Robert Kaufman’s Love At First Bite is an uneven but frequently very funny tale of Count Dracula relocating to contemporary New York with his psychotic henchman Renfield (Arte Johnson) in pursuit of a haute-couture cover girl he has fallen for from afar.
Perpetually tanned smoothie George Hamilton – displaying hitherto unexpected and unexploited comedic gifts – is hilarious as the lovesick Transylvanian; Susan Saint James is delightful as the very laid-back model, Cindy Sondheim; Richard Benjamin is at his best as her psychiatrist boyfriend Dr Jeffrey Rosenberg (a descendant of Dracula’s old nemesis Abraham Van Helsing) – the only man in town to know a vampire when he meets one.
The inventions and good jokes are plentiful and make the rotten ones forgivable.
Count Vladimir Dracula
George Hamilton
Cindy Sondheim
Susan Saint James
Dr Jeffery Rosenberg/Van Helsing
Richard Benjamin
Lt. Ferguson
Dick Shawn
Renfield
Arte Johnson
Reverend Mike
Sherman Hemsley
Judge R. Thomas
Isabel Sanford
Billy
Danny Dayton