In its own half-flubbed way, it has a style. And you don’t go to a film like Animal House for cinema, you go for roughhousing disreputability; it makes you laugh by restoring you to the slobby infant in yourself.

The film has swept through the American box office like a whirlwind, precipitating a rash of incipient college romps. One waits with trepidation: but at least the trailblazer has vitality and charm.

You may not care to take up permanent spiritual residence at Animal House, but it's funny place to visit.

Animal House goes to immoral and illegal extremes to prove that by taking on college debt, you can literally get away with anything.