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 (Susan Saint James) he has fallen for from afar.
Perpetually tanned smoothie George Hamilton – displaying hitherto unexpected and unexploited comedic gifts – is hilarious as the suave and lovesick Transylvanian, Count Vladimir Dracula; Saint James is delightful as the very laid-back model, Cindy Sondheim; and 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
