Customer Reviews

The Big Cube

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I wouldn't put this on the same level as Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, but then I wouldn't put any film there, except maybe some of Russ Meyer's others, or maybe the Warhol/Morrissey/Dallesandro trilogy, Trash-Flesh-Heat. In any case, this is a highly enjoyable and well done campy romp. Lana Turner is a retired actress who is the only thing standing in the way of her beautiful but gullible step-daughter getting married. The would-be groom is a disgraced medical student who was thrown out of the university for using the lab to make LSD cubes, which he uses to dose people he doesn't like. So the couple decides to spike stepmom's tranquilizers with those funny sugar cubes, hoping to make her go crazy and to thus remove her an an obstacle to their nuptial plans. The psychedelic scenes are completely over the top, and delightfully ridiculous. All the acting is perfect, the set pieces are just what they should be, ditto for the music . . . If you are into 60s acid-laced camp theater, you need this movie.

"You take LSD and you see sounds, you hear colors," says bathtub chemist George Chakiris in the 1969 howler The Big Cube. When he adds, "Strange things begin to happen," he's not just whistling "Dixie"--this movie ranks in our Top Five All-Time Bad Movies Delights for, among other things, its prolonged, preposterously funny sequences of Lana Turner playing a trippy, LSD-besotted society matron.

Poor little rich girl Karin Mossberg learns that her moneybags father Dan O'Herlihy is wedding Turner, who is--of all things--America's greatest stage actress. "I can't bear that woman!" cries the distraught girl. Mossberg's best friend, slutty siren Pamela Rodgers, consoles her--"Sweetness, baby, float with the tide. That's my bag. This is a pop art world!"--and cheers her up by taking her to meet some LSD-popping hipster pals at a nightclub called Le Trip. As you might expect, the walls of this pop spot are covered in telling graffiti: Grass is Good; Acid is Love; Cube the Fuzz. Wait a minute--Cube the Fuzz? Well, we don't remember seeing that phrase on the bumper stickers of groovy VW vans back in the good old days, but it does have a certain ring to it. "Cube" is, of course, hippie lingo for sugar cubes soaked in LSD, as is made abundantly clear when Rodgers's boyfriend, Carlos East, slips one of them into the beer of a guy he doesn't like, snarling, "I'm gonna cube that mother, but good!" "Fuzz" is hippie lingo for, of course, cops, as is made abundantly clear when the unsuspecting victim's acid trip, a riotously hammy epileptic fit on the dance floor, is interrupted by the fuzz who rush into the nightclub and arrest him.

Meanwhile, Mossberg falls for dropout/drug-pusher/gigolo Chakiris, who, once he sees her car and mansion, brings up the topic of marriage. As soon as dad O'Herlihy and stepmom Turner are out of town, the couple hosts an LSD orgy at the mansion, during which Rodgers does a wicked striptease routine (a favorite pastime of acidheads in the '60s). Unhappily, O'Herlihy and Turner arrive home to see all this naked flesh, and promptly throw the celebrants out. O'Herlihy angrily denounces Chakiris as a fortune hunter, but naturally Mossberg won't listen.
The real trouble starts when O'Herlihy is drowned at sea and the widow Turner is named executrix of his estate. Turner follows her late husband's suggestion by making Mossberg's inheritance contingent on her not marrying slimeball Chakiris. "That's how her kind repays loyalty--with a shaft!" fumes Chakiris. "She has everything your father had, including the right to run your life. She poisoned his mind and saw to it that you got nothing." As Chakiris points out to Mossberg, "There are ways of dealing with cats like her," and since Chakiris's solution to most problems is LSD, we're hardly surprised that his way of dealing with Turner is to add a huge dose of acid to her nightly tranquilizers, then sit back and watch her flip her lid. It proves to be a highly successful plan. Turner is soon staggering around her luxe boudoir, seeing sounds and hearing colors. Later, Turner goes for a spin in her convertible and hallucinates--hilariously--an ocean in the sky, then sees (this is what does her in) the face of Satan. It's all Too Much for Turner. She suffers a mental breakdown and is institutionalized with "partial amnesia" (the part of her memory that's missing is, no doubt, the part about why she ever signed on for this movie). "Maybe there's no perfect murder," comments Chakiris, "but I think we figured a perfect freak-out."

