National Lampoon's Animal House

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National Lampoon's Animal House (often called Animal House) is a 1978 comedy film in which a misfit group of fraternity boys takes on the system at their college. It is considered to be the movie that started the gross-out genre, predating Porky's and American Pie.

It stars John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Karen Allen, John Vernon, Thomas Hulce, Cesare Danova, Peter Riegert, Mary Louise Weller, Stephen Furst, James Daughton, Bruce McGill, Mark Metcalf, James Widdoes, Martha Smith, Kevin Bacon (in his film debut) and Donald Sutherland. The movie was adapted by Douglas Kenney, Christopher Miller and Harold Ramis from stories written by Miller and published in National Lampoon magazine. It was directed by John Landis.

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Produced on a scanty $3 million budget, the film has turned out to be one of the most profitable of all time; since its initial release, Animal House has garnered an estimated return of more than $200 million in the form of video and DVDs, not including merchandising.

This film is number 1 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. It was #36 on AFI's "100 Years, 100 Laughs" list of the 100 best American comedies.

Plot summary

It is Rush Week 1962 at Faber College, a mediocre school whose motto is "Knowledge is Good." Vietnam, the Sexual Revolution and the counterculture movement are but blips on the horizon. A 1950s mentality still pervades the campus, typified by the Omegas—the most prestigious, elitist fraternity. At the other end of the spectrum stands the Delta Tau Chi House, a repository for every campus misfit.

Two freshmen, wimpy but relatively normal Larry Kroger (Thomas Hulce) and fat loser Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst) ("a wimp and a blimp"), are trying to pledge a good fraternity. They first try their luck at the Omega House rush party, but they are totally out of their league. The Omegas quickly steer them to an area where they have segregated the other "undesirables": Mohammed, Jagdish, Sidney, and a blind guy. So they try the Deltas next door, despite their reputation as "the worst house on campus". As they approach, a headless female mannequin comes flying out a window and lands at their feet. They meet "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi), outside taking a leak. Bluto turns to greet them and urinates on their legs without noticing it. Another member, "D-Day" (Daniel Simpson Day) (Bruce McGill), rides his motorcycle through the front door and up the stairs, where he gives a surprisingly good rendition of the William Tell Overture—using his throat as a percussion instrument. Since the two pledges are breathing (and in Dorfman's case, a legacy since his brother Fred was a '59 Delta), they are accepted and given the nicknames "Pinto" (Kroger) and "Flounder" (Dorfman).

Meanwhile, Dean Wormer (John Vernon), is trying to kick the Deltas off-campus. Since they are already on probation, he puts them on "double secret probation" and tells Greg Marmalard (James Daughton), the Omega president, to get the sneaky Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf) working on a way to get rid of the Deltas once and for all.

Flounder is in the ROTC. Neidermeyer, his pompous cadet commander, despises the fat Flounder on sight and begins berating him. Two Deltas, "Otter" (Tim Matheson) and "Boon" (Peter Riegert), witness this and object to the mistreatment (only they can abuse their pledges). They take turns hitting golf balls, aiming for the horse Neidermeyer is riding. Finally one beans Neidermeyer on the head, knocking him out of the saddle. The spooked animal bolts, dragging a screaming Neidermeyer entangled in the stirrups.

Later, Neidermeyer orders Flounder to clean the stable where the horse is kept. Bluto and D-Day talk Flounder into sneaking the animal into the Dean's office. They give him a gun and persuade him to shoot it. Unbeknownst to Flounder, the gun is loaded with blanks, but the noise of the shot causes the horse to have a heart attack and die anyway. They panic and flee. The next day's scene, in which a chainsaw is required to remove a horse in rigor mortis from the Dean's office, is memorable.

In the cafeteria the next day, Bluto provokes Greg and Omega pledge Chip (Kevin Bacon) with his impression of a zit and triggers a memorable food fight. Not done, Bluto and D-Day rummage through a trash bin to steal the answers to an upcoming Psychology test. Unfortunately, the answers had been planted by the Omegas and the Deltas get everything wrong. Their grade point averages drop so low that the Dean only needs one more incident to revoke their charter.

