In the scene where the authorities are taking away everything from the Delta House, "Even the stuff we didn't steal", Bluto (John Belushi) chugs a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Two Nits.
1. It's cola of some sort. He spills a little and it fizzes. Trust me, Jack Daniels doesn't fizz.
2. Related nit. Bluto chugs the bottle. He spills a little bit onto his sweater. In the next shot, when he smashes the bottle into the cab, his sweater is clean.
Okay film. Some scenes are funny (the ending, the bit with the horse). Some scenes are just entertaining (the food fight). Some scenes are just weird (the group date to the black club). And some scenes are disturbingly sick (making out with the dean's wife).
It does have a good cast though. I liked seeing Karen Allen in something else besides "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Donald Sutherland was funny, the guy playing the sensible student (the head of Delta, I forget his name) was terrific, and John Belushi was superb, despite the fact Bluto is really nothing greater than Belushi's typical "SNL" performance.
The best performance was John Vernon as Dean Wormer. Vernon perfectly understood what he was doing--he played it funny yet straight.
TOGA! TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!
Probably one of the most influential films ever made. Introduced a genre, the "slob comedy," that is still being done today with Old School.
Loved how they turned a fancy Lincoln Continental into the "Deathmobile."
"Double Secret Probation" special issue DVD out today, guys. Two DVD set, with lots of extras.
I read someplace that Donald Sutherland took a straight salary rather than a percentage. Belushi got the film's highest paycheck ($40,000.)
Some movies that probably would never have been made if it wasn't for Animal House:
The Porky's series
Caddyshack I & II
The Revenge of the Nerds series
Bachelor Party
The aforementioned Old School
The Blues Brothers pics
The Vacation pics
Thank you sir may I have another!
For someone who wants Delta out of there, Dean Wormer really seems to give them a lot of chances.
In the scene with Gregg, we find out Delta House is on probation, then he puts them on Double Secret Probation and IIRC, says that one more screw-up and Delta is through.
Delta blows the test, Wormer comes to Delta House & sees them drinking alcohol and comments that this is a violation for a house on probation, tells them about the Double Secret Probation and tells them that one more screw-up and they are out of there.
Something else happens, Wormer meets with some of the members and tells them that one more screw-up and they are out of there.
The false answers on the test. So all the students just learned that the answer to 1 was this, the answer to 2 was that, etc., etc., and just wrote down the answers without reading the questions? Otherwise wouldn't they have realized that something was up when the question on the real test didn't match the test they had?
Hoover mentions the Jewish house. Were fraternities segregated back in 1962 or was there a house Aleph Beth Gimmel?
Surprisingly none of the girls saw Bluto just outside their windows.
When we see Bluto fall backwards, the arc that his fall takes, from the window camera, is too short to be the ladder we see from the external shots. The pivot point appears to be his feet or just below his feet. (I've actually seen this nit in other things. An episode of Three's Company comes to mind.)
What a dumb Marching Band. Okayyyyy, follow whoever is holding the baton and keep marching forward, even when you crunch into a brick wall, and whatever you do Don't Stop Playing!. (Yes, it was funny, but it's also a nit.)
When Flounder throws the marbles down the some of the stuntmen playing ROTC students leap into the air as a means of pretending to slip on marbles. Really, really fake looking.
Several policemen have Boone when Katy comes up and tells them that people are looting the Food King and they release Boone and run off. Okayyyyyyy, you have one of the guys who was in a car that caused some devestation and rammed into a bleacher containing people (attempted murder, anyone?), but you decide to let him go so you can catch some looters???
Flounder appears to be holding the seltzer bottle in front of him when Needermeyer shoots it, and yet neither Flounder, nor any of the people running behind him, are hit by Needermeyer's bullet.
Hoover mentions the Jewish house. Were fraternities segregated back in 1962 or was there a house Aleph Beth Gimmel?
Yes. They were essentially segregated. Even now, there are some "Jewish" fraternities. When I was in college in early 80's, SAM and Sigma Nu were regarded as "Jewish". Sigma Chi was definitely a "non-Jewish" fraternity.
