenplay = Robert Kaufman | story = Robert Kaufman<br>Mark Gindes | starring = {{Plainlist| * George Hamilton * Susan Saint James * Richard Benjamin * Dick Shawn * Arte Johnson }} | music = Charles Bernstein | cinematography = Edward Rosson | editing = Mort Fallick<br />Allan Jacobs | studio = Melvin Simon Productions | distributor = American International Pictures | released = {{Film date|1979|4|6}} | runtime = 94 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $3 million<ref name="people">[http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20074820,00.html ''B'' is for Low Budget and Big Box Office Bucks, So Sam Arkoff is Proud to Be Called Hollywood's ''King of the B Pictures''.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140523225548/http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20074820,00.html |date=2014-05-23 }} ''People Magazine''. Retrieved May 23, 2014.</ref> | gross = $43,900,000<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1979/0LAFB.php|publisher=The Numbers|title=Love at First Bite, Box Office Information|access-date=January 28, 2012}}</ref> }}
'''''Love at First Bite''''' is a 1979 American comedy horror film directed by Stan Dragoti and written by Robert Kaufman, using characters originally created by Bram Stoker.<ref name=NYT/> It stars George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, and Arte Johnson.<ref name=NYT/> The film's plot details the misadventures of Count Dracula in New York City while pursuing the object of his romantic desires, fashion model Cindy Sondheim, only to find himself a fish out of water in the Big Apple and having to contend with the inimical attentions of Cindy's would-be boyfriend.
The original music score was composed by Charles Bernstein. The film's tagline is: "Your favorite pain in the neck is about to bite your funny bone!" An earlier version of the script by director Richard Rush was titled ''Dracula Sucks Again''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Love At First Bite |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56129-LOVE-ATFIRSTBITE?sid=25ca9f4e-deb9-4143-b9a7-7c0ff1ee3f1c&sr=14.244333&cp=1&pos=0 |website=catalog.afi.com |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=19 June 2021}}</ref>
The film's success revived the career of George Hamilton.<ref name="ink">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/not-quite-movie-stars-george-hamilton/|title=Not Quite Movie Stars: George Hamilton|date=20 March 2026|access-date=20 March 2026}}</ref> ==Plot== The infamous vampire Count Dracula is expelled from his castle by the Communist government of Romania, which plans to convert it into a training facility for gymnasts (including Nadia Comăneci). The world-weary Count travels to New York City with his bug-eating manservant, Renfield, and establishes himself in a hotel, only after an airport transport mix-up accidentally sends his coffin to be the centerpiece at a funeral in a black church in Harlem. While Dracula learns that late 1970s America contains such wonders as blood banks, sex clubs, and discotheques, the Count also proceeds to suffer the general ego-crushing that comes from life in the Big Apple when he romantically pursues flaky fashion model Cindy Sondheim. He has admired her from afar, believing her to be the current reincarnation of his true love (a previous reincarnation having been Mina Harker).
Dracula is ineptly pursued in turn by Cindy's psychiatrist and quasi-boyfriend Jeffrey Rosenberg, who is the grandson of Dracula's old nemesis Fritz van Helsing and changed his name to Rosenberg "for professional reasons". Rosenberg's numerous methods to combat Dracula (mirrors, garlic, a Star of David in place of a cross, and hypnosis) are easily averted by the Count. Rosenberg also tries burning Dracula's coffin with the vampire still inside, but he is arrested by hotel security. Subsequently he tries to shoot Dracula with silver bullets, but the Count remains unscathed, patiently explaining that this works only on werewolves. Rosenberg's increasingly erratic actions eventually cause him to be locked away as a lunatic. As mysterious cases of blood-bank robberies and vampiric attacks begin to spread, NYPD Lieutenant Ferguson starts to believe the psychiatrist's claims and gets Rosenberg released.
