Alone in the Neon Jungle (1988 TV Movie) User Reviews

Another Crap TVM

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 15 December 2002]

Another TVM that`s a waste of time . The plot revolves around a ballsy police captain - And yes she`s a woman - trying to weed out poor practice and corruption in her department . Apart from the usual twee faults of a TVM production there were several things that irritated me about this film .

1 ) Suzanne Pleshettes`s performance . If you have the misfortune of seeing ALONE IN THE NEON JUNGLE check out the way Pleshette is unable to keep her head still. It really is distracting the way she shakes or nods her head while speaking .

2 ) Despite being set in 1988 everyone wears clothes from different eras . We see people ( Pimps I take it ) walking about dressed like John Travolta in SNF , punks even though they died out a few years before , and bikers who look like they`re straight out of a early 70s road movie

3 ) The hookers in this all wear tights ( Pantyhose I think they`re called in America ) but I`m led to believe most hookers have sex with their clients in the back of their car so are tights a practical item of clothing for a streetwalking working girl ? And it just shows what poor entertainment this film is when I find myself asking an abstract question like that

Oh and ALONE IN THE NEON JUNGLE also features one of the most incomprehensible lines I`ve ever heard. When trying to break a corrupt cop the heroine says " Do you know what they do to cops in prison ? They rape you by throwing you from the top tier " Can someone send me a private message telling me what the hell getting raped by being thrown from the top tier is ?

Oh and despite cops getting blown away in Pittsburgh prostitution and burglary seem to be the only crimes the police department worry about

Rough and corrupt precinct

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 6 November 2014]

Suzanne Pleshette is the star in what is obviously a failed TV pilot of a female police captain being assigned to a rough and corrupt precinct in Pittsburgh. This place is so bad that she has to proceed cautiously, not knowing who to trust. The only trust here is that which Chief Danny Aiello placed in her to get the job done.

Two of the precinct's cops have busted for doing a little moonlighting as burglars and one of the sergeants is killed upon her arrival. Not easy to separate the good ones from the bad ones at this precinct known as the 'sewer'.

Pleshette made a good and forceful commander and she's supported on the home front by her architect husband Frank Converse. The most interesting of the characters in the story is the one played by young Jon Tenney as the recent transfer and fairly young cop. Given what he does, he'll have a limited future in the Pittsburgh PD.

Alone In The Neon Jungle would have made a nice series.

Suzanne Pleshette Was Great

[whpratt1 · 6/10 · 28 September 2008]

Suzanne Pleshette, (Capt. Janet Hamilton) gave an outstanding performance as an experienced female officer who has been assigned to clean up a bad section of Pittsburgh, Pa., where police officers rob jewelry stores and deal with prostitutes. Danny Aiello, (Chief) enlists the help of Janet to clean up this police station where even policemen are being killed because they know too much. Capt. Hamilton is also upsetting her husband and they are beginning to start going their separate ways until things start to change in the police station. There are many threats made to Capt. Hamilton, however, their were loyal officers who stood behind her and decided to start informing on their fellow officers. Suzanne Pleshette surprised me with her great acting as a tough Captain who could clean up a very bad police department.

Whore City!

[zeppo-2 · 3/10 · 26 June 2005]

As my fellow reviewer pointed out, the only crimes committed in this city is prostitution and minor burglary! Not exactly the worst crimes in the world, to say it's supposed to be the 'sewer of lowlifes,' it doesn't seem that bad compared to some major cities around the country.

Still, it is a TV movie so it's somewhat sanitised and not going to be Al Pacino's 'Scarface' for instance. For something from this maligned genre, it's fairly watchable and again, I've seen far worse examples. The plot is very predictable, 'new captain goes to corrupt police station and cleans it up.' Since she's a woman, maybe she should have taken a mop & bucket and a duster....only joking! Please, no letters complaining of sexism.

As to be expected, she sorts out the bad eggs and gets the decent cops back online. While there, there's also the matter of the mystery killer behind the death of another officer. But this is a no-brainer as we see the man early on doing the murder, although, cloaked in shadows, it's pretty easy to see by his height, build and colouring, who he is! No surprise when he is later revealed.

