Animal House

Question: Near the end, when Dean Wormer and Mayor DePasto are in the grandstand, officially launching the parade, there is an elderly gentleman in the background (also in the grandstand, about 2 levels up, on the left side of the screen) who is making odd, excited gestures and comical facial expressions. His appearance and odd mannerisms are so striking that he draws my attention away from the dean and the mayor every time that I've seen this film, and that's a lot of times. Surely, director John Landis must have been aware of the gentleman and his antics in the background through multiple takes, so it would seem Landis intended the peculiar distraction. Who was that gentleman, and was there any significance to his appearing in the scene?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Sometimes these things get left in because it's simply the best take. (The child covering his ears before the gunshot in "North by Northwest," for example.) It could also be that John Landis cast the extra because he wanted someone with goofy expressions in the crowd. He simply could have told the extras "Ok, be excited that you're at a parade," and that's how this extra did it.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Kent Dorfman is a member of Delta fraternity, so why, later in the movie, is he seen in a military uniform with the Omega fraternity?

Answer: He's in R.O.T.C. The Omegas are in the class, too. Military uniforms are required dress.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Why didn't the mayor try and have the Deltas arrested for both the mayhem they caused at the parade and that one of them may have had fun with his underaged daughter? Obviously the audience knows the member didn't but the mayor doesn't.

Rob245

Answer: There's no indication that the Deltas didn't face legal ramifications from their actions at the parade, nor that Pinto didn't get in trouble (when we last see him, he's literally being chased by the mayor). The film ends at that point and, although the film provides title cards telling us what happened to the characters far in the future, we don't see the immediate aftermath.

Question: What is the musical song called that's played during Otter and Mrs. Wormer's affair in Otter's bedroom?

Answer: It's Bossa Nova music that has no title. It was incidental music composed by Elmer Bernstein for the film.

Bishop73

It's the theme from A Summer place.

The theme from "A Summer Place" is playing when Mrs. Wormer comes into the house. But it's not what is playing when they get into the room.

Bishop73

Question: What happened to Flounder's girl Sissy? Flounder never mentions her after he brings her to the toga party.

Answer: Nothing "happens" to her, she just isn't in the movie anymore. She's only in a single sequence and is completely inconsequential to the plot, so there's no need for to the film to address her or her movements after the party. Flounder has no reason to mention her.

Question: What does Bluto yell during the toga party right before everyone falls on the floor and starts twitching?

Answer: He yells "Gator." That is the name of the dance where they are twitching on the floor, although they don't do it very well.

Zwn Annwn

Animal House mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Bluto is watching the sorority girls have their pillow fight and he falls down with the ladder, you can see him land on a grass mat that is cut into the lawn. It's funny because you can see the grass push in. (00:40:00)

More mistakes in Animal House

Dean Wormer: Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.

More quotes from Animal House

Trivia: Faber college, where the movie takes place, was actually the University of Oregon in Eugene.

More trivia for Animal House

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