Undeterred, they organize a toga party. Pinto invites the teenaged cashier at the local supermarket, Clorette (Sarah Holcomb), who turns out to be the under-aged daughter of shady Mayor Carmine DePasto (Cesare Danova). When she gets drunk and passes out, Pinto is tempted to take advantage of her (an angel and a devil appear over his shoulders and have a frank discussion of the possibilities), but in the end, he just takes her home. A drunken Mrs. Wormer (Verna Bloom) crashes the party (both figuratively and literally) and spends the night with Otter. That turns out to be the last straw. Wormer gets the fraternity's charter revoked and everything is confiscated, "...even the stuff we didn't steal!"

To take their minds off their troubles, Otter, Boon, Flounder and Pinto go on a road trip. They pick up some girls from a liberal arts college and go to a club with an all-black clientele by mistake, where some of the regulars intimidate the guys into leaving without their dates.

Things only get worse. "Babs" (Martha Smith) reveals to Marmalard that his girlfriend, Mandy (Mary Louise Weller), and Otter are having an affair. Marmalard and some of his fellow Omegas lure Otter to a motel and beat him up. And the Deltas' midterm grades are so bad that they are all expelled from school (and their draft boards notified) by the ecstatic Wormer.

In revenge, the Deltas wreak havoc on the annual Homecoming parade. Bluto's inspirational speech beforehand, invoking the memory of the "Germans" bombing Pearl Harbor, has become an oft-quoted comedy classic. In the ensuing chaos, Bluto steals a car, abducts Mandy and drives off into the sunset...and eventually to Washington, DC.

Characters

Deltas:

• Eric "Otter" Stratton, a smooth Playboy-style sex maniac (the nickname suggests a sleek player), whose room is an uncannily pristine seduction den within the sheer filth of the house;
• Donald "Boon" Schoenstein, Otter's best friend who is always deciding between his Delta pals and his girlfriend Katy;
• John "Bluto" Blutarsky, an abject, drunken degenerate with a style all his own;
• Robert Hoover (James Widdoes), the affable, reasonably clean-cut president of the fraternity, who desperately struggles to maintain a façade of normalcy to placate the Dean;
• Daniel Simpson Day, "D-Day", a tough biker with a penchant for riding up the stairs; has no grade point average; all classes incomplete
• "Stork" (real name not mentioned), during his first year, many thought Stork was brain damaged; This character was played by Animal House co-writer Douglas Kenney.
• and the two pledges,
• *Larry "Pinto" Kroger, a shy but normal fellow
• *Kent "Flounder" Dorfman, a hopeless, fat, clumsy loser—a "total zero", even by Delta standards.

Omegas:

• Greg Marmalard, the president of Omega House who dates Mandy Pepperidge;
• Douglas C. Neidermeyer, an ROTC cadet officer and scion of a military family who hates the Deltas with unbridled passion;
• Chip Diller, an Omega pledge (Kevin Bacon in his on-screen debut).

Other characters of significance:

• Dean Vernon Wormer, who wants to revoke the Deltas' charter and kick them off-campus;
• Marion Wormer, the Dean's dipsomaniac wife, who succumbs to Otter's charms;
• Katy (Karen Allen), Boon's fed-up and not-exactly-faithful girlfriend;
• Professor Dave Jennings (Donald Sutherland), who is bored with his job as English professor and smokes marijuana;
• Clorette DePasto, the mayor's underaged daughter, who (possibly) sleeps with Larry;
• Otis Day (DeWayne Jessie, who later legally changed his name to Otis Day), a local singer who is a campus favorite;
• Mandy Pepperidge (Mary Louise Weller), a cheerleader and sorority girl who dates Greg but isn't entirely "satisfied" with the relationship;
• Barbara "Babs" Jansen (Martha Smith), a Southern belle who wants Greg for herself and is turned off by the crude Deltas.

