Preppies

This movie had to mark the beginning of the end for the Playboy Empire. The acting (I use the term very loosely) at the beginning of the movie is WORSE than a high school play. It does get better, but is still stinko right up to the end. You would spend your time much more wisely viewing these starlets' assets in the magazines they appeared in and avoiding this movie at all cost.

A funnier than average entry in the '80s sex-romp genre. As this is a Playboy Channel production, breasts are bared remarkably often, for no reason -- yet there's basically no sex, and the tone of the movie is actually lighthearted and tame (without the boobs, it'd be PG-13 for sure). The movie is concerned with the wacky hi-jinks and jokes that cluster around sex (a main plot point) -- but not the sex itself. (This is interesting, considering that the director and some of the crew and cast -- though none of the main characters -- come from the porn world.) The sex jokes are of the recognizably Playboy variety -- this isn't a feminist film -- but they're actually pretty funny and "knowing," and manage to avoid being cliched. See, for example, the three goofy preppy guys lying in separate beds in the same room, bombastically fantasizing aloud and getting more and more rile up... And the two preppy girlfriends, Margot and Trini, who, after spending most of the movie refusing to "put out," frantically begin "practicing" for sex -- lying in their underwear, gyrating their hips and moaning theatrically, etc. The uptight Margot, played by Katt Shea (later a director as well as an actress), is a high point. "Preppies" is good-natured fun, and the main characters are likeable: more than mere caricatures. (The pervert bad guy Blackwel is pretty funny, too.) It's not a classic, but it's better than many big, well-known teen-sex movies that had much bigger distribution.

My review was written in February 1984 after watching the movie at a Times Square screening room.

"Preppies" is an okay exploitation comedy aimed at both the teenage drive-in movie audience and the somewhat older crowd for subsequent cable-tv exposure via co-backer The Playboy Channel. Promotable title and goodly share of sex-tease gags should generate decent returns in theatrical playoff.

The Rick Marx-Chuck Vincent screenplay pokes fun at the stereotype of Ivy League college students, in this case three freshmen at a college in New York State who are planning to be lawyers but are on the verge of flunking out.

Main plot device is the hiring of three local "townie" girls (Nitchie Barrett, Cindy Manion and Katie Stelletello) to seduce Chip Thurston (Dennis Drake) and his pals Bayard (Steven Holt) and Marc (Peter Brady Reardon) and prevent them from studying for a key economics exam over the weekend. Culprit is Thurston's cousin Blackwel (Leonard Haas) who stands to receive Thurston's multi-million dollar trust fund if latter flunks out of school.

The problem with this simple structure is that the protagonists are unsympathetic characters. Normally, in effective films ranging from Blake Edwards' 1957 "Mister Cory" to Peter Yates' "Breaking Away", the social stratum conflict is built around upwardly mobile lower-class figures for audience identification. "Preppies" ' heroes are the unpleasant, snooty guys from the other side of the tracks.

Perking things up are Katt Shea, delightful as Thurston's Bryn Mawr-accented unattainable "preppette" girlfriend Margot, and Jo Ann Marshall as Suzy, an ebullient friend of the townie girls. The other female leads are mainly called upon to decorate the film in various degrees of undress, including busty Playmate Lynda Wiesmeire as Margot's naive pal.

Male leads are okay, though Peter Brady Reardon is called upon to overdo the grating Eastern accent. In for a nice bit as a handsome soap opera star that Suzy has a crush on is Paul Sutton, better known to the fans for his porno film appearances using the name Jerry Butler.

Director Vincen keeps things moving at a fast clip, but mosf of the verbal gags in a rather talkative script fall flat. Since the sight gags are often amusing, he would do well to shift the emphasis in future comedy efforts. Tech credits are fine down the line.

This is not a good movie by any standard, but one amazing scene stands out for me. Katt Shea, playing the haughty rich-bitch character Margot, mercilessly teases Her hapless, hard-up boyfriend by making him kiss Her feet and ass through a glass door. It's one of the most stirring images of Female power that i've ever seen anyone have the guts to put on screen. But then, I'm a total perv.

It is understandable that many potential viewers of "Preppies" may think they will witness an exercise in extreme raunchiness. For one thing, the movie was a co-production with The Playboy Channel. Also, the movie was directed by Chuck Vincent, a prominent director of pornographic movies. Unfortunately, the movie is anything but erotic. Oh yes, there are several scenes of nudity, but the nudity only goes as far as toplessness, and none of the toplessness is erotic in any way. Also, there is only once scene of (onscreen) sex, and the participants in the scene are almost completely covered with blankets. But the biggest sin the movie makes is that it simply isn't funny. The actors are likable, but they say and do humor that is absolutely feeble. It doesn't help that the plot pretty much comes to a halt after the first ten minutes or so, and doesn't start up until near the last five minutes - the bad guy behind the scheme only shows up in both of those brief lengths of running time! Aside from the cast, the only other point of merit about the movie is that unlike other '80 sex comedies, this one hasn't dated as badly. Hope that doesn't make you want to watch this movie. If you still do, be warned - the DVD release of this movie doesn't appear to be an authorized release. (It looks like they simply copied a VHS rental tape of the movie.)