The Big Cube (1968) User Reviews

This Is Not Your Classic Lana Turner!

[Michael27-1 · 3/10 · 29 June 2005]

Being a Lana Turner fan, and having seen most of her films, "The Big Cube" had always been amazingly allusive. It's not an easy movie to find, but once I got my hands on it, I was like a little kid at Christmas. I had read reviews on it and seen the disdain for this film over and over again, but I wasn't as horrified by it as most reviewers had me expecting to be. And, strangely enough, that was both a disappointment and a relief.

Lana plays a supposedly great stage actress (though you wouldn't know it based on the horrendous play the film opens with) who retires to marry a wealthy man whose witchy teenage daughter resents Lana's intrusion into their lives. This diva daughter, meanwhile, begins to date a sleazy drug pusher whom neither her father nor Lana approve of. The daughter (played oddly enough with an Eastern European accent of some sort) teams up with her boyfriend to drive poor Lana mad by lacing her medication with LSD.

"The Big Cube" is not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination. Many of the lines and scenes are laughably bad. Lana's LSD-induced hallucination scenes are beyond campy. And seeing Lana in the same film with bare breasts and naked rear-ends is a little disconcerting. But the film will suck you in and have you hooked - much like LSD itself. And in an oddly appealing way, there is a dash of awkwardness thrown in when you see how seriously Turner takes herself in this film. For a woman who was on the verge of 50, she still acted like a young vixen in her 20's.

This vehicle is one of pure exhibitionism. Truly only for Lana fans or those who like trippy '60s flicks. But I have honestly seen much worse. "Valley of the Dolls" is from the same era and in the same vein, but much more ridiculous and tedium inducing. "The Big Cube", strangely enough, resembles a drugged-out version of Turner's 1959 hit "Imitation of Life". Between Lana's successful stage actress character and the conflict she experiences with her step-daughter, plus the on screen reunion with Dan O'Herlihy (who plays her husband here), the similarities are striking enough for me to imagine that the director of this bizarre film must have been a fan of Lana's older melodramas. Having said that, "The Big Cube" is also about as far away from "Imitation of Life" or "Peyton Place" as one can get.

You need to have survived the '60s and Lana Turner to survive this movie

[blanche-2 · 4/10 · 10 January 2010]

Lana Turner on an acid trip - a bizarre thought, but this low-budget Mexican production, "The Big Cube," is about just that - you know, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," the "Sugar Shack" - LSD. And what a bizarre trip it is for all involved.

Turner plays a great theater star, Adriana Roman, who retires to marry Charles Winthrop (Dan O'Herlihy) and comes up against his angry daughter Lisa (Karin Mossberg). No one explains why O'Herlihy's daughter has some sort of foreign accent. Everyone else is American. Anyway, Lisa falls for a sleaze drug dealer and soon to be ex-medical student (George Chakiris) who is after her money. When O'Herlihy dies in a boating accident, the Chakiris character hints to Lisa that they can hurry along the inheritance by - and this is really not clear - either driving Adriana nuts with LSD or using it to kill her. It falls to the playwright with whom Adriana has worked (Richard Egan) to rescue her from the clutches of these two connivers.

The plot is beyond muddled. One day Lisa hates her stepmother, and then the next day they're best buddies. One day Adriana has an acid trip while in a car, and Lisa and her boyfriend take her to a cliff, presumably to throw her over, and Adriana gets away from them and doesn't die. The next day, Adriana goes on another acid trip and tries to throw herself out a window, and Lisa saves her. Why did she save her when she tried to kill her the day before? It's a mess.

The movie is filled with psychedelic parties and horrible acting, particularly from Mossberg, Pamela Rodgers, Lisa's friend, and Carlos East, who plays an overly made-up artist named Lalo.

Turner, approaching 50, does her "Portrait in Black," "Imitation of Life" acting number wearing some horrific wigs. With a simple upswept hairdo, those enormous blue eyes, and petite figure, she's quite beautiful and glamorous, though dressed like she's supposed to be 18; with her hair down, she's a way over the hill ingénue; and with those gargoyle wigs, she looks just plain awful. Her closeups are shot through linoleum. I hate that older beautiful classic film stars had so few alternatives that they turned to these trash movies, but many did.

Campy though not on the camp level of a "Valley of the Dolls" or another Lana Turner film, "Portrait in Black" but some might find it fun. It was fun, but also a little sad for those who enjoyed Lana in "Slightly Dangerous," "Green Dolphin Street," and the Ross Hunter glossy melodramas of the '50s.

It works, barely

[mrsastor · 5/10 · 28 March 2008]

Actually, I'd recommend it if you like Lana Turner.

The Big Cube does have some serious problems. The plot isn't really one of them, it should have worked. Here it is just addled with too many terrible actors, and in need of a better screenwriter. It is, for example, completely unreasonable that daughter Lisa should decide her stepmother hates her and is turning her father against her, simply because they disapproved when they came home to find Lisa and her friends drinking, dropping acid, and stripping! OF COURSE they objected! My daughter should have received considerably more than a disapproving glare from me. The daughter's character is poorly fleshed out, never very believable, and it is further annoying that she has a foreign accent shared by no one else in the family.

It is likewise unbelievable that Adrianna would have automatically rejected her step-daughter's suitor and withheld her inheritance. Adrianna, from what we see in the film, has no idea the boyfriend is a drug pusher or a gigolo, it would seem more probable that she would have had a wait-and-see attitude toward this. This is typical of the numerous instances where our screenwriter chooses expediency over logic, and/or there is more of the screenplay that did not make it to the final cut. Perhaps Adrianna did have clues and they just ended up on the cutting room floor.