Whatever Happened to The Class of '63?

(As listed before the closing credits)

• Eric Stratton - Gynecologist, Beverly Hills, CA
• Robert Hoover - Public Defender, Baltimore, MD
• Boon & Katy - Married, 1964; Divorced 1969
• Barbara Sue Jansen - "Babs" - Universal Studios Tour Guide
• Greg Marmalard - Nixon White House Aide - Raped in prison, 1974
• Douglas C. Neidermeyer - Shot by his own troops in Viet Nam, 1969
• Daniel Simpson Day - Present whereabouts unknown
• Sen. and Mrs. John Blutarsky, Washington, DC

And Their Pledges

• Kent Dorfman - Sensitivity Trainer, Cleveland, OH
• Larry Kroger - Editor, National Lampoon

Ask For Babs

After the closing credits, a card appears advertising the Universal Studios tour. To correlate with the film, it reads, "When in Hollywood, visit Universal Studios. (Ask for Babs.)"

Some later Landis films, such as The Blues Brothers, "An American Werewolf in London" also carried this tagline in their theatrical releases, partially as an inside joke and reportedly as a tongue-in-cheek promotion for Universal's studio tour of the theme park in Los Angeles.

As of 1989, Universal Studios no longer honors the "Ask for Babs" promotion, which was either a discount or a free entry.

Analysis

The film has become known as the archetypal fraternity film; for better or worse, it has promoted many stereotypes and formed a distinct image of fraternities in American culture. Decades after its release, Animal House still exerts a powerful influence on today's college students. Despite having been born well after the film was released, students—especially men—on American campuses can often be seen wearing shirts emulating the Belushi character's generic "College" model. Quoting liberally from the film is a popular leisure activity, particularly at social events. In addition, the film is notable for having introduced the toga party to popular college culture. Before the movie's release, toga parties were apparently quite rare, but after 1978 many campuses experienced a massive upsurge of them.

Trivia

• Animal House was based on Miller's experience at his own fraternity (Alpha Delta Phi) at the Ivy League's Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire. Additional inspiration came from Ramis's experiences at Washington University in St. Louis where he was a member of Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity.

• The actual house that was depicted as the Delta House was originally a residence in Eugene, Oregon (the Dr. A.W. Patterson House). Around 1959, it was acquired by the Psi Deuteron chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and was their chapter house until 1967, when the chapter was closed due to low membership and the house was sold and slid into disrepair, with the spacious porch removed and the lawn gravelled over. It was the sad state of the house that probably made it attractive as the chapter house for a degenerate fraternity. At the time of the shooting, the Phi Kappa Psi and Sigma Nu fraternity houses sat next to the old Phi Sigma Kappa house. The exterior of the Omega House was actually that of the Phi Kappa Psi House. The Patterson house was demolished in 1986. [link]

• This movie was filmed in Cottage Grove, Oregon and at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, and features numerous sites from that campus and the surrounding area. Johnson Hall, the university's administration building, is prominently featured throughout the film, as is Gerlinger Hall (the women's dorm), the Erb Memorial Union (renovated since that time), Carson Hall (Dormitory), Fenton Hall, Straub Hall, Earl Hall, Hayward Field, the Knight Library (the building behind Emil Faber's statue), and the Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum (seen in the opening credits).

• The filmmakers had submitted the script to a number of colleges and universities, and the movie was set to be filmed at the University of Missouri-Columbia until the president of the school read the script and refused permission. The University of Oregon agreed because the Dean who read the script had been the President of a small California college years before, and had been shown the script for The Graduate. He turned it down, believing it to be worthless, and then watched The Graduate become a huge hit. He was determined not to make the same mistake twice, even allowing the filmmakers to use his office as Dean Wormer's. As Landis relates in the DVD special, Oregon was pretty much their last hope for a shooting location.

• The motto of Faber College (as inscribed on the statue of founder Emil Faber, shown at the beginning of the film) is "Knowledge is Good."

