The Concrete Jungle

source: The Concrete Jungle

While no movie from the "women in prison genre" will ever be called a masterpiece, 1982's "The Concrete Jungle" is a cut above the rest, largely because it does take itself somewhat seriously, while it tells a plausible story of what goes on inside the prison system. There are no group shower scenes in this one, but there is some rather ugly, vile depictions of forced sex and other sordid goings on. The best thing about this one is it's effective study of power hierarchy inside the prison system, from guards over prisoners, to prisoners over weaker prisoners, and most interestingly between warden and direct underlings. Every angle is covered. Even the power that a man has over a woman, simply by using love as a weapon to control and deceive; it's all here. The most impressive thing is how this nightmarish world is captured, as the story's heroine, Elizabeth, sinks deeper into the sordid and desperate life behind bars. Tension builds to an almost unbearable level as the attacks of the 'Queen Bee' become more vicious, from beatings, to shooting up rivals with syringes of air, to razor blade attacks, as in the film's most effective scene, that finds the once timid Elizabeth, becoming the aggressor and cutting her abuser with the same blade that was pulled on her. Soap Opera legend Tracey Bregman shines in her role, and is convincing, especially when her character begins to change into one of the animals that had at first horrified her. This title has finally been restored for Bluray and it makes a big difference, as now the competent cinematography and it's highly polished look can now be appreciated. The director followed this successful movie with another WIP film the following year. "Chained Heat" with Linda Blair, which cranked up the exploitative elements considerably, but does not have the same quality of this lesser known, earlier film. As far as the genre goes, "Concrete Jungle" is one of the best. Also recommended are the prison movies "Vendetta," and "Red Heat," which is hard to find in an uncensored version.

You think, cause it's a true story, this won't be like those other sexploitation women's prison flicks. You very well know, where the guards and staff are as corrupt as the ones doing time, where there's hardly a good soul in the house. This movie starts off, giving a false impression, as if it's to be different, of good quality, but soon, when our little patsy is convicted, and we hear those bar doors slam shut, we fall back into the same path of sleaze, this prison infested with bad eggs. But we already know this, judging by the cover, what have you. Not surprisingly a few stars from Chained Heat return in this. Young and Restless star, cutie pie, Bregman, a woman who's got class, is set up unknowingly, when bags of snort are found in her ski's. Now her real nightmare begins in the cold confines of those four walls, where we meet some more nasty pasties, and we've got to have a queen b..ch here, that replaces Danning. Her name here is Margo, but this one's really evil, and if you cross her, you pay. One drug dependant woman, threatening to blab on her, ends up a statistic, shot up from air in a needle, and we know what that means. We again have many similarities here, as compared to Heat, like lesbianism, evil female governors, horny corrupt guards, and an investigating and sympathetic warden, determined to get to the bottom of this corrupt filled prison, and no surprise, it's again played by Nita Talbot, her character very much like the one in Heat, but I think here, she's a more stronger force. Now the sexy Bregman is an idiot. Why must you ask? Cause she's protecting her scum boyfriend, (Peter Brown) who has the balls to come in and visit her, saying he was doing it for him and her, to build a new life. Bologne, the drugs we're stashed in her ski's. So for the whole movie, she keeps her mouth, until she can't no longer, in light of all the madness around her. Talbot makes a deal with, an exchange, and she then walks out those gates, a free woman, until she's a blip in the distance, played against a great 70's song. If a fan of these film's, you'll enjoy this as much as the others. Performance wise, everyone holds their own, Bregman, strong, proving she can carry a movie, while Jill St John excels with a real nasty piece of acting as a female governor, better than Stella Stevens in CH.