Also, Pamela Rodgers character is just disturbing. On Laugh In, her "Stupid Girl" character is often amusing, but when we see it here with nudity and indiscriminate drug usage, it becomes far more base and demeaning. It is typical for the film, all of the "hip" young people are clearly written by someone far too old and out of touch to be writing these characters, and they write them mean-spirited and ill-intentioned with no conception of anything positive that might exist among the younger generation. I often had the impression that the original idea and the actual script are several persons removed from one another.

There are a few things in the film's favor. It is a lovely film to look at, the Mexican exteriors are gorgeous, and on the DVD the color is transfered very nicely. Lana's hairpieces are unfortunate to say the least, but actually would not have been considered nearly so atrocious at the time this was filmed. And most of the music is actually pretty good, not that you'd rush out and buy the record, but not at all bad considering the source. But the main thing that carries the movie, and which it would totally fail without, is that Lana Turner takes it completely seriously. The sincerity she places in this rather absurd character lends the movie its only credibility, and gives us a glimmer of what might have been if only the screenwriter had been half as professional and dedicated to his craft. Lana is clearly playing Adrianna as she should have been, overlooking many of the more stupid things they have her doing and saying.

While it does not really hold up to repeat viewings, for my fellow Lana Turner fans I'd recommend it. It's a rather amusing rainy evenings entertainment if you haven't seen it before.

Lana takes a trip, man.

[Poseidon-3 · 3 July 2007]

For fans of Miss Turner, this has long been a sort of Holy Grail, unavailable as it has been for so many years, but thanks to a recent DVD release, it's been tossed out to a grateful world again. It's a real lulu! Turner plays a famous stage actress who is about to retire to wed wealthy O'Herlihy. Their bliss is threatened a bit by the fact that his daughter Mossberg resents Turner's presence in her and her father's lives. Mossberg is at an impressionable age and falls under the spell of drug-pushing lothario Chakiris. When her father dies unexpectedly, Mossberg is placed in the uncomfortable position of relying on Turner to release her trust fund to her and when Turner resists, she and Chakiris start playing with Turner's mind through LSD – the big cube! This allows Turner to head into freak-out territory while crazy lights swirl and trippy camera-work goes to town. Turner, whose body looks quite wonderful in this (much slimmed-down from "Madame X" which was only a few years earlier), is continually decked out in Travilla concoctions, some of them flattering, many of them hysterically funny. She also sports an atrocious array of hairpieces, none of which make any effort to match her own blond tresses, which poke out the front. She's pulled a bit tightly in the face and is shot through gauze in her close-ups. Often she comes off quite preposterously, though occasionally, a little of that old magic manages to glimmer through. Her character is no bright bulb to begin with, but Turner plays her as a ditzy nitwit in the beginning, so there's not much to build on when she begins acting nutty later. Mossberg (who at times resembles young Christina Crawford in "Mommie Dearest"!) bears a very heavy accent, excused away by some tripe about her having attended a Swiss boarding school! Right… Chakiris is suave and good-looking and manages to keep things in check until his own little freak-out near the end. O'Herlihy (Turner's old co-star from "Imitation of Life") and Egan, as another male pal of hers, give serviceable, if not remarkable performances, though there's little to be done with a script this inane. Among Chakiris's zany friends is Rogers, who has one killer body, but who overacts with zeal in nearly all of her scenes. There's also a gay peripheral character that epitomizes the words gross stereotype. There is color and camp galore in this film whose plot gets more and more ludicrous as it goes on. For Turner fans, it's amusing to see some of her other, better films get referenced in the scenarios. The (bad!) stage scenes recall "Imitation of Life" while an out-of-control party echoes "Peyton Place". Also, of course, La Turner has at least two scenes with her trademark chiffon head-scarves. The sets for the film lean towards the elaborate (except for the inane one meant to represent a nightclub.) Tacky, silly and garish as the whole enterprise is, it's still entertaining and even as rotten as it is, it's still more attractive and tasteful a film than what hits some of the screens these days. Despite the lurid drug references and a few splashes of female nudity, there remains a bizarre innocence to it all, probably provided by the wide-eyed lunacy of Turner acting as if she's still at MGM when she's really stuck somewhere in Mexico.

Lana Turner + LSD = Gaslight '69

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 17 April 2009]

Mexico-U.S. co-production is misguided, if still entertaining, mishmash of the old and the new. Lana Turner (looking sadly aged, even in softened close-up) plays a retired stage actress who has married a wealthy financier, only to have him perish in a boating accident; meanwhile, Turner's straight-laced step-daughter wants to marry a handsome cad, but Lana's objections over the union are keeping the young woman from receiving her full inheritance. The couple attempts to drive Lana crazy by putting the psychedelic drug LSD into her sedatives--and then goading her into committing suicide! Interesting solution to the mental problems Lana ends up having (reenacting her traumatic events on the stage) nearly makes this ridiculous plot worthwhile; unfortunately, director Tito Davison ends the picture with an extended freak-out sequence, complete with George Chakiris crawling on the floor talking to an ant. Davison has some good ideas (and the film's optical effects and cinematography are good), but he needed a judicious editor to eliminate the "modern" excesses which have now turned the film into a camp-fest. ** from ****

Douglas Sirk Meets Roger Corman at Churobusco

[Scott_Mercer · 5/10 · 25 July 2010]

Man, what a mess.

Yes, another example of old-line Hollywood attempting to deal with the pop culture youthquake of the late 1960's, and failing miserably. This thing lurches back and forth between a Douglas Sirk like melodrama and an LSD exploitation film. Jarring changes in pacing and tone abound. Even the accompanying background score shifts disturbingly from string-drenched light orchestral goop to fuzz-laden rock and roll freak-out.

Somehow I get the feeling that both Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert yanked a lot out of this film for their own delirious happening, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," released a couple years later. Fans of that craziness should be right at home here.