Keith,
Interesting nits. However, I think it's unfair to nit-pick comedies because they often break rules and exaggerate problems in order to go for the laugh. You call the marching band dumb. Agreed. But if they did not keep marching, it would take away the silly laugh Landis is trying to create. The same is true for the stuntmen jumping in the air with the marbles.
As a former Band Geek, I found the marching band scene not funny.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Well, John Belushi died in 1982, sadly.
Tim Matheson (Otter): Matheson, as a young man, was a voice-over artist--he played Jonny Quest and Jace on "Space Ghost." Post-Animal House, he played a lot of secondary leads in comedies, mainly straight parts (examples include the earnest flyer in "To Be or Not To Be" or Chris Farley's brother in "Black Sheep"). That and bad TV-movies. He recently was Vice-President Hoynes on "The West Wing" and Van Wilder's father in "Van Wilder."
John Vernon (Dean Wormer) does the voice of Rupert Thorne for the Batman cartoons. Like many Animal House alumni, he was in the lamentable Sorority Boys for a cameo. My second-favorite Vernon role was as the Mayor in "Dirty Harry."
Verna Bloom (Mrs. Wormer) doesn't do too much now, but was the Virgin Mary (!) in "The Last Temptation of Christ."
Tom Hulce (Pinto) went on to be Oscar-nominated for his role as Mozart in "Amadeus," played Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," but hasn't done many movies since.
Cesare Danova (Mayor) died in 1992.
Peter Riegert (Boon) grew more distinguished-looking as he got older and thus plays a lawyer or doctor type a lot now on TV appearances or in movies (such as in Traffic or on SVU as a defense attorney).
Stephen Furst (Flounder) has done almost nothing of note aside, of course, from playing Vir Cotto on "Babylon 5." (unless you count his vast voice-over collection)
James Daughton (Greg) has done diddly since the mid '90s aside from playing Dave's Dad in "Sorority Boys."
Bruce McGill (D-Day) has become a nice character actor (the Sheriff in My Cousin Vinny, NSA Advisor in The Sum of All Fears, Judge in Runaway Jury, the mark in Matchstick Men).
Mark Metcalf (Niedermeyer) was the Maestro on a few episodes of "Seinfeld" and the Master on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Karen Allen (Katy) has chosen her parts carefully. She had the biggest film success out of all the alumni with her role as Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and has appeared sparingly in films since then (I haven't heard of much, aside from Malcolm X and The Sandlot).
James Widdoes (Hoover) has turned to directing and producing, for such shows as My Wife and Kids, 8 Simple Rules, and Reba.
Martha Smith (Babs) was Francine Desmond on "The Scarecrow and Mrs. King."
Sarah Holcomb (Clorette) was Maggie in "Caddyshack," but had drug problems that forced her out of acting.
Kevin Bacon (Chip) and Donald Sutherland (Prof. Jennings) went on to do some things of note, including Bacon becoming the center of the acting universe.
Douglas Kenney (Stork) fell off a cliff and died in 1980. He wrote this film and Caddyshack.
Sunny Johnson (Otter's Co-Ed) died in 1984.
Stephen Bishop (Guitar Guy) is a composer and singer of some note and was used by John Landis as a running joke, playing similar charming people in "The Blues Brothers" and "Twilight Zone: The Movie."
Stephen Furst played Axelrod for 5 years on St. Elsewhere.
Whoops, my apologies to Mr. Furst (just never liked that show).
I caught this while watching, of all things, last night's Saturday Night Live: The First Five Years special. They showed a clip or two of Animal House and it was during those clips that I saw this nit. Near the end of the film, as Belushi is swinging across the street using a banner (that tears in half as he progresses forward), you can see that the banner already has a tear in it.
Toga! Toga! Toga!
The movie is set in (as we all know) 1962. Dean Wormer is seen using a modular telephone, which wasn't introduced until 1976.
"Seven years of college down the drain!"
Keith Alan Morgan on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 4:26 am: What a dumb Marching Band. Okayyyyy, follow whoever is holding the baton and keep marching forward, even when you crunch into a brick wall, and whatever you do Don't Stop Playing!. (Yes, it was funny, but it's also a nit.)
Perhaps they had been given strict orders to follow whoever held the baton, and to keep playing, until told otherwise by whoever issued the order
Former band geek here. Wouldn't happen.