Preppies

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.

Preppies is a fun and funny sexploitation movie that looks and feels like a national lampoon's movie, i.e. Animal House. The preppies are dynamic and used for their full potential of stereotyped jokes, and the girl preppies sex-prep scene is simply hillarious. There are jokes a minute, and no borring parts to this fun film romp. It's exactly what you'd think it'd be like, and it's good! There's enough breast exposure to appease the fratboy in all of us, enough 80's dancing to appease the robot fan in all of us, an evil tommy-gun toting S&M villain, hot whores, and class conflict. The only low-note is the wannabe Cher soundtrack. Highly reccomended!

"Preppies" is a pretend sex comedy that begins with a credit sequence that makes you think you are about to watch a documentary about the exteriors of university buildings. This sequence features no music, just shots of different buildings and the scenery around a college campus. For a "sex comedy", which are, you know, supposed to be "sexy", "funny", or both at the same time, this is not a particularly promising beginning.

The only difference between this moronic credit sequence and the rest of the movie is that sometimes its footage shows interior settings as well, and this footage also has people, and occasionally, music. The people seem to be saying and doing things a lot of the time, I guess, but I couldn't really work out what.

Oftentimes after watching a movie you may need to look it up on Wikipedia or IMDb to find out about plot details that didn't make sense to you. "Preppies" is the type of movie you have to look up to find out if there even was a plot, and then you're genuinely surprised there was one. Apparently this has something to do with three "preppies" - rich college types from the north-eastern USA who are instantly recognizable as members of this subculture due to the tops they all wear tied around their necks - and a schemer who sends three women to seduce them as a way to keep them from their inheritances. Why he wants to do this, and how the seduction would have helped him in this end, may have been described in the movie, but I missed it.

Everything about "Preppies" is as listless and pointless as that opening credits sequence. The movie is unwatchable. There are a few glimpses of nudity, but nothing that would make it worth sitting through, and I don't remember any sex. I also don't remember any attempts at humour.

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.