Lana Turner overacts appropriately here, and I am not going to blame any of the actors here (except for Mossberg -- this was her last film credit, probably appropriately), but I will take the writer, director, and the entire crew to task for their dubious contributions.

The fact that this film was actually produced in Mexico with a Mexican crew (though all American actors and shot in English) tells you a lot of the background. The set design has the over-the-top qualities of Mexican production design has in spades. The homes of the wealthy main characters are drenched in overdone luxurious furnishings. The freaky psychedelic club overflows with more colored lights and oil projection lamps than Bill Graham's storage room. The fashions worn are of the most extreme examples available at that time. These were clothes that might actually be worn by real people you might see on the street (maybe if you lived in Beverly Hills) but, just barely.

The Swedish accent of lead actress Karin Mossberg also throws another off-kilter element into the highly unbelievable proceedings. Explained away by the fact that she's been in boarding school in Switzerland for years, the fact that she looks nothing like the actor portraying her father is another example of the ongoing cognitive dissonance that makes this film a laugh riot. (I would also like to point out the ironic fact, that she did not recognize LSD laced into a sugar cube when exposed to it, due to the fact that she had been sheltered all these years in a boarding school in Switzerland. This conveniently ignores the historical fact that LSD was discovered by Dr. Albert Hoffman in a laboratory...wait for it....wait for it....in Switzerland).

To sum up, if you are ready for a ride into high camp, a film that screams to even the most submissive viewer, "Don't take me seriously," then you will be in a heaven of arranged artificiality. If you liked "The Trip," or "Skidoo" or "Beyond The Valley of the Dolls," and can appreciate all of them on the level of laughing at the fact that anyone could possibly take this kind of foolishness seriously, then you will have a riot of a time with this film.

Great if you enjoy watching a movie star's career crash and burn.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 29 August 2012]

This was made during an age when old-time Hollywood stars were destroying themselves in film and it would have been better if many had just retired instead of making god-awful films like Joan Crawford, Jennifer Jones and Lana Turner did late in their careers. BUT, these bad films are enjoyable, as they are so bad you can't help but enjoy them for their camp value.

The film begins with Turner marrying a rich guy (Dan O'Herlihy). However she tries, Turner is not able to get the man's daughter (Karin Mossberg--who was an odd choice to play the daughter, as her command of English seemed rather poor) to accept her. However, Turner doesn't realize just how deep the step-daughter's resentment of her is. When the father dies in a boating accident and Turner is left in charge, Mossberg and her freaky boyfriend (George Chakiris) decide to drive the woman crazy--that way they can get their hands on all that money. So, combining LSD and recordings weird suggestions, they drive her towards the deep end. What happens next (other than lots of crazy psychedelics), you'll have to see for yourself. Just be prepared--it's embarrassing and amazingly silly.

While there is some shock value (with all the boobies scattered throughout the film), the writing is just awful. Characters behave in insanely inconsistent ways and the ending is just dumb (you've GOT to see the play--it's amazingly dopey). A bad film but a strangely enjoyable one.

Oh Lana! How did it come to this?

[jjnxn-1 · 4/10 · 10 May 2013]

Bad movie lovers rejoice. Craptastic mess from that unfortunate time period when the studios were trying to connect with a youth audience that just wasn't there. Poor Lana, looking dreadfully gaunt, and her terrible two tone hair are stuck in this tripe with nowhere to hide. Her costarring with Dan O'Herlihy reminds the viewer that they were in Imitation of Life together and makes you wonder why you're not watching that instead! The rest of the acting is of the seriously wooden variety and the direction inept. Trash but if you are in the mood for something to make fun of or a Lana completist than give it a chance but one view will be more than enough.

No.. it can't be Lana Turner!

[alehua6 · 4/10 · 18 April 2006]

My father in-law was channel surfing and accidentally found this movie playing on TV last night. I heard some of the lines and the weird 60's style music from another room and thought what the heck they were watching. It intrigued me enough to walk over to see what it was and my in-laws commented that it looked like a 'B' movie. At a glance, I thought the acting was really bad. But then I took a closer look at one of the actors and realized that it was Lana Turner! I couldn't believe my eyes. I noticed immediately how much older she looked. I love how every time the camera was on her face she looked mysteriously out of focus. Kind of like what they did with Sybil Shepard in Moonlighting. The lines were really awful and painful to hear but we all found ourselves compelled to keep watching it. Even my husband woke up from a snooze on the couch and started watching it. The daughter, Lisa sounded out of place with some French-like accent. The special psychedelic effects were really bad. I felt almost embarrassed for Ms Turner. I was also surprised there was nudity in this film.

She shouldn't have done this movie. She looked really out of place as if she was still playing one of her roles in her older movies like Imitation of Life. Don't get me wrong, I loved Imitation of Life. That was a really wonderful movie. She was really great in it and her acting was right for that time. But this movie was not right for her type of acting. It looked really out of place.

Also, the guy who played Johnny looked really familiar until I realized that it was 'Bernardo' from West Side Story! He seemed to play this sleazy character all too well.

I do have to say that it was entertaining. But if you're a real big fan of Lana Turner, save yourself the agony if you want to remember her as she was in her heyday. Cheers!

Fading 40's Favorite Clobbers Counter-Culture Creeps!

