Peter
Brown [puts an innocent girl] in:
THE CONCRETE JUNGLE
1982
Written by Alan J.
Adler
Directed by Tom DeSimone
CAST
Jill St. John as
Warden Fletcher
Tracey E. Bregman as
Elizabeth
Barbara Luna as
Cat
June Barret as
Icy
Aimée Eccles as
Spider
Sondra Currie as Katherine
Peter Brown as
Danny
Susan Mechsner as
Breaker
Robert Miano as
Stone
Niki Dantine as
Margo
Nita Talbot as Shelley
Meyers
Marcia Karr as
Marcy
Sally Julian as
Sweets
Justine Lenore as
Max
Kendal Kaldwell as
Eyes
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This is a typical women-in-prison
movie. A young innocent girl is wrongfully thrown into prison with
rapist guards, hard-talking situational lesbian and drug-dealing cons and
corrupt prison officials. Peter plays the drug-dealing boyfriend
who put her there. When one of us started to unfold a poster for
Peter to sign at a show, she said to him, "This is from your absolute worst
movie role." Peter guessed it was
Concrete Jungle.
[Actually
the poster was for
Rape Squad.] Maybe
the two movies might be a toss-up as his worst movies, but Concrete
Jungle was a much better role for Peter. He was evil but he didn't
creep us out. The following synopsis centers largely on Peter's part.
If you want to know about the whole movie, you'll have to find it on ebay
where it pops up fairly regularly. The NiteOwls Video Group watched
this during our "Women in Prison" film festival. But that was a while
ago and no one was about to watch it carefully again. So we're mostly
skipping to the Peter parts.
Peter plays Danny, a cocaine dealer
with some stuff to smuggle into the states. He packs it into a pair
of skis. When his brother warns him that things are "hot" so the
police are on the look-out, Danny assures him that no one will suspect
his innocent little snowbunny.
Danny is apparently only courting
her for her use as a mule - and maybe for the sex.
Yes, definitely for the sex.
Danny takes her to the airport
where his brother checks the baggage and the skis. Danny is staying
behind a couple of days "on business."
He gives her a loving good-by
and then watches smugly as she boards the plane.
And Elizabeth soon learns that
an innocent face doesn't fool drug sniffing dogs.
Danny, of course, rushes to the
jail and assures her that he's hired a great lawyer who will have her out
in no time. He insists there was a mix-up. He was supposed
to be carrying the skis with the drugs and he only did it to make enough
money for them to get married. Danny seems to have forgotten that
non-attorney phone visits are monitored, visitors are logged in and they
already know she's covering for someone. Luckily for Danny, the script
writers forgot also.
The attorney wasn't quite as good
as promised and soon Elizabeth is low on the food chain in the concrete
jungle with only her photo of Danny to comfort her.
The powers to be dealt with are
the warden, the boss prisoner and the crusading prison reformer.
We see the usual prison abuse.
Apparently Kat [Barbara Luna] and the warden have a drug dealing business
going. A guard is shown raping a prisoner who screams in unison with
another prisoner having a baby - probably the result of another rape.
Kat lets Elizabeth know she runs things.
The warden is covering up the
drug ring and a murder or two, not to mention the sexual and physical abuse
she allows the guards and her pet prisoners to inflict. The reformer
tries to get Elizabeth to turn informant but Elizabeth is afraid she'll
be murdered.
When Danny comes to visit,, he's
full of assurances of his love but mainly wants to make sure she won't
turn him in. She tells him she loves him but he looks after her as
though she wasn't quite as convincing as he would have liked.
After much complication, the warden
decides Elizabeth presents a threat. Kat and the guards beat her
up and throw her in solitary. Only the intercession of the crusader
saves her life.
Elizabeth agrees to help the crusader
on two conditions. First, she will be paroled. Second, they'll
take Danny down.
Danny is arrested after selling
$50,000 worth of drugs to a lovely undercover agent. As they're slapping
on the cuffs, she tells him Elizabeth sends her best.
And Elizabeth goes free.
NiteOwl Review: There's nothing
to set this women in chains movie apart from all the other sleazy entries
in this genre except the fact that Peter's in it. Jill St.
John was a rather comical warden. Elizabeth was so hopelessly naive
and stupid to have covered for Danny that no actress could have shone in
the role. Peter has only the six scenes described above but since
the second includes a little beefcake (but no more sex than you can see
in the video grabs) it's worth grabbing on ebay. Barbara Luna, a
lovely woman in real life, made a convincing queen bitch.
She made appearances in dozens of prime time TV shows including a Laredo
and a Star Trek. She co-starred with William Smith in Gentle
Savage, a movie produced by Peter.
Peter with Barbara
Luna at a
costume party in their
feckless youth
Contact us at:
outrider@peterbrown.tv