• According to the DVD special, the famous film composer Elmer Bernstein had been a Landis family friend since John Landis was a child, so he was easily persuaded to score the film, but was not sure what to make of it. Landis asked him to score it as though it were serious. Bernstein said that his work on this film opened yet another door in his diverse career, to scoring comedies (he would write the so-called "God music" segment in the Landis picture The Blues Brothers, for example).

• In one scene during the infamous toga party, John Belushi's character, Bluto Blutarsky, smashes an acoustic guitar belonging to a folk singer (portrayed by singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop, who is credited as "Charming Guy With Guitar") who is serenading a group of girls with the time-worn folk tune "The Riddle Song" ("I gave my love a cherry that had no stone", etc.) [link] Bluto then hands him a splintered piece and says "Sorry." In an episode of 8 Simple Rules, directed by "Hoover" actor James Widdoes, Rory sings while playing his guitar, then Kerry breaks it and says "Sorry!". This sight gag has been imitated on TV several times, most memorably by Worf on and (loosely) on The Simpsons episode, "Bart of Darkness" where during a heat wave, a hippie on the street with a guitar sings John Denver's "Sunshine on my Shoulders" before getting punched in the face by a passerby. During the second season of the television show Scrubs, Dr. Perry Cox abruptly ends a song by Colin Hay in the same manner.

• Bishop wrote and performed the "Animal House" Theme, and claims to have framed the smashed guitar. The hole the guitar made in the wall was the only damage done to the frat house when the movie was filmed.

• The highest-paid member of the cast was Donald Sutherland, who received $40,000 for his appearance. Sutherland's casting was essential for the movie being picked up by Universal. Universal was reluctant to produce a picture with no stars, and Sutherland was one of the biggest stars of the 1970's. For two days' work on the picture, Sutherland was offered either the $40,000 flat fee or a percentage of the film's gross; assuming that the movie would be quickly forgotten, he opted for the sure money, a decision which (by his own admission) has cost him millions.

• Perhaps surprisingly, the censors passed a scene that clearly implies statutory rape, or at least the possibility of it. The writers wanted the mayor's daughter to be 17. They figured the studio would object, so the writers figured they would make her 13, and that the censors would then make them change it to 17. Harold Ramis said he was stunned that they didn't make them change it.

• The film inspired a short-lived half-hour television sitcom, Delta House, in which the late John Vernon reprised his role as the long-suffering, malevolent Dean Wormer. The series also included Steven Furst as Flounder, Bruce McGill as D-Day and James Widdoes as Hoover. Tim Matheson declined. The producers had the right to call the show "Animal House" but for some reason, the network decided against it. Michelle Pfeiffer made her acting debut in the series.

• Contrary to persistent rumors, John Belushi did not actually chug an entire bottle of Jack Daniels during one iconic scene (actually doing so would have been extremely painful, and result in death due to acute alcohol poisoning). It is actually iced tea, which is somewhat obvious due to the amount of foam that forms in the bottle (whiskey does not foam). However, he really did drink the entire bottle.

• D-Day's rendition of the William Tell Overture on his windpipe was a special talent of Bruce McGill's.

• D-Day was based on Dan Aykroyd, who was a motorcycle aficionado. Aykroyd was offered the part, but he was already committed to Saturday Night Live. That didn't stop Belushi from playing "Bluto", even though he was also on SNL. He flew between Eugene, Oregon and New York City twice a week in order to finish the movie and rehearse for/film SNL.

• The roles of Otter and Boon were originally written for Chevy Chase and Bill Murray respectively, but both declined due to previous commitments.

• Jack Webb and Kim Novak were the original choices to play the Wormers. Director John Landis chose John Vernon as Dean Wormer after seeing him in the Clint Eastwood film The Outlaw Josey Wales.

• Meat Loaf was the second choice for Bluto, in case Belushi dropped out.

