Movies by Stan Dragoti

Stan Dragoti was a master of the modern comedy, blending slapstick humor, social satire, and a keen eye for the absurdities of everyday life. His films offered audiences a delightfully off-kilter perspective, subverting expectations and finding the funny in the mundane. Dragoti's breakout hit was 1979's Love at First Bite, a gleefully anachronistic vampire comedy that pitted an Old World Count against the trappings of 1970s New York City. This deft balance of classic horror and contemporary culture became a hallmark of Dragoti's work, as evidenced in later films like The Man with One Red Shoe, which transplanted a hapless everyman into a high-stakes spy thriller. But Dragoti truly found his sweet spot with the domestic comedies that defined the middle part of his career. In films like Mr. Mom and She's Out of Control, he dissected the shifting power dynamics and anxieties of family life with a wonderfully wry touch. Dragoti's protagonists were often fish-out-of-water characters, thrust into unfamiliar roles and forced to adapt - and his ability to mine both laughter and pathos from these situations marked him as a singular comedic voice. With a deft balance of slapstick and social commentary, Dragoti carved out a distinctive niche in American cinema, leaving an indelible mark on the comedy genre.