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Women's prison films have always had an appreciative audience. Perhaps the first noteworthy one was "Caged" which starred Eleanor Parker. Released in 1950, it garnered good reviews and great box office. It also led to numerous inferior imitations, such as "Women's Prison" (1955) which at least featured a scenery-chewing performance from Ida Lupino as the wicked warden--(a role she would repeat, more or less, in the 1972 TV movie "Women In Chains".) There was also 1962's "House Of Women" which starred Shirley Knight. The seventies ushered in such examples as the Roger Corman/New World productions of "Women in Cages" and "The Big Doll House". Then came Jonathan Demme's take on the subject "Caged Heat", after which the genre was pretty much left to porno producers. But in 1982, one of the best films on the subject was released. "The Concrete Jungle" was produced on a low budget and a quick shooting schedule (but, then, weren't most films in this genre?) and managed to deliver a gritty and tense story of one relatively innocent girl's battle to survive a hellish female penitentiary.

When her slimy boyfriend Danny (Peter Brown) uses his unsuspecting girlfriend Elizabeth (Tracy Bregman) to carry a stash of cocaine in her skis, she is nabbed by airport security. After a speedy trial, she is sent to the Correctional Institution for Women in California. There she learns quickly that she must toughen up if she hopes to leave there in one piece. She also eventually finds that the warden (Jill St John) is not only cruel and unsympathetic, but in cahoots with an inmate Cat (Barbara Luna) the prison's Queen Bee, who is her partner in a prison drug and prostitution racket. When Elizabeth witnesses a murder committed by Cat and her henchwomen, she spurns her attentions and becomes her enemy. Meanwhile, Deputy Director Shelly Meyers (Nita Talbot), aware of the drug and prostitution business run by the warden and Cat, also suspects that Elizabeth has knowledge that could help her convict the villains, and she begins to press her for information. This does not bode well for Elizabeth, for by now, the warden is also suspicious and seeks to destroy the girl before she can talk.

Lurid, (and undeniably sleazy at times), "The Concrete Jungle" is nevertheless a fully satisfying melodrama, and one which tells a convincing story. The supporting cast is full of exploitation-film regulars, each of whom does a good job. Bregman is fine as the heroine, St John is a chilling warden, and Luna gets the role of her life as the vicious Cat who makes life hell for those who oppose her. Especially noteworthy is Talbot as the crusading penal official. "Jungle's" Producer, Billy Fine, would try to top the box office success of this one with "Chained Heat" the following year, but that film (and most of those that followed it) were really unintentional parodies of the genre.

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.

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.

The Concrete Jungle is the gold standard in movies about women in prison. Since then, a dozen of "late night, Cinema like" prison films with naked women trying to survive behind bars. For 1982, the Concrete Jungle made headlines for being the first of its kind. Today, it is far from being taken seriously. I felt bad for Camille Keaton rape scene. Not only was she not a leading actress in this film, nor did her character have any real importance to the story, her role was a quick flashback to her only famous role as the rape victim in the "classic" horror movie I Spit on Your Grave. I think it's time to call your acting career quits once you keep getting only rape roles.

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.