After a court declares Turner mentally incompetent, Mossberg is rich and free to marry Chakiris. Their wedding celebration is a full-tilt '60s happening, replete with couples going at it on the floor and bikers riding their Harleys into the swimming pool. But when Chakiris tries bedding best friend Rodgers instead of his bride on his wedding night, Mossberg realizes belatedly that he's no good. She quickly divorces the scumbag. Now penniless, Chakiris starts gobbling so many "sugar" cubes he goes completely bonkers himself.

Worried that she's done Turner wrong, Mossberg confesses all to Turner's secret new flame, Richard Egan (America's greatest playwright). "Suppose she relived the part of her life she's trying to forget," ponders Egan with a straight face. "What if I could write a play based on her experiences, then convince her to play herself?" Thus, Turner is let out of the loony bin to star in a loony play with the loony plot of this loony movie. On opening night, she suddenly realizes she's enacting her own real-life saga and breaks down sobbing onstage, repeating over and over, "I'm not mad! I'm not mad!" Though the audience's response to Turner's statement is to shout "Bravo!" yours will be to shout "Yes, you are!"

wow!what a time warp.I have never seen this film before i ordered it from amazon,and i'm glad i did.released at a time,1969,when the tune in drop out was in,this truley is a time capsule.lana turner is one of my faves, and of course george chakiris.seeing them both under the influance of the big cube is truley a sight to see.I do not recommend drug use, but i do recommend this movie,campy,hilarious at times and truley just fun to see.

Then you should definitely add "The Big Cube" to your collection as a companion piece...It has the same trippy, 60s camp value as Russ Meyer's film. You have to wonder what Lana Turner was thinking by joining on to this (the same could be said for George Chakiris, having won his Oscar® for "West Side Story!"). But the film is truly a hoot, in the most unintentional of ways. Never boring with some hysterical LSD/psychedelic psych-outs! Groovy man!

The Big Cube made in 1968 is an excellent film which shows the psychedelic images of the nineteen sixties. The film clearly gives a don't do LSD message to an audience which was heavily experimenting with LSD in the late sixties. George Chakiris makes a very handsome bad guy who is expelled from medical school and sets his designs to Karin Mossberg, who is very beautiful, but don't know much about this actress. Lana Turner steals the movie with her over the top wardrobe, wigs and class. Lana still proves she is more beautiful than most women half of her age. She was 45 when she made this movie. George Chakiris gives an effective performance at the end. Movie pretty much brings the old style movies with storyline to the new era of movies with its nudity. This is a great movie to have in your collection.