Regardless of what anyone says, I still feel this movie should be classified as "comedy". Just about everything that goes on in this women's prison is hilarious. The title of the film, "The Concrete Jungle" refers to the women's prison where the main character, Elizabeth Demming, is sent to after she is found guilty of smuggling cocaine that was planted in her snow skis (thanks to her scumbag of a husband). Of course, her character being written as 'naive', her husband conjoles her through the prison glass windows via the conversation phone that he is doing his best to get her out of there, but she has to "remain strong" while he sorts this mess out. It doesn't take a genius to see through his guise that he's gonna let her take the fall and then let her rot in the slammer. Needless to say, we cut to scene 2 and she's in the slammer whereupon she meets a variety of stereotyped characters. There's the jittery crackhead mean sistah, "Icy", the gone-cold-turkey-yet-sweet chick, "Sweets". The evil head honcho, "Cat", the ex-evil-head-honcho, "Margo", and then there's the prison warden Fletcher who knows all the evil going-ons within the concrete jungle yet doesn't care and is as corrupt as about every other prison warden in film history. There's a bunch of other hilarious characters with stupid names such as "Eyes" and "Breaker". They just add to the backdrop. When our heroine, Elizabeth Demming, moves into the concrete jungle, Cat immediately takes a shine to her and brands her with the name, "Cherry". From thereon in, Cherry learns the horrors of rape, drugs and lesbianism from within the walls of the prison. Cat is running a drug operation within the prison and uses her lapdogs, Sweets and Icy, to make sure everything runs smoothly. Apparently, in this prison, drugs will get you anything, if not everything. We never get to find out where Cat gets these drug contacts in the outside world from, but hey, this movie stopped making sense from the opening credits! In the meantime, we see the obligatory lesbian sex scenes in the dormitory, chicks getting high on crack and rape scenes committed by the sadistic prison guard. Scooting forward, Cherry learns the ropes and in a final showdown between her and Cat for the crown of the prison, she pushes her onto an electrical fuse box where she does a happy dance and dies. Warden Fletcher's schemes are exposed and there are no points for guessing what happens to her (oh the irony of the situation!). Cherry's boyfriend is busted by the FEDS for drug smuggling and Cherry is finally released from prison, a much brighter and smarter girl (one would hope). Some hilarious things to look out for in the movie:- The toilet door behind Cat reads, "LATRINE" (!!!!!) Icy blurting out, "Sure thing... Cherry!" Warden Fletcher assuring, "Are you sure Margo?!?!" Cat's happy dance when she gets pushed onto the electrical fuse box! (This scene is timeless!!!) Anyway, that's my review of The Concrete Jungle. This is a pretty obscure run-of-the-mill early 80's women's prison exploitation flick. You'd be lucky if you found it at your local video store. Thank God I own a copy of this! Enjoy!

Before 1983's Chained Heat, there was The Concrete Jungle. TCJ does what Chained Heat attempts to do, yet fails, despite its cast of beloved cult stars. What TCJ has that Chain Heat does not is a solid script, solid acting, and characters that you actually want to see prevail. In fact, it is the characters of TCJ that make the movie such a treat. From the innocent Cherry (played by daytime legend Tracey Bregman) to the sexy, but compelling top dog Cat (played by Star Trek and another daytime vet Barbara Luna), these characters take the viewer on a journey of life inside a women's prison. From her harsh arrival to her ultimate release, Cherry guides the viewers on the story of an innocent girl set up by her boyfriend to carry drugs into the county and end up in a prison where the guards are just as bad as the cons. And speaking of authority, Jill St. John portrays Warden Fletcher and what a fantastic character! Brutal rapes, a charming friendship, an obsessed lesbian who happens to be the prison top dog, and a corrupt warden who is running a lucrative drug business with the help of the prisoners, TCJ is a great film and one you will enjoy watching. And what makes it so special is that you will remember watching it and want to watch it again.

Elizabeth (Tracey E. Bregman, "Happy Birthday to Me") is a young woman set up by her scummy boyfriend Danny (Peter Brown, "Foxy Brown"), who hid some cocaine in her skis. Since she won't rat him out (as we will see, she has a major aversion to being a squealer), she must do hard time in your standard Women In Prison exploitation flick / drama. Among her nemeses: the icy cold warden (Jill St. John, "Diamonds Are Forever"), who's in cahoots with the swaggering top convict, Cat (BarBara Luna, "Firecreek"). "The Concrete Jungle" doesn't really offer you anything that you haven't seen before, although it regularly serves up melodrama, sleaze (albeit maybe not *enough* sleaze for some viewers), and atmosphere. The characters (with predictably colorful names like Icy, Spider, Sweets, and Cheeks) are all pretty standard-issue, and nothing that occurs is particularly surprising. Still, it tells a fairly decent story, and it DOES get a lot of juice from the standout performance by Luna, who does look like she's relishing this role of hers. Bregman is fine, taking her character through her arc, although she is outshone by Luna, who's playing a more dynamic individual. Numerous other familiar faces play their roles with conviction: Robert Miano ("Donnie Brasco") as a predatory guard, Nita Talbot ("Night Shift") as the official looking out for the interests of the inmates, Carole White ('Laverne & Shirley'), Camille Keaton ("I Spit on Your Grave"), Bob DeSimone ("Friday the 13th: A New Beginning"), Tiana Pierce ("Mother's Day" '80), and * actress Carol Connors ("Erotic Adventures of Candy"), to name a couple. They all make "The Concrete Jungle" an appropriately grim and nasty tale that doesn't mess around. All in all, "The Concrete Jungle" is compelling trash that does deliver some real satisfaction in the end. Followed by "Chained Heat"; director Tom DeSimone later parodied this genre with his fun flick "Reform School Girls". Seven out of 10.