[phillindholm · 7/10 · 2 July 2007]

"The Big Cube" marked Lana Turner's swift descent from movie stardom. A very cheap Mexican potboiler supposedly co-produced by her husband at the time, Robert Eaton, it improbably cast her in the role of a great stage actress, giving up her fame to marry a wealthy tycoon who comes complete with a grown daughter. Soon Dad (Dan O'Herlihy) is drowned in a yachting accident, leaving Lana as the executrix of his estate. By now, her stepdaughter (Karin Mossberg) is involved with a slimy drug dealer (George Chakiris of "West Side Story"). Because Stepmom won't give her consent to their wedding, these two plan to drive her into the nuthouse by spiking her drink with LSD. That they do, and it's up to a playwright (Richard Egan) who has loved her from afar, to set things straight. So much for the "plot". Turner, taut-faced and victimized by grotesque wigs and costumes, seems unsure of how to play her part, so she plays for sympathy and merely whispers her lines - no doubt hoping the audience won't hear them.At least until the story reaches it's preposterous climax, and she starts shrieking like she's still on the witness stand back in ''Peyton Place''. Chakiris is properly scummy, but Mossberg, sporting a Swedish accent (unconvicingly explained away by her character supposedly attending a Swiss boarding school) is as wooden as a cigar store Indian-and not much better looking,either. (At one point, Turner gushes about her Stepdaughter ''She even LOOKS like me!''. She's wrong-even though she's at least twenty years older, Turner still looks much more attractive than Mossberg). As for the rest of the cast, O'herlihy and Egan are merely there to support Turner, which they do well enough. Then, there are the ''Teenyboppers'' all of whom are well past 21 especially Mossberg's friend Bibi, (Pamela Rodgers)who spouts lines like ''It's a pop art world, baby-get with it!''. She also does a striptease at a very unconvincing ''Freakout Party''. Then, there's the teen's hangout,''Le Trip'' which has got to be the ugliest ''nightclub'' ever depicted on film. On the positive side, the movie (filmed on location in Mexico)is well photographed,and does move fairly fast-more than likely due to the editing rather than the inept direction. The musical score is pretty trippy also-but in a good way. The title song ''Lean On Me'' was co-written by Valjean Johns, who also co-wrote (with Guy Hemric) the title tune from that Psychedelic Schlockfest ''Maryjane''. This is yet another case of a once-great star slumming, and probably wondering ''WHAT was I thinking?'' ever since. Nevertheless, faded one-time names like Turner ended up in stuff like this, because it afforded them top billing they could no longer get elsewhere.(THAT'S probably what she was thinking) Well, Lana, I hope it was worth it.Still, for those audiences with a sense of humor, this is a classic. And Tuner gets to do her familiar ''Imitation Of Life''/''Portrait In Black'' routine.''The Big Cube'' is finally available on DVD (complete with Groovy trailer) in a stunning transfer-which really brings Lana's bargain-basement freakouts to life. I watched this movie two years ago, and hated it-then, I watched it again. Now, I think it's great! So, for those with the right sense of humor, ''Get With It!''

Psychedelic horror show

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 20 January 2017]

Lana Turner was four years off the big screen when she did The Big Cube. Unlike some of her other contemporaries from the Hollywood Studio years she never went the horror route. But The Big Cube was enough of a psychedelic horror show as it is.

Lana plays acclaimed stage actress and second trophy wife of billionaire Dan O'Herlihy. His daughter Karin Mossberg is jealous of her stepmother especially after O'Herlihy is killed in a boating accident and his will gives Turner control of the fortune until Mossberg reaches the age of 25 and she can only marry someone Lana gives consent to.

That consent will not be given to medical student George Chakiris and he works Iago like on Mossberg. Chakiris supports himself selling LSD and he acts as travel agent to give Turner a trip to the psychedelic loony bin.

I can't believe Turner who was still drop dead gorgeous in 1969 couldn't find a better vehicle than this piece of trash. Take out the LSD and it's really just a watered down version of some of the soap operas Turner did in her latter years.

Richard Egan is here to and he has little to do but stand around and catch Turner on the rebound from the psych ward. He's a playwright and the truth is exposed with a gambit from Hamlet.

But the Bard would not have been happy seeing his idea wind up in this freak show.

A hysterically campy psychedelic 60's kitsch hoot

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 29 July 2007]

Sweet, innocent, but petulant young rich girl Lisa (the cute Karin Mossberg, who sports a great funny accent) doesn't get along with her new former stage actress stepmother Adriana (a game performance by faded 40's leading lady Lana Turner). After her wealthy father Charles (a solid Dan O'Herlithy) dies in a boating accident, Lisa and her smarmy, gold-digging, conniving dope-head boyfriend Johnny (a nicely slimy George Chakiris; Bernardo in "West Side Story") decide to drive Adriana crazy by spiking her medication with LSD so they can get their greedy hands on her substantial inheritance. Tito Davison's heavy-handed direction, working from William Douglas Lansford's deliciously lurid script, milks the outrageously melodramatic plot for all its worth: we've got several wild anything-goes freak-out parties, lots of crazy far-out trip scenes, hilariously gaudy loud'n'tacky visuals, rapid-fire editing, and even a smattering of surprising gratuitous nudity. The admirably sincere acting from a sturdy cast adds immensely to the infectiously campy fun: Richard Egan as Adriana's concerned best friend Frederick Lonsdale, yummy redhead Pamela Rogers as Lisa's vampy, zany free-spirited gal pal Bibi, Carlos East as funky painter Lalo, and Regina Torne as the evil Queen Bee. Val Johns' swingin' groovy score, Gabriel Figueroa's bright, garish, splashy color cinematography, and the cool soundtrack (the theme song "Lean on Me" is quite catchy) are all suitably histrionic. A real wacky riot.

