Watch The Big Cube For Free

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A Masterpiece!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

"The Big Cube" came out at the height of the counter-culture movement in 1969. It's a groovy, sometimes campy melodrama about a teenager (Karin Mossberg) who is negatively influenced by the wicked medical student she's dating (George Chakiris). They implement "gaslighting" techniques on her sweet stepmother (Lana Turner) to acquire inheritance. Dan O'Herlihy plays the husband of Lana's character and Richard Egan her good friend. Carlos East plays a "right on" artist and Pamela Rodgers the teen's swinging best friend.Despite some roll-your-eyes campiness, mainly by Pamela Rodgers, the first half is entertaining as it tries to depict the hip late 60's scene, at least as far as Hollywood producers imagined it. Speaking of Rodgers, she's absolutely perky and likable and has a cute face, but her topless dance routine shows that she really wasn't very sexy, unless you're into thin, non-curvy women. In any case, the movie's amusing in a "far out" kind of way. Unfortunately, it takes a decidedly dull turn as soon as the youths start freaking out the stepmother with LSD. It's so bad it's tempting to tune-out. However, I like the comeuppance and redemption of the conclusion.Lana was 47 during filming and looked good. The film runs 98 minutes and was shot in Acapulco and Mexico City, Mexico. GRADE: C (or 4.5/10)

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".

I recently purchased "The Big Cube" which has finally been released on DVD. The Picture quality is fantastic, clear, crisp and looks like new. The sound quality is also much better than I expected. It is presented in it's original widescreen format and it's a joy to watch. The music is pretty good,the sets and cinematography are well done. You already know the premise from the other reviewers so I will comment solely on the movie as a whole.This movie is not that bad. Lana looks great in her hip Travilla wardrobe and Karin Mossberg is not that bad of an actress. Mossberg was a very big fashion model in Europe in the late 1960's. Her accent is a bit off putting but she tries to give it her all. The supporting cast looks like they really had fun going to Mexico to make a movie. This is a total camp movie experience, but if you like "Beyond The Valley of The Dolls" you will love "The Big Cube"

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.