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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.)