It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

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".

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.

Stage actress Adriana Roman (Lana Turner) quits her career to marry rich widower Charles Winthrop (Dan O'Herlihy). However his daughter Lisa (Karin Mossberg) hates Adriana with a passion. She is romanced by amoral Johnny Allen (George Chakiris) who wants her for her money. When Charles dies in an accident Johnny pushes Lisa to drive Adriana insane with LSD so she gets everything.Sounds pretty terrible but I actually enjoyed it. The script is OK when it deals with Turner, O'Herlihy and the other adults. However it falls apart when dealing with the 20s somethings. These "kids" say hilariously stupid things--Bibi, a friend of Lisa says "Let's call half a dozen guys and have an orgy"!!! They're always taking drugs and acting in what is (supposedly) an amusing manner. At a wedding two of the guys (purposedly) drive their motorcycles into a pool and all the other idiot kids jump in. Oh those wacky kids! Whenever they're on screen we get lousy dialogue, bad music and tons of casual drug taking. To make matters worse Mossberg is a lousy actress (she understandably never made another movie) and has a serious accent--but her father has none! Also Pamela Rodgers as Bibi gives Mossberg a serious run for her money in the bad acting department. Her mild striptease might please some viewers (only her chest is shown). Of all the "kids" only Chakiris gives a good performance. Turner is excellent and looks fabulous. This may have been a low budget Mexican movie but she gives it her all. Old pros Richard Egan and O'Herlihy are also good.So this is a strange combo of a 1960s exploitation film and a serious drama. I was honestly never bored and it DOES carry a strong anti-drug message at the end.

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.