Love At First Bite
As a public domain character, Count Dracula has appeared in a nearly record number of films, a reliable franchise name who could always fill the role of either Lead or Side Villain as played by a countless number of big name actors such as Gary Oldman, Christopher Lee and most famously the one and only Bela Lugosi. But even with Dracula’s evil and well established Prince Of Darkness persona, only director Stan Dragoti and star / Executive Producer George Hamilton were willing to conduct this experiment which asked, could the character ever possibly work as a babyface (good guy) for the duration of the movie? The answer which we would receive in 1979 is a unanimous YES with this classic from that rarefied era when political correctness was not an absolute standard in the film industry. More importantly, it knew what a heroic Dracula would require in order to work and Hamilton’s interpretation comes across as bored, neurotic and depressed, possibly because he’s been stuck with Arte Johnson’s Renfield for much of his 700+ year run and mostly resorts to masturbating to porno and fashion magazines, barely venturing out anymore while Renfield feasts on his bugs. One day the Communist regime of Romania comes and seizes Dracula’s estate, sending him scurrying to New York City where he pursues his favorite fashion model (Susan Saint James) from the magazines, convinced that she’s the reincarnation of Mina Harker (several references imply that Hamilton is playing Lugosi’s version), only to find a pill popping, train wreck of a liberated woman in Saint James, miscast here as a supermodel type but nonetheless getting good chemistry going with Hamilton (ironically a real life playboy himself) and really setting Dracula up for his true purpose which is getting revenge on the Van Helsing bloodline through the original’s grandson, a bumbling, Jewish psychiatrist named Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin, certainly a product of his time) who also happens to be Saint James’ creepy and stalker type ex boyfriend, quickly remembering his old vampire hunter lessons from his family when he sees who she’s with now and usually making a complete fool of himself as he develops into the Comedic Villain role here. So obsessed is Benjamin with bringing down Dracula that he even manipulates a loser cop (Dick Shawn, easily the biggest legend in the entire cast here doing a spot on spoof of Gene Hackman in French Connection) who has never solved a case to help him bring down a vampire named Count Dracula who is drinking people’s blood in New York City (which he signs onto as long as he finally solves a case). Shawn slips himself in as Benjamin’s cowardly sidekick with a badge like a fine wine at a Thanksgiving feast, never trying to steal the movie from the other stars but rather interjecting the occasional one liner that (unlike the others) may very well have been off the cuff improvised. But that still belies the fact that this is a very razor sharp comedy script, giving Hamilton, Saint James, Benjamin and Johnson plenty to work with and even throwing in gags featuring Dracula’s vampire bat incarnation flying into Harlem and being chased around by hungry black people (“Hey! It’s a black chicken! Get it!”) and even a bit where Saint James lets loose a homophobic slur only to be corrected by Bemjamin that people should be allowed to live the lives they want to live with Saint James sarcastically replying (in 1979) “Yeah right, and in the 21st century homosexuality will be considered a normal way of life!” (WHAT??!!). But it’s Hamilton bringing the comedic pathos that carries this one over the top to victory, giving us a Dracula who’s easy to root for especially after committing a blood bank robbery which leaves him with little to no need to seek out any other victims, all while bringing Saint James’ progressive “modern day woman” over to the dark side which ironically almost appears to be the place where she belongs as Benjamin’s manic freak of a jealous boyfriend (he tries everything here to upstage Hamilton and fails for the most part) comes flying out of nowhere with guns or torches only to get hauled off to the looney bin where Shawn’s weaselly cop (who prefers that Benjamin do all the dirty work so that he won’t lose his pension) hooks up with his fellow weasel for a status update on the Count Dracula case. As stated, the amazingly astute screenplay and welcome chemistry amongst the actors earns major points for being witty and cleverly done with the delivery of key lines being on point. But make no mistake: this is George Hamilton’s show (and a shame that a proposed 2009 sequel with his Dracula dealing with Twilight style vampires would wind up being shelved) and the biggest triumph of his acting career, smartly doing a heroic Dracula in the milieu of a romantic comedy rather than having anything remotely to do with horror…
9/10