Suzanne Pleshette makes a decent fist of the lead role, although, as pointed out by another reviewer, her nodding dog in the back of the car style of acting is somewhat irritating at times. A small part by Danny Aiello as well before he went on to bigger and better things.

Acting honours go to Jon Tenney as the naive rookie, Hansen who is slowly drawn into the sleazy corrupt world of his fellow officers. A nice understated piece of work that convinces.

In conclusion, watchable but nothing we haven't seen before in episodes of 'Kojak' or 'Starsky & Hutch.' And finally, to enlighten my fellow reviewer, Theo from Scotland, the correct phrase that was used to intimidate the informant was: "you know what happens to cops in prison? They get raped and THEN thrown off the top tier." As the sound recording quality isn't the best, not surprising it's hard to make out.

Nice title! But as for the rest...

[sarcasm_for_free · 3/10 · 1 September 2022]

So, you're watching a film made in the 80's about a female police sergeant who's been brought into clean up a corrupt precinct. What do you expect from your hour-and-a-half's worth of entertainment?

Gritty realism? Authentic violence? Bad language? Perhaps, given the gender of the new gal in charge, a bit of underlying sexual tension between the lady officer and her mostly chauvinistic male coppers?

Maybe it's the fact that this is an undemanding Made-For-TV. Maybe they sanitised it too much to try appealing to a wider audience. Or perhaps, the director and writer were just plain crap.

In any case, what you have instead is a rather boring tale of the new Ma'am dealing with a simple case of burglary in the department, knocking a few heads together and solving the problem with relative ease. Oh, and a few scenes where you sits at home moaning to her hunky husband about how 'tough' her new job is. Bless!

That's it. No real excitement, tension or God forbid, anything vaguely interesting happens whatsoever. There's a lot of tedious conversations that lead nowhere and bad attempts at jokes though... so if you like that kinda thing, I guess you're in hog heaven.

Now I hate genre cliches as much as the next guy, but what I wouldn't have given for a nice, juicy car chase or shootout to relieve the ongoing blandness.

No such luck. And if they were trying for a small-scale drama instead, that doesn't here work either. Everything feels too clean compared to what a REAL police station would be like if it was dripping with corruption, and the glaring absence of anything vaguely controversial means the whole enterprise feels as phony as a four dollar bill.

So in other words, it's a complete strikeout on all fronts. Avoid, avoid, AVOID.

Oh, as a final insult (because after suffering through this I'm in no mood to be charitable) the opening titles are some of the worst I've ever seen. Yeesh. 3/10.

LA law

[parky-3 · 20 January 1999]

A well-respected police officer is assigned to an LA precinct stuffed full of the usual movie cliches (drugged-up gangs, dope-peddlers, hookers and their pimps, gypsies, tramps and thieves). That's the thanks you get for doing a good job: you get a harder one to do. Setting about tidying up the shop in her usual fashion, she is dismayed when one of her closest colleagues is mysteriously shot dead while on duty. And when she checks out the murder, following a lead through the victim's girlfriend (a hooker, of course), she finds the usual wall of silence, corruption and conspiracy one finds when enmeshed in a thoroughly average TV movie.

Uncredited use of another script

[stevekelner · 2/10 · 2 December 2006]

Large swaths of this movie, starting with the plot and including word-for-word blocks of dialog, come out of the movie Twelve O'Clock High, which appears to be uncredited, at least here. The setting has been changed from an American Army Air Force base in England in 1942 to a Chicago police department, but the essence of the plot -- new leader comes in to turn around an organization that is falling apart -- is the same. Unfortunately, most of the drama and insight was lost in the translation, producing scenes that simply don't make sense, or mess up the intent of the original. Whereas a key element of Twelve O'Clock high is about the high toll of warfare even on those who think they are doing the right thing, this movie boils down to "Suzanne Pleshette is tougher than everyone else." There is a deliberate contrast and parallel between the first leader (Gary Merril) and the second (Gregory Peck), but this movie basically begins with Suzanne Pleshette taking over, thus eliminating any sense of commonality under fire. Go see Twelve O'Clock High instead -- it's based on the true story of General Frank Armstrong, and was well and thoroughly researched.