Madame X on ACID

[brefane · 7/10 · 22 February 2007]

This rarely shown camp classic needs to be seen to be believed. Mix a Lana Turner "soaper" like Imitation of Life"(59) with an American International 60's exploitation film and you've got THE BIG CUBE. Distributed by Warner Brothers, the film was made in Mexico, the esteemed Gabriel Figueroa(Los Olvidados,The Night of the Iquana) was the cinematographer, and the film, which "introduced" Karin Mossberg in the role of Lana's stepdaughter, is Mossberg's last film credit. Mossberg's indeterminable accent is faintly reminiscent of Zsa Zsa Gabor's,and at times she resembles a glamorous version of Judith O'Dea from Night of the Living Dead(68). No one else in the cast sounds anything like her, and she doesn't resemble Dan O'Herlihy who plays her father. O'Herilhy appeared with Turner in "Imitation of Life". It's not hard to believe that this was Mossberg's last film; she's laugh-inducing. Did she take acting lessons from Lana Turner? George Chikiris of West Side Story(60)fame plays Mossberg's sleazy medical student boyfriend who spikes Lana's sedatives with LSD in a hilarious plot to drive her crazy. The plot has overtones of Gaslight(44), The Heiress(49), and Wild in the Streets(68). Further hilarity ensues from the straining to be "hip" dialog, the "trippy" FX, Turner's emoting, the shoddy production which seems to include 1 automobile, some stock footage, and a supposedly hip club "LeTrip" that looks like the junior prom. All of this is topped off with the plot's absurd resolution, an impromptu striptease, a wedding orgy, and the totally camp Pamela Rogers from TV's "Laugh-In" as "Bibi", an unlikely friend to "Miss goody 2 shoes" Mossberg. Fortunately, The Big Cube has finally been released on DVD. Like The Legend of Lylah Clare(68), Skidoo!(69), and Angel,Angel Down We Go(69),it's a genuine oddity that should be experienced. Surprisingly, the trailer, included on the DVD, shows Pamela Rogers' topless. If you've never seen The Big Cube, I'd advise you to watch the feature before the trailer. "The trip that starts with a giggle and ends with a scream" "The Big Cube" starts and ends with a big giggle. Enjoy!

Oh Lana--How Could You?

[museumofdave · 5/10 · 17 August 2013]

So many of the great film actresses from the Golden Age were driven hard by their own ambitions and the maintenance of stardom: they seemed unable to gracefully leave the screen and their considerable achievements, and would rather be horrors than has-beens. Joan Crawford's last film was the dreadful Trog, Bette Davis appeared as the Wicked Stepmother, and even Mae West, at age 85, creeped her fans out in the tedious Sextette. I thought of Mae West especially, and her attempt to be sexy while watching Lana Turner negotiate her way in the exploitation film The Big Cube.

If you want to understand how mainstream America envisioned the 1960's counterculture and all that it implied--psychedelic colors, heavy drugs and trippy music--the first 30 minutes of this nutty camp classic have it right: a visit to a San Francisco nightclub is a complete hoot, full of coeds dropping sugar cubes (LSD) into their beer, a freak out in the center of the dance floor so bad the police arrive (rather quickly, as if they had been waiting offstage) to drag the poor victim to rehab--and even, however briefly, a topless dancer!

But to return to Lana Turner, trapped in a bad situation when her husband drowns unexpectedly and she's left with an avaricious stepdaughter whose malicious boyfriend (George Chakiris, who should have fired his agent for casting him in this turkey) decides the two of them should drug mama and drive her slowly mad; Lana hasn't a clue why she's having psychedelic hallucinations, and one hopes she wasn't secretly hoping this was her final chance for an Oscar as she screams and wails and carries on like Godzilla on a bender.

This wild immersion in off-the-wall exploitation is entertaining fun for the first half, and then gets bogged down in the melodrama; Lana's co-star, the young Karen Mossberg, competes with her mother for worst blonde wig, but her wooden acting style and bizarre accent makes her hard to understand, and she never made another film; watch instead for her redheaded BFF, played by Pamela Rodgers, whose perky personality enlivens the screen with a totally zany sex kitten. TV star Richard Egan maintains a stoic attitude throughout the film, a steady if stolid presence.

This is a fun romp "of a kind," and succeeds at that level. For Lana fans, it's probably fairly horrifying to see the persuasive actress of the excellent Bad and The Beautiful and The Postman Always Rings Twice stuck in such a turkey, but in spite of fairly fuzzed-out lenses and a slightly anorexic appearance, the lady does her best and soldiers on.

Mae West?? No, it's Lana Turner!!

[davepitts · 9 January 2010]

TCM ran this at 2 a.m. last night on their Underground series. It's a berserk moral fable about LSD and bratty stepchildren. Retired stage star Adriana Roman (Lana Turner) tangles with her stepdaughter, Lisa (Karin Mossberg) and Lisa's sleazy boyfriend, Johnny (George Chakiris), who comes up with the plan to dose Mommy. Chakiris is in full-blown career hell here, especially in his fadeout, lying crucifixion-style on the floor of a torn-up apartment with a pet ant in his pocket. Because the other posters have covered the plot twists ably, I'll skip around to...KARIN MOSSBERG, who lisps through the picture like she has a bon-bon stuck to her palate. When she confronts her father in the early scenes, he answers her thick Heinie accent in Paul Harvey midwestern. Truly wonderful. The real fun in watching this film is deciding how aware the cast was -- or far along they were, before they knew -- that they were stuck on a toilet raft that wasn't going to sell any tickets anywhere. Which brings us to Lana Turner, who didn't age well. Was she a boozehound -- or was it bad genes? Here, four years after her frumpy turn as Madame X, she's thinner, bonier, with the Lenin's Tomb look of late Mae West. She looks a lot like the 1969 Mae, although they had a 30-year age difference. Her acting is foggy and schoolgirlish. Best line of dialog comes about 5 minutes in, when Richard Egan approaches Lisa at her stepmom's wedding.

Egan: Lisa, did you study acting? Lisa:No.

