The Big Cube (1969)

The Big Cube aired last month on TCM. Though I didn't think it was very good, it was worth watching to see Lana Turner in one of her last movie roles, and for the camp factor, as it features the psychedelic shenanigans of young hipsters of the late 60s, including George Chakiris.

Chakiris plays a womanizing med student who makes LSD in his spare time and shares it with his hipster, artsy friends. One of his friends introduces him to a lovely blond (Karin Mossberg) whose mother is an actress (Turner) and stepfather (Dan O'Herlihey) is rich and "loaded". The girl mixes in with the LSD crowd, and rebels against her parents.

 At first, the girl is called a "square" and a "cube" (hence the title "The Big Cube", also referring to LSD cubes). But she soon mixes in and marries Chakiris, for better or worse.

In the first 30-45 minutes or so, the cool kids are the good guys and the parents are the villians. But after awhile, this slowly changes and it ends on a clear anti-LSD note. I won't bother with details but if you see the movie, you'll get it. Poor George Chakiris - there's a scene near the end where he's struggling and slithering on the floor after a bad trip. And even Lana Turner trips out, too. You have to see it to believe it.