National Lampoon’s Animal House (TCF 1978, John Belushi, Karen Allen)

John Landis made his name with low budget gross-out comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House that scored big at the box office and spawned an entire genre of copycats.

The story centers around the Deltas, a wild and depraved fraternity on the campus of Faber College. Dean Vernon Wermer is determined to rid the school of the social blight that is the Delta House and puts the entire fraternity on ‘Double Secret Probation.’ The action sets the stage for a mass expulsion and a wild revenge caper on the part of the Deltas. Ultimately though, the story is beside the point.

The heart of ‘Animal House’ is the showcasing of fraternity life in all its unvarnished glory. The Deltas are blissfully indifferent with the consequences of their actions as they throw wild toga parties, take road trips in borrowed cars, and take advantage of the opposite sex. John Belushi remains an enduring icon for his performance, a whirlwind of guitar smashing, whiskey drinking, food throwing, and unabashed voyeurism.

production details
USA | Twentieth Century Fox | 109 minutes | 1978
Director: John Landis
Script: Harold Ramis, Chris Miller, Douglas Kenney,

cast
Donald Sutherland as Dave Jennings
Verna Bloom as Marion Wormer
Stephen Furst as Kent “Flounder” Dorfman
Tim Matheson as Eric “Otter” Stratton
Martha Smith as Barbara Sue “Babs” Jansen
John Belushi as John “Bluto” Blutarski
Kevin Bacon as Chip Diller
Karen Allen as Katy
John Vernon as Dean Vernon Wormer
Tom Hulce as Larry “Pinto” Kroger
Cesare Danova as Mayor Carmine DePasto
Peter Riegert as Donald “Boon” Schoenstein
Mary Louise Weller as Mandy Pepperidge
James Widdoes as Robert Hoover
Bruce McGill as Daniel Simpson Day
Mark Metcalf as Doug Neidermeyer
DeWayne Jessie as Otis Day
James Daughton as Greg Marmalard
Sarah Holcomb as Clorette DePasto
Lisa Baur as Shelly
Douglas Kenney as Stork
Chris Miller as Hardbar
Bruce Bonnheim as B.B.
Joshua Daniel as Mothball
Sunny Johnson as Otter’s Co-Ed
Stacy Grooman as Sissy
Eliza Roberts as Brunella
Aseneth Jurgenson as Beth
Katherine Denning as Noreen
Raymone Robinson as Mean Dude
Robert Elliott as Meaner Dude
Reginald Farmer as Meanest Dude
Jebidiah R. Dumas as Gigantic Dude
Priscilla Lauris as Dean’s Secretary
Rick Eby as Omega
John Freeman as Man On Street
Sean McCartin as Lucky Boy
Helen Vick as Sorority Girl
Rick Greenough as Mongol
Stephen Bishop as Charming Guy with Guitar
John Landis as Cafeteria Dishwasher