That could be described as the one searing moment of truth in this expose of our times.

Lana Turner falls off the Generation Gap

[wes-connors · 2/10 · 11 December 2013]

After a well-received performance, popular platinum blonde actress Lana Turner (as Adriana Roman) announces she is retiring from the stage to start a new life with silver-haired millionaire Daniel "Dan" O'Herlihy (as Charles Winthrop). After the wedding, Ms. Turner gets to know heavily-accented step-daughter Karin Mossberg (as Lisa), who begins a romance with handsome medical student George Chakiris (as Johnny Allen). As it turns out, Mr. Chakiris is quickly revealed to be an LSD-peddling playboy. Chakiris introduces Ms. Mossberg to a psychedelic lifestyle, which irks her parents. After as boating mishap, Chakiris decides to use LSD to drive Turner crazy and gain control of the family's fortune...

Chakiris explains, "There are ways of dealing with cats like her," adding later, "Maybe there's no perfect murder, but I think we've figured a perfect freak-out." Possibly extending Anthony Perkin's "Psycho" performance, Chakiris is sometimes impressive. His efforts, however, are clearly wasted in this production. A long-time friend longing for Lana, Richard Egan (as Frederick Lansdale) hedges his bets and does little which can be criticized. In the other co-starring role, Mossberg is forced to walk the acting plank. Others try to act trippy. With generous close-ups, Pamela Rodgers does a dance in her panties...

Generally, contemporary filmmakers were unable to capture the 1960s counterculture, if they tried. Most of the films look like unintentional bad parodies. "The Big Cube" falls into this category. When a golden age movie star is added to the cast, the effect became even more ludicrous. Clueless about how to play her character, Turner sounds like both a girlish teenager and a melodramatic matron – even before they plan to drive her crazy. Decked out with outrageous hair and make-up (even for bed), she manages to look good and garish at the same time. After this trip, Turner found her footing again in "The Survivors" (1969-1970), an appropriate evening serial which unfortunately could not support its cost with high ratings.

** The Big Cube (4/30/69) Tito Davison ~ Lana Turner, George Chakiris, Karin Mossberg, Richard Egan

Trippin' balls!

[zetes · 4/10 · 16 May 2010]

From Warner Brothers' Cult Camp Classics line, in the Women in Peril set, along with the excellent (and not at all campy) women in prison classic Caged and the truly (and hilariously) awful Trog. This is the least worth watching film in that set. I loved the ultra-stereotypical late '60s setting, and the first half hour is a bunch of fun with hippies tripping their balls off. This is kind of a Reefer Madness for LSD. Except there's more of a plot and a couple of famous actors. George Chakiris, Oscar winner for West Side Story eight years earlier, is a doctor who has been doing experiments with the drug. He's trying to marry a young girl who stands to inherit a fortune. Her mother is Lana Turner, and Chakiris plans to drug her with LSD until she goes insane. The latter two thirds or so of the movie are pretty much a bore. Turner's acid trips start off amusing enough, but grow old pretty quick. Unlike Reefer Madness, this was a major studio production (Warner Brothers itself). The psychedelic music is pretty good, if generic music of that type. Chakiris is actually a pretty good villain.

So why did Lana slap Karin Mossberg, her evil scheme or her horrid acting?

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 31 March 2015]

The writers of this far-out thriller must have seen "Hair" on Broadway and became obsessed with the song "L.S.D.", mixing it it with "A Spoonful of Sugar" from "Mary Poppins" for one of the rollicking rides down the string of late 60's freak-out fests that dominating the not so silver screen. Somebody must have thought that if Rosalind Russell can turn into a drag queen in "Oh, Dad, Poor Dad" and Joan Crawford could swing an axe in "Straight Jacket", why not turn Lana Turner on whether she wants to be or not? Mossberg considers Turner "the wicked stepmother" so when papa Dan O'Herlihy is believed to have drowned at sea, she is convinced by boyfriend George Chakaris to drive step-mommy crazy so she can get her inheritance. Chakaris, a medical student expelled for making L.S.D. in his college laboratory, was also responsible for the overdose of a rival who ended up being killed while high on the extra powerful mickey slipped into his beer. As his plot against Turner goes further in emotion, Chakaris becomes more and more evil, while Mossberg (playing a nice girl in spite of her misguided hatred against Turner) begins to see the error of her ways.

Whether or not this was made as a message against the use of L.S.D. doesn't change the fact that this is pretty much an extremely bad movie, an unpleasant tale of unjustified vengeance and the torture that an innocent woman goes through because of an obviously spoiled stepdaughter, sort of a reverse "Cinderella". Turner, who plays a theater actress, is seen onstage in several sequences in theaters and on stages that certainly are as far Off Broadway as theaters can be, with the always dependable and likable Richard Egan as the playwright obviously in love with her.

Having had one final hurrah on screen in the Ross Hunter "Madame X", Turner sank to an all-time low with this and the flop TV soap "The Survivors", giving a sense of desperation in a career that seemed to thrive on scandal and melodramatics. She also is given some of the worst hairstyles of the era, but fortunately would have one last hurrah over a decade later when she returned to T.V., looking very glamorous with her two season recurring role on "Falcon Crest". "The Big Cube" has to be even worse than her 1974 monster mama drama "Persecution", fortunately forgotten because unlike this, it didn't get a mainstream release. The film reaches a horrid climax with a stoned Chakaris popping L.S.D. (scattered all over the floor) as if it were strewn cheese balls. O'Herlihy is a brief touch of class as Turner's husband, and in the few scenes he has with Mossberg simply chews her to pieces. The L.S.D. sequences remind me of something out of a Laugh-In set or moments of animation in "Yellow Submarine" and "Pink Floyd, the Wall".