As a major blackout hits the city, Dracula flees with Cindy via taxi cab back to the airport, pursued by Rosenberg and Ferguson. His coffin is accidentally sent to Jamaica instead of London, and the couple miss their flight. On the runway, Cindy finally agrees to become Dracula's vampire bride. Rosenberg attempts to stake Dracula, but as he moves in for the kill, Dracula and Cindy fly away. A check falls from the sky, by which Cindy pays off her enormous psychiatry bill owed to Rosenberg. Rosenberg keeps Dracula's cape (the only thing his stake struck), which Ferguson borrows, hoping it will help him look stylish on his wedding anniversary. Dracula and Cindy, transformed into bats, fly toward Jamaica.
==Cast== {{col div}} * George Hamilton as Count Vladimir Dracula * Susan Saint James as Cindy Sondheim * Richard Benjamin as Dr. Jeffrey Rosenberg/Van Helsing * Dick Shawn as Lieutenant Ferguson * Arte Johnson as Renfield * Ronnie Schell as Guy in Elevator * Isabel Sanford as Judge R. Thomas * Sherman Hemsley as Reverend Mike * Barry Gordon as Flashlight Vendor * Bob Basso as TV Repairman * Bryan O'Byrne as Priest * Ralph Manza as Limo Driver * Michael Pataki as Mobster * Susan Tolsky as Model Agent {{col div end}}
==Production== The inspiration for the film came about when George Hamilton met Harold Sonny Van Arnem and together they met with screenwriter Robert Kaufman and agreed to produce the film with poolside impressions of Bela Lugosi, and thoughts turned to what would happen if Dracula lived in modern New York City.<ref name="variety">{{cite magazine|title=Film Reviews: Love At First Bite|magazine=Variety|date=April 11, 1979|page=20|author=Har.}}</ref> Van Arnem contracted directly with Kaufman to write a script based on the combined thoughts from Hamilton, Kaufman, and Van Arnem. Van Arnem paid Robert Kaufman $25,000 to write the script. The initial script was titled ''Dracula Sucks Again'' and was owned exclusively by Van Arnem until it was sold to Melvin Simon, a shopping-mall entrepreneur with an interest in films who agreed to finance the film production.<ref name="afi">{{cite web |url=http://catalog.afi.com/Film/56129-LOVE-AT-FIRST-BITE?sid=c03f81cd-ff9d-4824-b8a3-f3c25fc44f0b&sr=3.8826933&cp=1&pos=0#1 |title=Love at First Bite - History |website=AFI Catalog of Feature Films |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=December 2, 2018 }}</ref> Director Stan Dragoti became attached to the project through Peter Sellers, an acquaintance of Kaufman.<ref name="afi" />
==Release== The film opened in Detroit in conjunction with the Detroit Express pro soccer opening season in March 1979 at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. The film then opened in 88 theaters in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco on April 6, 1979. It expanded the following weekend into another 134 theaters in nine cities, including New York and Boston.<ref name=open/><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=A $2,887,474 Gulp|date=April 25, 1979|page=4}}</ref>
==Home media== The film was first released on VHS in 1981 by Warner Home Video, again on June 16, 1993 from Orion Home Video, and finally on DVD, July 12, 2005, from MGM.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}} On the later VHS and DVD releases, the song played during the disco scene, "I Love the Nightlife" by Alicia Bridges, was removed and replaced with a different song.<ref name="fangoria.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.fangoria.com/new/love-at-first-bite-once-bitten-double-feature-blu-ray-review/ |title="LOVE AT FIRST BITE" / "ONCE BITTEN" Double Feature (Blu-ray Review) |access-date=2015-02-10 |archive-date=2015-02-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210201744/http://www.fangoria.com/new/love-at-first-bite-once-bitten-double-feature-blu-ray-review/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Shout! Factory released the film in February 2015 on Blu-ray Disc (with the original disco song by Bridges intact)<ref>[https://www.shoutfactory.com/film/film-comedy/love-at-first-bite-once-bitten-double-feature Love At First Bite / Once Bitten Double Feature ]</ref> as a double feature with ''Once Bitten'' (1985), the audio enhanced to 5.1 surround sound on both features.<ref name="fangoria.com"/>