I stumbled upon the 1982 crime drama "The Concrete Jungle" in 2022, a mere 40 years after it was initially released. I had never heard about the movie, so I didn't have much of any expectations as I sat down to watch what writer Alan J. Adler had to offer with this movie. And I will say that I was actually adequately entertained by "The Concrete Jungle". Sure, the storyline is somewhat generic for a movie such as this, but it still proved to be enjoyable enough. The storyline was nicely enough written and had some good moments to it, which drove the movie forward. Was it predictable? You betcha. It should be said that for a movie with 40 years on its shoulders, then director Tom DeSimone actually managed to put together a movie that has withstood the passing of time quite nicely, because "The Concrete Jungle" is still a very watchable and enjoyable movie in 2022. The cast ensemble in the movie was good. I can't claim that I was familiar with the ensemble here in the movie, but they definitely were nicely cast and put on good performances. If you enjoy the women-in-prison genre of movies, then "The Concrete Jungle" is actually an enjoyable foray. My rating of "The Concrete Jungle" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Sweet young Elizabeth (a fine and sympathetic performance by Tracey E. Bregman) gets sent to a brutal women's penitentiary after she gets caught carrying coke for no-count drug dealer boyfriend Danny (a nicely slimy turn by Peter Brown). While behind bars Elizabeth runs afoul of both ruthless top con Cat (a deliciously vicious and predatory portrayal by Barbara Luna) and stern corrupt warden Fletcher (well played with cold conviction by Jill St. John). Director Tom DeSimone not only keeps the compelling story moving at a constant pace and stages a few exciting cat fights with aplomb, but also offers a gritty tone along with a pretty grim and fairly realistic depiction of the harsh world of prison that for the most part avoids the more trashy and exploitative aspects of the babes-behind-bars genre. Bregman makes for an appealing wide-eyed innocent heroine who becomes tougher and smarter as the plot unfolds; she receives sturdy support from June Barrett as the lethal Icy, Aimee Eccles as the mean Spider, Sondra Currie as the friendly Katherine, Robert Miano as loathsome rapist guard Stone, Niki Dantine as pathetic junkie Margo, and Nita Talbot as earnest social worker Shelly Meyers. Andrew W. Friend's slick cinematography provides an impressive polished look. A sold and satisfying little B-flick.

I liked the film Concrete Jungle it reminded me of the Australian TV series shown here in the UK Prisoner Cell Block H. Concrete Jungle had a good storyline, perhaps too much swearing in it, but in this day and age this is nothing to crow about. The swearing in the film would not stop me from watching it again and again The acting was very good from everyone in the film and I was routed to the spot watching the film, I just had to see how the film ended and if everyone got their just deserts. I am a great admirer of the actor Peter Brown and it was great to see him in the part of Mr Bad Guy for a change, although I still prefer him in westerns and Mr Nice Guy.

"The Concrete Jungle" doesn't offer anything you haven't seen before, but it's still an absorbing, fairly well-made & acted little Women-In-Prison drama. What the fans of this sub-genre need to know is that the filmmakers have taken a mostly serious-minded approach here, at least until the last 10 minutes when a massive fight that breaks out in the prison yard turns into a mudbath! Most of the time, though, the film simply chronicles, in a straightforward manner, the daily struggle for survival of a 100% innocent woman who tries to adapt to the harsh prison life. Tracey Bregman's sweet, innocent-looking face is perfect for the part, and she is surrounded by actresses who mostly manage, in a short amount of time, to build their own characters. The standout for me was June Barret as the bad girl Icy, who is both strong and insecure. (**)