Not enough camp to make up for the tedium

[AlsExGal · 4/10 · 21 October 2016]

Lana Turner plays Adriana, a stage actress who retires to marry wealthy widower financier Charles (Dan O'Herlihy). Charles has an adult daughter Lisa (Karin Mossberg) who resents this and takes up with the hippie types. One of those, med student Johnny (George Chakiris), finds out that Lisa is rich, and takes Lisa for his girlfriend.

Then Daddy dies, leaving Adriana as executor of the will. There's a clause about her having control over disbursement of the estate and her approval of any husband for Lisa (at least before she turns 25), and when Adriana doesn't approve of Lisa and Johnny getting married, Johnny comes up with a devious plan to drive Adriana crazy by spiking her sleeping pills with LSD! The basic plot, that of a parent not approving of a child's marriage, and the two young lovers deciding to do something about it, isn't a bad one. With the right script, as in Pretty Poison, it can be quite good.

Unfortunately, The Big Cube doesn't have the right script. And it certainly doesn't have the right acting. Mossberg is wooden; O'Herlihy is wasted in a bit part; Adriana's playwright Lansdale (Richard Egan) plays the guy who just knows he knows more than all of the doctors; and then there's Lana, who has to play bad acid trip scenes. Oh my.

There are also the other hippies, and the Travilla-designed gowns Lana has to wear. Parts of the movie wind up in "so bad it's good" territory, but too much of it winds up in the realm of just being tedious.

Lana Turner has a psychedelic freakout

[a_chinn · 4/10 · 27 December 2017]

The Sex Pistols had it right. Never Trust a Hippy. A spoiled hippie chick and her far out boyfriend give LSD to her former actress stepmom (Lana Turner) in an attempt to kill her and gain her inheritance. "The Big Cube" is a laughably bad psychedelic freakout of a movie that depicts the dangers of drugs, hippies, and the lack of good roles for actresses in their 40s. The film features ludicrously awful dialogue, such as:

Johnny: Do you know you really turn me on? Girl: Since when? Johnny: Since now. I belong to "The Now Generation."

or

Butler: Anything else you wish? Bibi: There might be, if you were 80 years younger, you sexy thing.

or

Bibi: Sweetness, baby. Float with the tide, that's my bag. This is a pop art world, baby!

or

Johnny: I know a new place. The club, The Trip. Girl: Does it swing? Johnny: Swing? It wails!

This movie does not wail, but it does fall into that ignominious category of so-bad-it's-good, so if you're in the mood to watch classic Hollywood royalty slum, hear unintentionally hilarious dialogue, and see some of the silliest drug trip sequences committed to film, you might enjoy "The Big Cube.

60's twisted thriller schlock - a perfect vehicle for Joan Crawford or Bette Davis... but Lana Turner???

[Aussie Stud · 6/10 · 8 August 2001]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** If you've seen this, then you'll know exactly what I'm referring to above. The 60's were famous for churning out campy thriller schlock like Joan Crawford's "STRAIT-JACKET", Bette Davis' "DEAD RINGERS", Olivia De Havilland's "LADY IN A CAGE" and the timeless classic "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?" which unites both Crawford and Davis portraying two geriatric crackpots.

This film on the other hand, is a complete shocker. First of all, forget films such as "PEYTON PLACE", "IMITATION OF LIFE" and "THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR". Although Lana Turner's flame flickered bright in those films (she was even nominated for an Oscar in "PEYTON PLACE"), it is unfortunately snubbed out in this disaster project that could only have worked had perhaps Bette Davis starred in it.

Taking away the black and white format and substituting it for color, the title of this film, "THE BIG CUBE", refers to "acid" (you'll see why shortly). A similar film, namely "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS", hid its reference to drug abuse within its title. One may wonder what "THE BIG CUBE" exactly is. I assure you, it wasn't made out of ice!

Lana Turner in her late 40's plays Adriana, a glamorous stage star who has gracefully retired from the entertainment industry. Soaked in martinis whilst donning bizarre wigs and sporting makeup that looked like it had been applied with a butter knife, she has just married a rich millionaire who comes with unwanted extra baggage... a nasty step-daughter named Lisa. Upset by the whole "marriage thing", Lisa gets into the wrong clique by hanging out with long haired no-gooders at a night club appropriately named "The Trip", whilst enjoying drinks with sugar cubes laced with LSD, hence the title of the movie. Watch out for the timeless line when one guy says, "I'm gonna cube that mother, but good!" (Who wrote this stuff?!?!)

Through these people, we are introduced to a drug-dealing gigolo played by George Chakiris (of "WEST SIDE STORY" fame) who ultimately becomes her boyfriend, but only after he discovers how wealthy she is.

Meanwhile, Lana Turner's husband is lost at sea in a mysterious yachting accident. She decides to keep Lisa's inheritance from her which doesn't sit too well with neither her boyfriend or herself. They devise a plan to get their greedy hands on her money by plotting to have her declared mentally incompetent. How do they plan on doing this? By spiking her tranquilizers with acid and taking advantage of her "hallucination" period by pushing her off a cliff (!!!).

After they achieve this, little do they know that she has survived her attempted murder. She is discovered by the locals, only to be carted off to a nut house after she is stricken with "amnesia" as a result of her fall and the drugs combined. The bonus here is that we get to see hilarious "trip visuals" as seen through the eyes of Lana Turner which makes for classic cinema.

Meanwhile, Lisa and her boyfriend decide to get married. The wedding alone is hilarious enough. Bikinied bridesmaids, a motorcycle gang of acid heads riding their cycles into a swimming pool, a rock band and a wedding reception that winds down with an LSD-induced orgy are the main ingredients for this recipe. It certainly doesn't take long for Lisa to realize the mistake she has gotten herself into. Her new groom encouraging group sex on their honeymoon wasn't exactly much help either.