• To get the role of Neidermeyer, Mark Metcalf lied about his ability to ride horses. After he got the role, he immediately took equestrian classes. Dee Snider, lead singer of the heavy metal music group Twisted Sister, was so enamored of Metcalf's performance that he had the actor perform a similar role in the music videos for two of Twisted Sister's songs, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock."

• On Delta's fraternity banner, the motto "Ars gratia artis" can be seen. This is the motto of MGM.

• This film is credited for inventing "toga parties", which were virtually unheard of before. They still remain a popular theme for college fraternity parties to this date.

• The real name of the band "Otis Day and the Knights" is "Carl Holmes and the Commanders".

• Famous blues musician Robert Cray was a virtually unknown bass player for "Otis Day and the Knights".

• Verna Bloom mentioned that her scene with Dean Wormer where she is drunk and he is on the phone with the mayor, was completely improvised as Landis was not happy with the scene as originally written.

• The full name of the Delta House changes during the movie. When the movers are taking out the contents of the frat house, the name is Delta Tau Chi. Earlier in the movie, it is Delta Chi Tau.

• The Faber College football team is called the Mongols. Faber Mongols are a brand of pencil.

• The film was shot in 28 days.

• John Belushi's then girlfriend (later wife), Judy Jacklin (now Judith Belushi-Pisano), is an uncredited extra in several toga party scenes.

• To purposely form cliques, director John Landis invited the Delta house actors to the set five days before the Omega house actors.

• In the motion picture (1983), an American GI, lost in a Vietnamese jungle, tells his fellow soldiers "We shouldn't have killed Lieutenant Neidermeyer!", an allusion to the epilogue of Animal House.

• National Hockey League players (and brothers) Scott and Rob Niedermayer have reported that young hockey fans familiar with this movie have sometimes approached them in a (hopefully) joking way with one of the movie's famous lines: "Neidermeyer...DEAD!"

• Although the film takes place in Pennsylvania, a Tennessee flag is shown in the courtroom. This is because the set decorator was unable to find a large enough Pennsylvania flag for the scene, and the blue Oregon state flag wouldn't work because it had "State of Oregon" text on the upper part. So the set decorator used the most generic flag he could find, which turned out to be the Tennessee state flag.

• In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Animal House the 19th greatest comedy film of all time.

• The Futurama episode Mars University is a tribute to Animal House.

• Harold Ramis has said that he pictured the day of the Homecoming Parade as the day President Kennedy was shot, even though the dates do not match. ("Where were you in '62?" (The American Graffiti theme also) works better than "Where were ye in '63?") The parade includes a "Camelot" float with a large bust of JFK and a number of Jackie Kennedy lookalikes on it, wearing the same raspberry pink and pillbox hat outfit that Jackie wore at the assassination in 1963. (see anachronisms below). The "deathmobile" is a Lincoln Continental similar to the "death car" in which JFK was assassinated.

• The writers wrote a sequel. It was set in 1967 (the Summer of Love), the Deltas were hippies, and had moved to San Francisco. This idea died along with John Belushi.

• The special edition DVD, released in 2004 and referred to as the "Double Secret Probation Edition", is particularly memorable. It features the members of the cast reprising their respective roles in a "Where Are They Now" mockumentary; those whose characters are still alive, that is. Neidermeyer was said to have been "killed in Viet Nam by his own troops"; Bluto, however, played by the long-deceased Belushi, is characterized as being the President of the United States, and all that is shown is an exterior of the White House. It also features John Vernon (in one of his last performances) as a now-retired, presumably mentally defunct Vernon Wormer, who still flies into a rage upon hearing anything about Delta Tau Chi.

• One slightly scary fact is revealed in the DVD special section on the making of the film. On the eve of shooting, key members of the cast made the rounds on campus and had a violent encounter with members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity who had no idea who they were and thought they were trespassers. Several of the actors suffered minor injuries in the scuffle which, as the actors told it in 2004, was a very close call.

