Cactus Flower (1969)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This movie is hardly perfect,but it is pretty good. Funny,silly,convoluted story of love and lies that plays out against a colorful background. The music is almost all really bad,think muzak monkees.Bergman is a treat .Mathau's crabby schtick was still fresh,Goldie is perky and funny.This could be viewed as a period piece but the story is a timeless comedy, Worth seeing.

Charming 1960s generational sex comedy is very much of it's time, but also timeless in it's humor around age and romance. Adapted from a Broadway play by Billy Wilder's longtime co-writer I. A. L. Diamond ("The Apartment," Some Like it Hot," "One, Two, Three," etc.), "Cactus Flower" tells the story of dentist Walter Matthau and his young girlfriend Goldie Hawn. Matthau has told Hawn he's a married man, even though he's really not, and when he tells her he wants to leave his wife, Hawn says she wants to meet Matthau's non-existent wife. Enter Matthau's 50-something spinster receptionist, Ingrid Bergman, who he convinces to pose as his wife so he can seal the deal with Hawn. The film has the same (for it's time) edgy sexy comedy humor that Wilder and Diamond films were known for (and by some reviled for), reminding me somewhat of "Kiss Me, Stupid," except that this film has a more liability factor than "Stupid," which although was funny also had a bit of a creep factor to it. Hawn won an Oscar for her portrayal of a cute young hippie chic, but for me it was Bergman who really shines. Her characters is introduced as a rather stern and austere character, but once she's pulled into Matthau's lies, Bergman's reserved 50-something characters comes to life. The scene where she cuts loose on the dance floor at a go-go club is a joy to watch as such exudes all of her charm and star power in a way that reminds you that not all actors are created equally and some have an innate ability to light up the screen. That scene was intended to create drama for Matthau's character to begin to be torn between the two women, and although Bergman was 54-years old at the time, she is probably one of only a few actresses who could manage to outshine a young Goldie Hawn. On the downside, I would say director Gene Saks has rather flat direction and lacks the sparkle of a Wilder picture, but Diamond's script and dialogue crackles, standing alongside the best of Wilder and Diamond's collaborations. Overall, "Cactus Flower" is a charming sex comedy that's a wonderful showcase for it's wonderful three lead actors and is a must see for film comedy fans.

Caught this on Turner Broadcast. Had no idea how it might end. Goldie was very funny and likable. Matthau was solid as a dentist whose loose views on honesty and marital commitments catches up with him, leading to thornier problems. He has misled his pretty & (much) younger girlfriend (Hawn) into believing that Ingrid Bergman is his office receptionist AND his wife. When he finally decides to pop the question to Hawn, she begins to insist he care for the needs of his (fake) wife..Watch for a classic 30-second double-take by Matthau when it dawns on him that the expensive mink stole he bought for Goldie has ended up with the wrong recipient.Great stuff all around. Frank, but presented cleanly enough that the whole family could watch.

Ingrid Bergman must have experienced a strong sense of deja vu when she shot this movie about a man who pretends to be married so that he doesn't have to fear any of his many girlfriends thinking altar; in Indiscreet a few years earlier she herself had been fooled by Cary Grant's use of this same ploy (which was also based on a stage play, Kind Sir, by Garson Kanin) and here she is persuaded by philanderer Walter Mattheau to pose as his wife so that his latest mistress, Goldie Hawn, to whom he has proposed marriage, can ask for the blessing of the soon-to-be discarded wife. This is one of those plots where you know from the moment the premise is stated exactly what will happen ninety minutes later so that the enjoyment is in the journey from A to Z. It's Bergman's movie all the way, Mattheau was never going to be either as polished as Grant or as hip as Sinatra who played similar roles in The Tender Trap and Come Blow Your Horn yet he's too good an actor not to accomplish ninety per cent of the part. Goldie Hawn is far too precious and OTT as the lovable kook but Jack Weston scores as the seedy friend/patient. Without Bergman it would be a lot less charming, with her it's a joy.