Comments on: The Cube: A Nightmare Recovered

By: Ironwolf

Ironwolf — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:33:50 +0000

Hello All,

I did a more recent posting focusing on the upcoming play KUBUS, but also linked to the full-length color version on Google video. Click here for the more recent post.

By: Michael from South Carolina

Michael from South Carolina — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:10:39 +0000

Fred…..

I can point you toward a new copy of this…If you’re into Torrents, it’s here:

(this torrent also contains a avant-garde film trailer for the live German stage production KUBUS, which ran in the winter of 2007)

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4175704/The_Cube_1969_Existential__Horror_play_basis_of_3_movies._color_

or contact me at:

leahcim3360@yahoo.com

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:02:30 +0000

I used this film in my high school classes for years… nothing like making them think..or putting their minds into much!!!

I had it on 16mm film but it was lost in a school fire. Anywhere I can get a copy on VHS or DVD

Another wonderful black comedy film was “If There Were No Blacks You’d Invent Them” (think it is BBC)

Appreciate any help you can give.

By: Michael Campbell

Michael Campbell — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 22:29:38 +0000

Hello, I enjoyed your blog on this topic and I can completely identify with the experience. As David Martin explained, your experience is so typical of most of the members of our group that it is almost correct to regard it as “textbook”.

David founded the group and worked tirelessly to stimulate the community to find a copy— as you know. I feel we owe our success to his vision and direction. And to “Frank” who finally put his hands on THE CUBE from (as I gather it) a rather eccentric archivist, who had piles of tapes stacked up here and there.

Mike Mardis, who lives in Maui, Hawaii, was David’s first “member” and provided insights from his employment in the television industry, and also created the first discs to be physically “vined” or “weeded”, i.e. distributed for copying then passed onto to the next address in line, to be copied again, and the master passed on…

I’m Michael Campbell (from upstate South Carolina) and my contributions were perhaps more mundane. I produced dozens of discs for simple give away (as the “vining” process had inherent weaknesses if a single party failed, or even lagged) and mailed them all over the world: Australia, Warsaw, France, Spain, The Netherlands, etc.. you get the idea. Then, after the physical distribution process had seems to slow, I picked up the avi file from Patrick Flannigan,(a member who has adapted THE CUBE for a stage play and has already staged a reading) and created the torrent file which you found somewhere. It was distributed to several places and I can account for 2843 downloads, but of course that doesn’t count multiple burnings from a single person (maybe as gifts, etc) and torrent trackers can be ’strange’ in their accounting practices.

Also, I had to good fortune to locate Richard “Dick” Schaal AKA “The Man In The Cube” in Florida and have several very pleasant conversation with him— even received a holiday “note” from him this past December.

Well, I’ll say bye… just wanted you to know who I was and to say I enjoyed your piece on THE CUBE.

Remember you can leave at any time, but you must use your door…

Michael

By: David E Martin

David E Martin — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 04:14:25 +0000

Hi Robert,
Glad I could help you out. Like many of the folks finding their way to THE CUBE, they saw it alone as a child. And it burrowed into their brains…..
I had learned it was Henson’s work when he mentioned it in passing at an appearance at the 1982 World SF COnvention in Chicago. When I finally got online in ‘99 and discovered IMDb a little while later, I discovered just how little was known then about that teleplay. IMDb had even gotten the actor’s name wrong!
But some searching started revealing more. And posting it on IMDb got more people educated, interested, and re-attached to the show. Like you and I, most had never run into anyone else who had seen the show and remembered it.
At the Henson appearance, for example, in a room of several hundred people, I’m pretty sure I was one of maybe 4-8 people who responded to his mention of THE CUBE.
Anyway, the IMDb site led to the creation of the Yahoo group.
And it was the Yahoo group that finally located an actual copy of the show.
Okay, it was b/w and research shows the original was in color, but what the heck! It was probably a pirate copy some film/TV prof ran off in the 70s on the equipment in his department’s video engineering center.
And that is the copy that is spreading around the globe.

Dick Schaal, the star, is retired and living in Florida. One of our co-moderators is on speaking terms with him. It was nice to be able to provide him with copies of his long-ago performance.

Meanwhile, we continue to get passersby who think this is part of the violent CUBE series from Canada.
Oh well. At least the confusion helps bring in the occassional wanderer who really IS looking for THE CUBE.

Anyway, welcome ot the group. Make sure you save a copy of the script(s) and the screen caps. And if you know anyone looking for a Flash project, I have an idea for a THE CUBE screen saver……

–David