"I have an affinity for sinking ships"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 29 March 2020]

A female police officer is appointed as the new captain of a precinct in a rough part of Pittsburgh. It's a story done many times before, the new head who has to deal with a group that needs sorting out whether it be commerce or military or any place of work. It does have the advantage of Suzanne Pleshette playing the new captain Janet Hamilton and she is excellent, as she always was in anything she played. A series with her character would have been good but alas it was never made.

Pleshette goes dahnthan

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 7 June 2022]

This tale of Suzanne Pleshette fighting corruption in the Pittsburgh police force - seven years before the murder by cops of Jonny Gammage, never forget - was something I'd hoped would be a Yinzer giallo, but instead it's simply a by the book TV movie where she takes over a police station dahntahn and roots out the bad apples.

It does, however, have a great shot of her Mount Washington deck and Tony Shalhoub drinking at the Cricket Lounge during the day and one would assume that's because his character knows that's when the money-strapped students of Pitt University come to tryouts. I wouldn't speak from experience.

This was also called Command In Hell and that better be a reference to Pittsburgh being called Hell with the Lid Off and not an insult. It's bad enough that they call Liberty Avenue "The Sewer" and never even make it to Chez Kimberly.

Danny Aiello is the chief of police, long before he got famous, and nobody in this movie looks, sounds or acts like they are from Pittsburgh.

It's directed by George Stafford Brown, who was Officer Terry Webster on the 70s cop drama The Rookies, and written by Mark Rogers (the Police Story TV movies) and Stephen Downing, who wrote for T. J. Hooker, Police Woman and Emergency.

When Suzanne Pleshette talks, people listen, or else!

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 23 July 2021]

There's a moment in this film where Suzanne Pleshette, as the new arrival at Pittsburgh's roughest precinct where she really shows how she is going to take over. Whether playing Emily Hartley or real life hotel maven Leona Helmsley, she is completely mesmerizing, and when she tells the desk sergeant to straighten up and put on a tie, it's as if she's screaming at a waiter that the palace does not serve wet lettuce. The only difference is that her Captain Hamilton is commanding while the cruel Leona was demanding, and the fairness she shows among the toughness makes her the perfect boss. But she means business in how she intends to turn this precinct around, and she's not going to succeed by babying anybody or offering motherly, lady like advice.

Without Pleshette in the lead, this would be of little interest to me, and even with some great credits, it seems that this would be your stereotypical slum cop drama. Pleshette is content being captain in an upscale area (she has a great condo overlooking Three Rivers Stadium), but takes her transfer by chief Danny Aiello seriously. It's obvious though that she isn't afraid of getting her hands dirty, getting directly involved whether mentoring a new arrival Jon Tenney, getting the inside info with honest black officers played by Joe Morton (a plain clothes lieutenant) and Georg Stanford Brown, and buying a round of drinks for officers hanging out in a bar, indicating that it will be their last drink in that dive.

Yes indeed, this was obviously a pilot, and as good as Pleshette is, she's too good for this. Veteran actor Frank Converse plays her very supportive husband. One good element about the script, maybe not entirely accurate, is the fact that there are as many men supporting her in her new position as there are being misogynistic. Charlotte D'Amboise and Priscilla Lopez of "A Chorus Line" on Broadway appear as hookers, and future star character actor Tony Shalhoub is seen in a small role as a bar owner involved in the vice racket. Stage actor Raymond Serra stands out as her top sergeant who gives her the lowdown on many of the men, 40 of whom want immediate transfers. "I have an affinity for sinking ships", he tells her when indicating that he has no attention of abandoning her yet warning her that the tough times are just beginning. So these moments give an indication that some thought was put into the personal elements of the story, and that gives it extra points from me.