Love at first bite (film)

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Movie
German title Love at first bite
Original title Love at First Bite
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1979
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Stan Dragoti
script Robert Kaufman after Bram Stoker (Characters)
production Joel Freeman
music Charles Bernstein
camera Edward Rosson
cut Mort Fallick ,
Allan Jacobs
occupation

Love at First Bite (Original title: Love at First Bite ) is an American movie from 1979. The of film director Stan Dragoti staged comedy with George Hamilton and Susan Saint James in the lead roles is a parody of vampire movies and the popular Dracula -Figure.

action

In socialist Transylvania . Count Dracula is tired of his immortal existence, through which he has been on earth for over 700 years. He can no longer hear the howling of the wolves ( "Do you hear me, children of the night? Stop it!" ) And can no longer see the stale blood that his devout servant Renfield constantly serves him at the wrong temperature. In addition, the functionaries of the communist party are bothering him, who want to chase him out of his castle in order to turn it into a training camp for women athletes. Only the thought of a model he admires named Cindy Sondheim from New York makes him think differently. So he decides, under the eyes of the angry mob, to leave the home with his servant and to emigrate to the New World to look for his beloved.

Arriving at New York Airport , his travel coffin is mixed up and Dracula ends up at a funeral service in Harlem instead of at the hotel . After this initial culture shock, he assigns Renfield to find Cindy Sondheim, who can finally track her down.

During a nightly photo shoot in Central Park , Dracula can only approach Cindy in the form of a Doberman due to the rigid barriers , but is captured and taken to the animal sanctuary. He was able to free himself and the following night, as a bat, he went on a night-time scouting flight through the city, during which he was first driven away by a man who saw him as his divorced wife, then mistaken for a black hen and almost one Family ends up in a saucepan and ends up in the neck of a drunk homeless man. Disillusioned about the lack of fearfulness of the people, he ends up in the hotel with a bad hangover and a taste of “boiled-out proletarian sock” in his mouth.

But Renfield can cheer him up again by telling his master Cindy Sondheim's favorite nightclub . There he can attract your attention and thanks to his charm you end up in bed in your untidy apartment where he bites you for the first time.

The next day, Cindy reports to her analyst Jeffrey Rosenberg, with whom she was once a partner and is still good friends, about the exciting night. But when he sees the wounds on her neck, he sounds the alarm. Because he happens to be the grandson of Dr. Fritz (!) Van Helsing and therefore knows about Dracula and that a victim has to be bitten three times before it is lost. He can persuade Cindy to have a threesome with the count. There he tries to upset the vampire with all kinds of repellants such as garlic , a mirror or a Star of David . Cindy thinks the competition between the two is only jealous behavior and leaves the bar angrily. Dracula later visits her in her apartment and can calm her down. He almost forgets about the sunrise.

Rosenberg does not give up and seeks help from the police. However, Lieutenant Ferguson on duty thinks he's a madman and throws him out. But Rosenberg does not give up and gains access to Dracula's hotel room, where he sets the coffin on fire. At the last second, however, Renfield can intervene. Rosenberg is arrested by the police and taken to a sanatorium .

After robbing a blood bank , Dracula takes Cindy back out and gives her an expensive necklace. She confesses her love to him. Rosenberg, who has since been released, appears and tries to shoot the vampire with three silver bullets. However, this only works with werewolves and Rosenberg is led away again. At night, Dracula bites Cindy for the second time. She wants to give up her career and be with him. After all, she bites him too.

Startled by the robbery on the blood bank and other incidents, Lieutenant Ferguson brings the doctor back out of the institution. Rosenberg manages to kidnap Cindy from her apartment, but during a city-wide power outage, Dracula manages to bring her back. Both flee in a taxi towards the airport because the count has meanwhile organized a flight to London . Ferguson and Rosenberg take a motorcycle chase.