"The Big Cube" stars screen glamour queen Lana Turner. Although not her last film, she was past her days as a box office star and had already begun accepting a few low-quality roles. This one is slightly-less laughable than "Trog." Lana plays Adriana Roman, an actress who has retired to marry wealthy Charles Winthrop (Dan O'Herlihy). Charles also has beautiful daughter, Lisa (Karin Mossberg), who inexplicably speaks with a Swedish accent. Lisa has unknowingly fallen in with a bad crowd that party and use LSD; the ringleader, Johnny (George Chakiris), sees Lisa as his new bankroll and begins to romance her. When Adriana & Charles have an accident at sea, the widowed Adriana is left as the one who must decide whether Lisa gets her inheritance or not. Since Lisa has chosen to be with a druggie, Adriana turns her down. Johnny attempts to gaslight Adriana with LSD. You'll have to watch to find out the chilling conclusion! So much is laughable here, but Lana is a trooper and does the best that she can with this campy story and poor script. Lana still looks lovely, even though she is weighted down in some pretty gaudy gowns by famous designer Travilla and some hairpieces that would be enough to give most women head trauma! Even more amazing on the hairpieces is that they don't even come close to matching the color of Lana's hair. I kept wondering if this was intentional or some new two-toned hair fad of the 60's that I'd never heard about. It is amazing what a solid cast this movie has, too; Oscar winner Chakiris ("West Side Story"), Oscar nominated Turner, Richard Egan, and Dan O'Herlihy (who had played Turner's love interest in "Imitation of Life"). Apparently the majority of the budget went to the stars' salaries and not the script. And let's not forget Pamela Rodgers as Bibi, the bimbo fun-loving friend of Lisa. Pamela went on to bigger fame in the hit TV series "Laugh-In." The psychedelic effects are fab, too, and there's plenty of drugs, sex (well, as much as is allowed in 1968), and rock & roll music (or something like it) to make this one the hit of a trashy movie party! A theatrical trailer is also included. I suggest getting the "Women in Peril" box set that also includes "Trog" (Joan Crawford) and "Caged" (Eleanor Parker); it averages out to about $9 a movie...what a value!

I guess everyone's giving this 5 stars for camp value, but it's a plodding, stupid film whose only redeeming feature is its ridiculously over the top treatment of its subject matter.
Warning: probably not a lot of fun to watch while taking your own voyage. Funny in a reefer madness kind of way, but don't get too hyped up by all these great reviews. It's really a pretty dumbass film.
Clearly made as a caveat against tripping, it comes off more as a caveat against Hollywood's remarkable ability to take any subject matter and make it seem trivial.

Forgettable Lana Turner late career star vehicle in a "Gaslight"-goes-psychedelic sort of vein.
Big Studio turkey attempting to cash in on Sixties subculture (at least the way the producers understood it...).
Even after 40 years too corny to gain cult movie status, only trash film-completists need apply.

Film: 3.5/10
Picture quality: 7/10
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 (1.85:1 orig.)
Run time NTSC 60Hz: 1 38'06"
Audio: GB
ST: GB;F
Chpt.: 27
RC 1
Bonus: Trailer
Studio: Warner

Now and then you come across a bad movie that is funny or endearing in an odd sort of way--but the simple truth is that most bad movies are simple that: bad.

It was a long fall for most of the great leading ladies of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Lucille Ball ended her career with the debacle MAME. Joan Crawford bit the dust with a cheap-o English horror flick called TROG. Bette Davis slurred her way through the dire WICKED STEPMOTHER, and Lana Turner, one of the most glamours stars of the 1940s and 1950s, found herself in this thing called THE BIG CUBE.

Turner began her film career in 1937, making an impression in small roles in important pictures. By 1939 she landed at MGM, where her hair was bleached blonde and she was given the glamour girl build up. Although her acting talents were somewhat weak, she was often better than her critics claimed, and in any case she was a knock-out on the big screen. Her scandal-plagued private life kept her name in the newspapers: no publicity, as the saying goes, is bad publicity. When her MGM contract ended she went onto several major successes filmed on independent contracts, most notably in 1957's PEYTON PLACE and 1959's IMITATION OF LIFE. But thereafter she began a slow slide, and although she made seven films in the 1960s, some of them reasonably good, few did anything to enhance her reputation.

Most of the people behind THE BIG CUBE were not memorable to begin with. The movie seems to have been the only English-speaking film directed by Tito Davidson, who found it provident to return to Mexico thereafter. William Doughlas Lansford's claim to fame was as the author of a series of trivial television serials and made-for-tv movies. As for the cast, Dan O'Herlihy and Richard Egan had been memorable character actors, but both were now on a downward slide. George Charkiris, although he had won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actor in West Side Story, was spinning his wheels and going nowhere fast. And then there was Karen Mossberg, who made all of three films, of which THE BIG CUBE was the last--and given her performance it is difficult to say whether she killed the film or it killed her. But it hardly matters. Both she and the movie stink.

