My review was written in October 1983 after a screening at Anco theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.
"Dracula Blows His Cool" is a 1979 West German sexploitation comedy modeled after George Hamilton's "Love at First Bite". In release domestically the past year and finally opening in Manhattan, minor opus is reviewed here for the record. Pic's original title translates as "Count Dracula Bites Again in Upper Bavaria", but its English-language title was meant to be "Dracula Sucks", also an early rejected moniker for Hamilton's film. Ultimately, Philip Marshak's 1979 release starring Jamie Gillis used the "Dracula Sucks" name.
Premise resembles Howard W. Koch's 1958 pic "Frankenstein 1970", in poking fun at and updating horror material by placing a European men's magazine photographer Stan (Gianni Garko) in his ancestors' Bavarian castle snapping photos of unclad models against spooky backdrops. As with Hamilton's 1978 hit film, picture makes the most of the resemblance between vampire garb and contemporary fashions, with lots of musical filler on the dance floor of the local disco.
Stan's great-grandfather, Count Dracula (Garko again in dual role) is housed in the basement with Countess Olivia (Betty Verges), preying on locals but yearning to return to his native Transylvania. In film's lightweight format, the bites leave no telltale tooth marks on anyone's neck, no one is killed, and a silly happy ending has the castle converted into Hotel Dracula, with room service featuring a much-desired bite on the neck (or other part of the anatomy, this being a softcore sex film) for each tourist.
Burdened with execrable English-language dubbing of unfunny double-entendres, "Dracula" is attractively lensed on sunny Bavarian locations, with the mountains, forests and fields offering no horror atmosphere. Chief selling point is plentiful female nudity on display, including the beautiful Betty Verges, previously seen in the German film, "The Fruit Is Ripe", who makes a most striking Vampirella-style Countess Olivia.
Disappointment for the fans comes in Italian thesp Gianni Garko's unimpressive handling of the title role. For the record, over a dozen new Draculas or Dracula/Nosferatu imitations were made in a production burst for films and tv for the past five to six years, starring actors: Louis Jourdan, Klaus Kinski, Frank Langella, Hamilton, Gillis, Garko, John Carradine, Richard Lynch, Dick Shawn, Gerald FIelding, Enrique Alvarez Felix, Judd Hirsch, Michael Nouri, Peter Lowey, Johnny Harden, Christopher Berneau, Andres Garcia, Louise Fletcher (as "Mamma Dracula") and even Fabian Forte (in the 1978 Mexican pic "La Dinastia Dracula".