Lisa decides to turn bad into good by vowing to help her step-mother by restoring her mental health. But the best part of this movie has yet to come. How exactly does she plan on doing this? Wait for it... by FORCING her step-mother to star in an autobiographical play in which she relives the events that lead to the state of mind that she is currently in (!!!!).

And finally, the film closes out with Chakiris living in squalor, addicted to acid and babbling mercilessly to an ant.

When I had heard about how bad this movie was, I couldn't believe it was THIS bad. Whether the film makers had the intention of marketing this film like some 60's version of "REQUIEM FOR A DREAM" to show society what drugs can do to you will never be known.

The most amazing thing is seeing Lana Turner in this garbage. For someone who spent her last acting days in various episodes of "FALCON CREST" and "CIRCUS OF THE STARS", this must have been the exact point where she went downhill without stopping.

Lana... WHAT HAPPENED?!?!

Even "Myra Breckinridge" Was Better Than This Film

[atlasmb · 1/10 · 29 September 2017]

A potential treasure trove for MST3000, "The Big Cube" is a hideously flawed film from the year man first walked on the moon. One (the moonwalk) was a technological mile stone; the other represents the nadir of filmmaking.

Still, there are laughs to be had by viewing this flop that features Lana Turner as a retired actress who marries a man with a spoiled daughter who resents her new stepmother. The daughter meets a fortune-hunting medical student (played by George Chakiris) who dabbles with the manufacture and ingestion of LSD. He manipulates the daughter into a deadly scheme, hoping to pocket some of the family coin.

George and the other young actors get to speak lines that might come from a "Laugh-In" skit. It's all very groovy yet heavy, man. Expect go-go boots and psychedelic nonsensical graffiti. Meanwhile, the "adults" exist in a soap-opera world.

The horrendous dialogue is complemented by bad acting, insipid and annoying music, amateurish camera work and lighting, a pointless and meandering plot, confusing editing, and laughable characterizations.

The end result is a film that feels like a compilation of freshman year film students' projects edited into one incongruous and inferior mess.

If 60's Psychedelia Is What You're After. Then This Has It.

[vogun-17563 · 8/10 · 6 February 2022]

It's not high art, and yes, it does lack pace in parts, but makes up for it, in the whacky visual effects.

Lana Turner has given better performances for sure, but she is a pro here, amongst some, that are not, and gels the film together. She also is looking good.

The plot is not so bad either, although it has similarities to others, but then again, what was I expecting, it's not an expensive production, and is riding on the back of the counter culture.

Pamela Rogers is so bad, that I love her, as she takes the film to new lows when she's on screen. George Chakiris is suitably creepy, and it's no surprise that this was Karin Mossberg's last film.

I suspect the low rating is from disappointed Lana fans. So, why the high rating from me then? Because I adore these type of films, and they are a time capsule from a certain period of time, which will never be relived (and thank goodness, say some).

Lana Turner Was A Great Movie Star

[atkinsnedryart · 6/10 · 16 December 2020]

Lana Turner the great star of the Postman Always Rings Ywice, The Bad and the Beautiful, Peyton Place, Imitation Of Life, Love Has Many Faces and Madame X made this film and I wish Lana hadn't. Lana was a superb actress and a most beautiful woman. I always felt that her hard partying ways and the Stompanato Murder ( Lana was 'dating' a Mafia hod who was beating her and Lana's daughter Cheryl claimed she knifed this raging mafia mobster and he died. That is the official story , I feel her partying ways and the Stompanator murder ruined her chances- even if years after the murder- for an Oscar nom if not the Oscar itself for Madame X her greatest performance.)

Lana Turner went to Mexico City and maybe the altitude of that great City got to everyone making this mess of a movie The film's titles are sloppy. The film open as Lana a great Stage Star announces her retirement Lana is supported by two acting professionals: Dan O Herlihy and Richard Egan.

Lana had Billy Travilla who designed clothes for great stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Susan Hayward do her clothes for this film but in this film. Lana wears Travilla's outfits that are down right ugly.

Lana Turner is supported by Oscar Winner George Chakiris and others trying to murder her with Drugs hence the title "The Big Cube." This movie finished off Lana Turner as a star.

Thought: What is someone ran a double bill Lana Turner "in The Big Cube" with Jennifer Jones in the atrocious "Angel Angel Down We Go" . Two Great Stars in films that are disgraceful. Both were made in 1969.

Why Do You Think They Call It Dope!

[oldblackandwhite · 3/10 · 10 November 2011]

If you are the type who is stupid enough to do drugs, you may even be stupid enough to like this cheap, silly U.S.-Mexican production, The Big Cube. It finds fading, scandal-plagued sex symbol Lana Turner at the absolute bottom of her career, fallen in with a bunch of young, mod, hipster, druggies and a lot of just plain old bad actors.

The plot had some promise, at the first anyway. One of those "let's drive mommy wacko" thrillers. But about two-thirds of the way through, it does a complete turn about to a "let's save poor old mommy from the loony bin", psychodrama. Sounds like a horrible muddle, huh? Is that. A strange creature by the name of George Chakiris leads the bad acting brigade, but he gets a lot of help from a gaggle of young hipsters so repulsive, you may find yourself wanting to bash their alleged brains out with a fondue dish. On the adult side Richard Egan, wooden even in the action parts for which he was best suited, is simply embarrassing here, miscast in a role where he has to act sensitive-like.

This movie is a serious stinker. Only for die-hard fans of Lana Turner, desperate insomniacs, and those wishing to check out the 1960's counter-culture for reasons known but to themselves and God. Others should avoid The Big Cube as if it were a big bubonic plague bacillus.