At the airport, the coffin is mixed up again and flies to Jamaica instead of England . Because of these quarrels, Cindy and Dracula miss their flight. The only way to escape is to take the third bite, which is supposed to turn Cindy into a vampire as well. She now knows about Dracula's nature and agrees. In the end they flutter away together. All that remains is Dracula's black cloak, hit by Rosenberg's wooden stake.

Remarks

  • The film draws its comedy mainly from the interplay of Dracula and Renfield, who act according to the buddy movie scheme , and from the fooled American culture that the two encounter in the manner of a culture clash . The figure of the vampire count is shown, but never exposed to ridicule. Thus stereotypical elements often paraphrased or reversed: the aversion to the wolves, the dwindling pride in their origin or touch in dealing effectively with partly, partly senseless repellents.
  • The way Renfield addresses his master is a gauge of Dracula's mood or condition. So the servant names his master alternately with "Oh, most educated" , "Your stinginess" , "My shaken" or "Your cleanliness" . These statements by Renfield have a counterpart in the novel. There, too, the behavior of the clinic inmate Renfield is a barometer for the extent of the approaching danger.
  • The film works with many references to the 1931 film adaptation of Dracula . William Tuttle , the make-up designer of the film, was involved even then. George Hamilton gives the vampire prince the Hungarian accent that Bela Lugosi used to work with. Arte Johnson mimics the portrayal of Dwight Frye in his role as Renfield . In addition, the film appeared in the same year as another "regular" film adaptation of the novel, Dracula by John Badham . This film was again a remake of the 1931 version.
  • Love at first bite was the first film in which the later Oscar winner Allen Hall was involved as a special effects artist .

Quotes

  • Dracula ( when leaving the castle to the waiting mob ):
"You must never forget: Without me, Transylvania will be about as exciting as a political discussion on television!"
  • Dracula to Renfield ( After his failed nightly excursion ):
“How would you like to have looked like a sleepwalking head waiter for the past 700 years? Oh, how I would love to go to dinner in a turtleneck and a sports jacket. Would you like to eat a warm, liquid protein diet forever while everyone around you indulges in lamb chops, fried potatoes, jam, Chivas Regal on ice and clear spring water? Do you think I wouldn't be happy about Christmas presents, looking for Easter eggs, eating garlic toast? ” After Renfield describes his favorite food, a“ horror burger ”made with spiders, earthworms, centipedes and peanut butter, the count vomits.

Awards
  • George Hamilton was also of French vampire - fan clubs with the "Golden vampire tooth" excellent, "because on the big screen a vampire had never before his guild funny and endearing represented."

Reviews

  • film-dienst : “An attempt at a Dracula parody with a few original ideas; harmlessly enjoyable. "
  • Cinema : "The approximately 51st Dracula film is pleasing with its witty dialogues and punchy situation comedy."
  • Karsten Prüßmann: “The gags result from the foul-up of the Dracula figure and the Renfield figure, but not by making both of them ridiculous, but by the well-rehearsed interaction between the two and the couple's contrast with the actual world in today's New York. The fact that ... the woman whom Dracula adores comes into play completely changes the constellation. The joke is lost. [...] It is strange that the film, which begins so quickly and originally, does not stay true to its convincing concept, but tries using conventional means to develop a romantic love story, which is finally spiced up with well-known action scenes shall be. [...] Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to see George Hamilton in his best role. He plays the count with a dignified aristocratic sovereignty, with grand gestures and powerful emotions. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Love at First Bite (1979) - Trivia on IMDb, accessed January 16, 2017.
  2. ↑ Love at First Bite (1979) Awards on IMDb, accessed January 16, 2017.
  3. ↑ Karsten Prüßmann: The Dracula Films. From Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau to Francis Ford Coppola . Munich: Heyne 1993, p. 254.
  4. ↑ Love at first bite. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Love at first bite on cinema.de, accessed on January 16, 2017.
  6. ↑ Karsten Prüßmann: The Dracula Films. From Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau to Francis Ford Coppola . Munich: Heyne 1993, p. 252ff.

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