• The Simpsons episode, Homer Goes to College, makes many references to Animal House, including the use of the song Louie, Louie and a still image of Homer wearing a toga in the end credits. Margical History Tour features Homer singing a takeoff of the Animal House theme ("Nobody ever went to class. Then we saw Donald Sutherland's ass...then they did the end like American Graffiti, where you found out what happened to everyone") at the end, while a similar "where are they now" sequence played ("The next morning, Homer went to work in a toga.")

Goofs

Anachronisms

Although the action takes place only sixteen years prior to the date the film was made, the intervening time span had seen a dramatic change in styles, technological development, politics and social attitudes. As a result, any anachronisms stand out sharply:

• In the parade scene, numerous extras sporting the long hair and bellbottoms characteristic of the late 1970s are visible among the spectators, as are several automobiles from that period.

• When hapless Delta pledge Pinto attempts to shoplift from a local grocery store, he meets the mayor's gum-smacking 13-year-old daughter, Clorette DePasto, who is working the cash register and whom he later dates at his peril (see above). While a period register is used by Clorette, a second cash register behind Pinto anachronistically features an LED (Light Emitting Diode) display. Interestingly, 1962 was the very year in which Nick Holonyak Jr. created the first practical visible-spectrum LED, but the technology did not come into everyday use until several years later.

• Similarly, while Boon and Katy are getting stoned at Professor Jennings' apartment, they sing "Hey, Paula", which was not released until 1963.

• At Jennings's apartment, the television unit is a Westinghouse 'Jet Set' model from not earlier than 1966.

• At the party following the induction of Pinto and Flounder into the fraternity, the Delta frathouse jukebox plays the song "Louie, Louie" as performed by The Kingsmen, which would in turn become integral to countless parties staged by U.S. college students seeking to emulate Animal House. However, The Kingsmen didn't record their version of the song until April 1963.

• When actress Karen Allen is shown in a kitchen, she passes a refrigerator decorated with a sticker from the Bicentennial—fourteen years in the future, but two years before the film was actually produced.

• Donald Sutherland sports a large, curly hairstyle that was indicative of the late 1970s, but was not worn by men in the early 1960s.

• The term "Camelot" in reference to the JFK administration came into general usage after his assassination (it comes from an 1964 interview with Jackie where she mentions that the Lerner and Lowe musical of Camelot (1960) had been a favorite of Jack's, and that was how she thought of the Whitehouse years). Also Jackie's raspberry pink outfit with pillbox hat was created in 1963 and worn by her only on the assassination day. It didn't exist in 1962 so couldn't have been used for an iconic float, and would have been considered extremely poor taste for a float in 1964.

• Flounder's Lincoln Continental, which the boys eventually convert into the "Deathmobile," was actually a 1964 model, although the "suicide doors" were typical of that period. JFK had been assassinated in a 1961 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors.

Continuity

• During Dave Jennings's (Sutherland's) lecture on "Paradise Lost", he writes the word "Satan" on the chalkboard. The word moves from cut to cut.

• When everything is being confiscated from the Delta House, the fraternity letters Delta Tau Chi (On the front of the house) change to Delta Chi Tau.

• Shelly Dubinsky's brooch appears alternately on the left and right sides of her sweater.

• In the scene when Boon and Otter are teeing off golf balls at Niedermeyer, the first time they are shown the golf bag gets set down, then when they go back to the scene, Boon is holding the bag again.

Mistakes

• During the parade scene, some members of the Pershing Rifles drill team forget to spin their rifles.

See also

• Wilmer and the Dukes, the 1960s band which may have been the inspiration for "Otis Day and the Knights"
• Rick Meyerowitz, the illustrator who drew Animal House's iconic poster

External links

• [Official site]
• [ACME Animal House]
• [Karen Allen: An ACME Page]
• [Interview (MP3) with John Belushi biographer Tanner Colby and widow Judith Belushi Pisano] on the public radio program The Sound of Young America regarding their book, "Belushi." Includes clips from Belushi's work on The National Lampoon Radio Hour.

 

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