==Reception== The film was a financial success, grossing $2,136,923 in its first 10 days.<ref name=open>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://varietyultimate.com/archive/issue/WV-04-18-1979-13|title=American International is pleased to announce that the "COUNT" is in (advertisement)|date=April 18, 1979|pages=13–15|url-access=subscription|access-date=December 24, 2020}}</ref> It went on to gross $44 million<ref>[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=loveatfirstbite.htm Box Office Information for ''Love at First Bite''.] Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 23, 2014.</ref> against a $3 million budget<ref name="people"/> and ranking at number 13 on a list of the top grossing films of 1979. (Or rentals of $20.6 million).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/americanfilmdist0000dona/page/300/mode/1up|title= American film distribution : the changing marketplace|last=Donahue|first= Suzanne Mary|year=1987 |publisher=UMI Research Press |page=300|isbn= 9780835717762}} Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada</ref>)
It was AIP's highest-grossing film<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=May 23, 1979|title=A Corpuscular Triumph|page=3}}</ref> until the release of ''The Amityville Horror'' later in the year. It was one of the highest-grossing independent films for many years. Critical reviews at the time were mixed, however. ''Love at First Bite'' has a 71% "Fresh" rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews with the site's consensus reading: "''Love At First Bite'' could use some more warm-blooded barbs to liven up its undead comedy, but George Hamilton's campy charisma gives the prince of darkness some welcome pizazz".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/love_at_first_bite/|title=Love at First Bite|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes}}</ref>
Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' described ''Love'' as "[a] coarse, delightful little movie with a bang-up cast and no pretensions at all,"<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E07E0DC1739E732A25750C1A9629C946890D6CF|title=Love At First Bite (1979) Screen: 'Love at First Bite,' Dracula's 'Plaza Suite':Full-Blooded Humor|first=Janet|last=Maslin|author-link=Janet Maslin|date=April 13, 1979}}</ref> while Dave Kehr lamented the film's "hodgepodge of flat one-liners and graceless slapstick."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/love-at-first-bite/Film?oid=1051309 |title=Love at First Bite |last=Kehr |first=Dave |author-link=Dave Kehr |website=Chicago Reader |date=18 October 1985 |access-date=December 2, 2018 }}</ref> ''Variety'' noted a "tendency to lurch from joke to joke" and observed that the story may be "silly," but Hamilton "makes it work. In the first place, he's funny just to watch."<ref name="variety" /> Gene Siskel of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film zero stars out of four, writing that Hamilton "has no idea how to play comedy" and gave "a smug performance in a film full of tired jokes and some of the most cruel racial stereotyping you'll ever see."<ref>Siskel, Gene (April 10, 1979). "'Bell Jar' is a movie many will see through". ''Chicago Tribune''. Section 2, p. 6.</ref> Charles Champlin of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote, "It is not quite the coupling of the decade, and Ms. St. James, although sympathetic, looks occasionally distracted, as if she were expecting a phone call at any minute. But Hamilton, baying 'Children of de night, shawt opp' at the baying wolves outside, has all the energy the movie needs. His characterization, grandly sweeping, sincere, preposterous but solemn, is just right."<ref>Chaplin, Charles (April 26, 1979). "Fangs for the Memory". ''Los Angeles Times''. Part IV, p. 1.</ref> Gary Arnold of ''The Washington Post'' suggested that the film "was evidently contrived by funnymen who started to run short of gags right after thinking up the title," also observing that Susan Saint James "doesn't even seem to be trying" and that "Hamilton does an acceptable vocal impression of Bela Lugosi, but the act may have been more amusing when he was just doing it for friends."<ref>Arnold, Gary (May 1, 1979). "Toothless 'First Bite'". ''The Washington Post''. B12.</ref> Tom Milne of ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' compared the film to the work of Mel Brooks and opined that it had "fewer belly-laughs than ''Young Frankenstein''" but was "more consistent in its humour, partly because it pays more attention to character ... but chiefly because it adheres to its aim of producing 'a comedic Dracula, rather than a comical one.'"<ref>{{cite journal |last=Milne |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Milne |date=August 1979 |title=Love at First Bite |journal=The Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=46 |issue=547 |pages=177–178 }}</ref>
