''The Big Cube'' is a 1969 American psychological-thriller film directed by

Tito Davison Tito Davison (14 November 1912 – 21 March 1985) was a Chilean-born Mexican film director and screenwriter. He directed more than 60 films between 1937 and 1982. Selected filmography * '' Thus Is Life'' (1930) * ''Shadows of Glory'' (1930 ...

and starring

Lana Turner Lana Turner ( ; born Julia Jean Turner; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over the course of her nearly 50-year career, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized pe ...

, Karin Mossberg,

George Chakiris George Chakiris (born September 16, 1932) is an American actor. He is best known for his appearance in the 1961 film version of '' West Side Story'' as Bernardo Nunez, the leader of the Sharks gang, for which he won both the Academy Award for Be ...

Daniel O'Herlihy Daniel Peter O'Herlihy (May 1, 1919 – February 17, 2005) was an Irish actor of film, television, and radio. With a distinguished appearance and rich, resonant speaking voice, O'Herlihy's best known-roles included his Oscar-nominated portraya ...

and Richard Egan. Its plot follows an aging former actress who is dosed with

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

by her malicious stepdaughter, seeking to drive her mad and obtain her fortune. It is notable for its aggressive portrayal of LSD use and the 1960s youth

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. H ...

as vicious evils.

Plot

Adriana Roman, a successful stage actress, retires to marry Charles Winthrop, a wealthy tycoon. Winthrop's daughter, Lisa, is instantly distrustful of Adriana solely because she is "the other woman" taking her father's affection. Charles is killed in a boating accident, which also leads to Adriana suffering from a concussion. Lisa's new boyfriend Johnny Allen, a womanizing, fortune-hunting medical student, capitalizes on that distrust to persuade Lisa that her father's death was murder, a charge exacerbated by Adriana's threat—as per her late husband's instructions as laid out in his will, for which Adriana is executor—to disinherit Lisa if she marries Johnny. Johnny conspires with Lisa to lace Adriana's prescribed sedatives with enough

to drive her insane. During one of the episodes, Adriana hallucinates that Johnny and Lisa are attempting to throw her over a cliffside after taking her on a drive into the country. Later, while Adriana has further LSD-induced hallucinations at home, Johnny plays pre-recorded subliminal messages to further drive her crazy, one of which instructs Adriana to leap from a window—Lisa is unaware of this scheme. As Adriana is about to jump to her probable death, Lisa saves her. While still unaware of Johnny's true intent, Lisa continues with their plan and Adriana is committed to a mental hospital, where they have Adriana declared legally insane and thus unable to carry out her obligations in Charles' will. After their wedding, Johnny demonstrates that he doesn't really love Lisa by openly seducing other women, most notably Lisa's free-spirited best friend, Bibi. Johnny bribes Lisa to divorce him by providing a $100,000 settlement in return for keeping silent about what they did to Adriana. Lisa does divorce him, but instead of succumbing to Johnny's threats, she decides to come clean to Frederick Lansdale, a playwright friend of Adriana's who has always loved her himself, about what she and Johnny did. By this time, Adriana is suffering from amnesia, still believing that Charles is alive. Frederick decides to write a play detailing Adriana's traumatic experiences and casts her in the lead role. He hopes that replaying her experience on stage will cure her. By the opening performance, Adriana has glimpses from her memory of what has happened, not fully realizing what those fleeting thoughts are. By the climactic third act of the play, which details the tape-recorded subliminal messages Lisa and Johnny played during Adriana's hallucinations, Frederick decides to play the actual recordings with Lisa and Johnny's voices. This brings Adriana back to reality. She recognizes the voices and the fact that Lisa and Johnny use her real name as opposed to her character's name in the play. Lisa rushes onto the stage, admitting to Adriana what she and Johnny did. In a rage, Adriana slaps Lisa in the face. The play and Adriana's performance are a huge hit, Adriana and Frederick are about to be married, and Lisa has reconciled with Adriana. Meanwhile, Johnny has begun taking his own LSD while being shunned by his so-called friends. He is last seen on the floor in the midst of an LSD trip.

Cast

Production

Development

The film was based on a story by

and Edmundo Báez, the former of whom served as director. In January 1968, Motion Pictures International (MPI) negotiated a co-production agreement with the Mexico-based Producciones Anco to produce the film, based on a screenplay written by William Douglas Lansford.

Filming

The film was shot on location in Mexico, primarily at the Studios Churbusco in Mexico City as well as on the coastal Acapulco Bay with a budget of US$560,000. The shooting schedule was scheduled to last approximately eight weeks. The decision to shoot the film abroad was to dually help bolster Mexico's film market, as well as help lower production costs, which were estimated to be $300,000 more if filmed in the United States.

Release

Box office

''The Big Cube'' was released theatrically in the United States on April 30, 1969, opening regionally in Cincinnati, Ohio. It continued to open in several U.S. cities throughout May 1969, including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Portland, Oregon; and Boston, Massachusetts. The film opened in Los Angeles on May 21, 1969, though New York City engagements did not begin until January 1970.

Home media

''The Big Cube'' was released on DVD in 2007 as part of Volume 2 of Warner Brothers' Cult Camp Classic's "Women in Peril" series, a three-part series that included John Cromwell's ''

Caged In music, a barre chord (also spelled bar chord) is a type of chord on a guitar or other stringed instrument played by using one finger to press down multiple strings across a single fret of the fingerboard (like a bar pressing down the strin ...

'' (1950) and the film that gave

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...

her last starring role,

Freddie Francis Frederick William Francis (22 December 1917 – 17 March 2007) was an English cinematographer and film director. He achieved his greatest successes as a cinematographer. He started his career with British films such as Jack Cardiff's '' Sons and ...

' ''

Trog ''Trog'' is a 1970 British science fiction horror film directed by Freddie Francis, and starring Joan Crawford in a story about the discovery of a troglodyte (or Ice Age "caveman") in twentieth-century United Kingdom. The screenplay was writte ...

'' (1970).

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Cube, The 1969 films 1969 thriller films 1960s exploitation films American exploitation films American thriller films Drug culture 1960s English-language films Films about actors Films about hallucinogens Films about inheritances Films directed by Tito Davison Films shot in Mexico Psychedelic films Warner Bros. films Estudios Churubusco films 1960s American films