The story played into the fears of white bread America about those crazy drug-dropping hippies out in California. Lisa Winthrop (Karen Mossberg) is an heiress who meets Johnny Allen (George Carkiris), a conniving chemistry student who knows how to cook up LSD guaranteed to give you a bad trip. Johnny is impressed by Lisa's money, but neither are impressed by the fact that Lisa's father Charles Wintrop (Dan O'Herlihy) has fallen hard for a stage actress Adriana Roman (Lana Turner)--Lisa because she has the Electra fixation from hell and Johnny because he sees Adrianna as one more barrier between him and the Winthrop fortune. When father Charles is killed in a boating accident, Johnny convinces that Lisa that Adriana murdered him, and so they give her "the big cube," a dose of LSD intended to drive her to suicide or to an insane asylum, whichever happens first. Fortunately, Adriana has a friend in playwright Frederick Lansdale (Richard Egan), and he soon comes up with a truly ridiculous way to restore Adriana's mind before she tilts completely over the edge.

Lana Turner needed strong direction and she certainly didn't get here: her performance consists of flipping from one mood to another, flashing her eyes, and trying to look long-suffering and bitchy all at the same time. As for the rest of the cast, there's not much to say about any of them one way or another. It's all very tiresome. Like most of her contemporaries, Lana would go onto various television series and movies, and she would even make an occasional film now and then--her last effort was the little seen 1991 THWARTED. Which probably gives her the edge on Ball, Crawford, and Davis, all three of whom went out with extremely unfortunate films that might be described as hag-o-ramas. Whatever the case, if your a Lana Turner fan, you might want to give this one one a miss and go back and watch IMITATION OF LIFE again instead.

GFT
In Memory of Floy Bennett

I got this film in my Warners "Women in Peril" box set, which I only really wanted for "Caged", but "The Big Cube" turned out to be a surprisingly fun kaleidoscope of a late '60s film.

It stars Lana Turner and the best way to describe it is to imagine one of Lana's old suspense pictures such as "Portrait in Black" crossed with "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls".

Lana's character is an accomplished stage actress who is retiring to marry super-rich Dan O'Herlihy. Newcomer Karin Mossberg plays his spoiled, pouty daughter who's afraid Turner's going to steal Daddy's love and attention from her.

When the newlyweds leave her alone in the mansion, she and her sexually-liberated galpal Pamela Rodgers, who slinks around in tight black capris and crop tops like Julie Newmar as Catwoman, suggests they "call up a dozen guys and have an orgy".

Here is where George Chakiris appears as a medical student who takes an interest in Mossberg, primarily because he's intrigued by her wealth and sees an easy mark. He's also in need of some quick cash once he's kicked out of medical school for pilfering medical supplies to manufacture LSD.

He takes her to a wild nightclub where we are treated to a trippy scene where acid-laced sugar cubes and beer flow as free as the love. It's a definite highlight of the movie.

The plot kicks in when O'Herlihy dies at sea during a boating mishap and with Lana as his primary heir, Chakiris and Mossberg try to drive her mad by spiking her tranquilizers with acid.

There aren't any shocking twists here, and the screenplay itself is quite average, but the trippy psychadelic visuals and hilariously outdated '60s lingo make this a blast to watch.

Turner, then 48, is shot through distractingly gauzy filters for her close-ups that don't match the long shots.

Richard Egan has a thankless role as a playwright (yeah, right!) who secretly pines for Lana.

The two younger leads, George Chakiris and Karin Mossberg have zero chemistry and no charisma. Mossberg is particularly annoying with her Eurotrash accent and the film would have been much better with two more likeable young performers in the roles.

Pamela Rodgers and Carlos East as the free-thinking, free-loving Bibi and Lalo are much more entertaining.

There's even a minor token gay character named Jerry who seems to be there for the other characters to have a good laugh at.

This film is by no means Oscar-worthy material, but it's a fun time capsule of 1969 and Hollywood's take on the drug culture and psychadelic movement.