===Accolades=== {| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" |- ! scope="col"| Year ! scope="col"| Award / Film festival ! scope="col"| Category ! scope="col"| Recipient(s) ! scope="col"| Result
|- | rowspan="6"| 1979 | rowspan="6"| Saturn Awards | colspan="2" | Best Horror Film | {{nominated}} |- | Best Writing | Robert Kaufman | {{nominated}} |- | Best Actor | George Hamilton | {{won}} |- | Best Actress | Susan Saint James | {{nominated}} |- | Best Supporting Actor | Arte Johnson | {{won}} |- | Best Make-up | William J. Tuttle | {{won}} |- |rowspan="1"|1980 | Golden Globes | Best Actor – Musical or Comedy | George Hamilton | {{nominated}} |}
==Sequel== Hamilton purchased the film's copyright from Melvin Simon Productions<ref name="afi" /> and has been very eager to make a sequel. In 2009, he stated:<ref>{{cite web|title=Second Bite for Hamilton|author="Caffeinated" Clint|work=Moviehole |date=August 25, 2009|url=http://www.moviehole.net/200920490-second-bite-for-hamilton|publisher=Moviehole.net}}</ref>
<blockquote>It's terrific. It's all about old world school of Dracula in the Bela Lugosi 1940s up against the ''Twilight'' felons with humor, It's hard to do but it's great fun. I think ''Twilight'' is a wonderful series of books. It's so important for these young girls with hormonal changes and this love that's worth giving your life for. But now I have to find a way to bring my ''Love at First Bite'' character into that kind of story and make it funny and not be at all like ''Twilight'' and I think I found a way to do that.</blockquote>
He later elaborated about the plot:
<blockquote>His [my character's] son is a sort of perennial student in California and he doesn't want to acknowledge his father, Dracula, at all and he's getting married into a family of televangelists. {Laughs} He met this girl that he's in love with who's a zoologist in a cave somewhere; he was a bat in this cave in South America. So now, Dracula's forced himself to come to Hollywood for this big wedding and bring all of his relatives who are pretty ridiculous people. There's a wonderful scene at the bachelor party in a strip club, it's great stuff.<ref>{{cite web|author=The Lady Miz Diva|date=August 18, 2009|title=My One and Only: George Hamilton|publisher=The Diva Review|url=http://www.thedivareview.com/My_One_and_Only_Interview.htm}}</ref></blockquote>
To date, a sequel has not gone into production.
==See also== * Vampire film
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{wikiquote}} * {{IMDb title|0079489}} * {{TCMDb title|22749|Love at First Bite}} * {{Rotten-tomatoes|id=love_at_first_bite}} * [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=30333 ''New York Times'' listing]
{{Dracula}} {{Stan Dragoti}}
Category:1979 films Category:1979 comedy horror films Category:1979 romantic comedy films Category:1970s parody films Category:Films set in the 1970s Category:American comedy horror films Category:American International Pictures films Category:American parody films Category:American romantic comedy films Category:American vampire films Category:Dracula films Category:Films directed by Stan Dragoti Category:Films scored by Charles Bernstein Category:Films set in New York City Category:Films set in Romania Category:Films shot in New York City Category:Parodies of horror Category:Vampire comedy films Category:1979 English-language films Category:1979 American films Category:Films about reincarnation Category:Films about modeling Category:1979 comedy-drama films Category:English-language comedy horror films Category:English-language romantic comedy films Category:Saturn Award–winning films Category:1970s vampire films