Durham
John Belushi double feature
Carolina TheatreIn an effort to beef up a sometimes-lackluster specialty film lineup, the Carolina Theatre has been booking double bills of classics. We’ve seen the first two installments of The Godfather and two of Alfred Hitchcock’s famous films thus far this summer. Starting Sunday and continuing tonight through Thursday is a John Belushi two-fer: Animal House and The Blues Brothers. These films need no introduction, although it’s worth noting that the cameos in the latter look more impressive with each passing decade: James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker.
What we’d really like to see, though, is a recording of National Lampoon’s Lemmings, which originated in Chicago with Second City and ran off-Broadway in 1973. The show, a parody of Woodstock, featured Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest plus the 22-year-old Belushi, who in addition to doing a wicked Joe Cocker impression (“Alone at the Bottom”) also satirized the stage announcements of Wavy Gravy and others. If the entire video can be purchased somewhere, I haven’t found it. In the meantime, scraps on YouTube will have to do. For schedule and times, visit www.carolinatheatre.org. David Fellerath
