Fat, Drunk, & Stupid: The Inside Story Behind the Making of Animal House by Matty Simmons

Author:Matty Simmons [Simmons, Matty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00D074TAM
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2012-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

16

CUTS, OUTTAKES, AND SEQUELS

A scene that never made it to the final film was inspired by “The Night of the Seven Fires,” one of Chris Miller’s short stories that the theme of the script was based on. The story describes in detail how Delta pledges had to march up the side of a mountain and continually drink beer until they could vomit into each of seven fires that lit up along the mountain. I hated scatological humor and still do. I insisted they take out all the throwing up, pissing, and shitting.

If you recall the scene when the Deltas are called into Dean Wormer’s office, they had all been drunk the night before, especially Flounder, who quite obviously couldn’t hold his liquor. When Dean Wormer tells them they’re going to be kicked out of school, Flounder throws up on the dean. The way it was written, he would actually throw up on camera. “No,” I insisted. “When it looks like he’s about to vomit we cut to the outer office where the quirky secretary sits and we hear Flounder throwing up.” Eventually everyone agreed that it would be funnier for the audience to use their imagination rather than see such a violent upsurge.

My favorite scene that was taken out of the script before filming was when the Deltas go on their road trip. They’re speeding along in Flounder’s brother’s car when suddenly they pass a scraggly musician, guitar slung over his shoulder, cowboy hat on his head, and a weary look on his face, as he thumbs for a ride. The Delta car screeches to a halt, a door flies open, and the traveler gets in. We cut to the interior of the car and Otter starts a conversation with the young man.

“You’re a musician?”

“Yep, singer, songwriter, musician.”

“What’s your name?”

“Zimmerman,” says the musician in a recognizable twangy voice.

“Well, Zimmerman, play something for us.”

We cut back to the outside of the car and we hear that familiar Bob Dylan nasal singing. This goes on for a few beats, the car again comes to a screeching halt, the door flies open once more, and Zimmerman—or Dylan, if you prefer—is tossed out onto the road.

I always loved that scene. I’d planned to ask Chris Guest, who’d done a Dylan impersonation in Lemmings, to play the part but we finally decided that it would extend the road trip scene too long and that the really hilarious parts were the pickup at the girls’ college and the scene in the bar.

John Landis has always insisted that National Lampoon’s Animal House was “a sweet movie.” Well, that didn’t exactly match the reviews or the reaction of the public, who thought it was raucous and explosive. He remains, to this day, the only one who used the word “sweet” in describing it. But maybe he was right, at least about some of it. What follows is a scene that was sweet but was cut from the script early on.

In this scene we meet Clorette, the teenage daughter of the town mayor, who almost becomes “Pinto’s first lay.

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