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.
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