BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

thegulls1 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.

bkoganbing Cactus Flower finds Walter Matthau as successful Park Avenue dentist and part time roue who loves chasing the young women. One has to remember this was 1969 the height of the era of free love and many a middle aged man was going into a second bout of puberty. With Matthau though he never left the first one.If people get too interested in a permanent relationship he's invented a fictional wife and 3 kids who just won't let him go. Right now he's seeing Goldie Hawn who is your typical 60s product who works in a record store back when people bought those vinyl 45s and long playing albums. But right in his own office there's loyal and efficient Ingrid Bergman who is his dental assistant. One of those people who just blend into the wallpaper, you just assume their presence. My biggest problem with Cactus Flower is that Bergman seeing what a complete rat Matthau is in his personal life why she wants him is beyond me. But the heart always has its own reasons.In any event when Hawn starts pressing him Matthau has Bergman pretend to be his wife. After that everyone starts making assumptions about everyone else.This was Ingrid Bergman's first film in Hollywood since the notorious scandal with Roberto Rosellini back in 1949. She takes over from fellow movie icon Lauren Bacall who did the Broadway play from 1965 to 1968 with Barry Nelson and Brenda Vaccaro. She turns out to have quite the flair for comedy which was rarely used.Matthau is Matthau. Imagine Whiplash Willie Gingrich in a white dental outfit and you have Walter's character.The real surprise here is Goldie Hawn who certainly did have a flair for comedy as shown by her time on Rowan&Martin's Laugh-In during that period. Her stint there won her the part of the record store clerk and she got an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and the start of a successful big screen career.The acting is great of course. For me I think the story would have worked better if Matthau got some comeuppance. He sure didn't deserve Ingrid and Ingrid deserved better.

JohnHowardReid When I saw the name, Gene Saks, listed as director on the poster outside the cinema, I almost turned tail and ran. As a director, Mr. Saks is not noted for his glossy visual style. In fact, he is hopelessly dull. If you don't believe me, just try to watch this movie. Fortunately, it has a hard-working cast. Ingrid Bergman has to bear the weight of Mr. Saks's deadly dull direction. She puts up a game battle and spends most of her scenes force-feeding funny lines to the likes of Walter Matthau, Jack Weston and Goldie Hawn. This does get rather tiresome, particularly as Miss Bergman is none too flatteringly photographed by Charles Lang, of all people! Lang is usually a really masterful cameraman (156 credits, including 3 wins and 17 nominations) but he was probably bored stiff by Saks's lifeless direction and his insistence on insipid camera angles. I'm not familiar with the original play, so I can't judge how well I.A.L. Diamond has jazzed it up, but I certainly expected something more in the way of wit from Billy Wilder's frequent collaborator. To sum this movie up: Dull, dull, dull!

MARIO GAUCI This typically liberated late 1960s farce is best-remembered for being Goldie Hawn's star-making role for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Walter Matthau (himself a recipient of the male equivalent of that award just three years previously – with Billy Wilder's THE FORTUNE COOKIE) had by this time been promoted to full- fledged leading man; incidentally, that film was co-written by I.A.L. Diamond, who here adapted the Americanized version of the original French play. His co-star, then, was Ingrid Bergman – who had very rarely ventured in this light field before and, while demonstrating herself quite able to handle herself (especially since much is made of her traditional Scandinavian coldness), she is also required to embarrass herself somewhat by trying to appear hip during the obligatory nightclub dance floor sequences!The complicated narrative involves bachelor dentist Matthau lying to his much-younger music-store clerk girlfriend Hawn by saying he is married and even breaking a date with her so as to keep up this illusion; however, she takes it for lack of commitment and attempts suicide – but is saved by a young wannabe playwright neighbor. When he realizes what has happened, Matthau assures her he will get a divorce – but she begins to pity his wife and asks to meet her! The dentist then asks his middle- aged secretary, Bergman, to impersonate his presumed spouse – only, to ease her conscience, he also tells Hawn that the woman has a lover…so Matthau has to dig one up as well (settling on sycophant pal Jack Weston) when his girl wants to meet him, too, in order to make sure she is happy and herself not a "homewrecker"! Things get even more knotty when the blossoming Bergman (incidentally, she keeps the titular plant in her receptionist's office) also attracts the attention of a wealthy Spanish client of her boss' and even Hawn's impressionable fellow tenant!The film is harmless fun throughout, occasionally sparkling and generally stylish – complete with a theme song, as much of its era as the classic films (IF…., ROMEO AND JULIET {both 1968}) and albums (The Beatles' RUBBER SOUL {1965}, REVOLVER (1966) and SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND {1967}, The Beach Boys' PET SOUNDS {1966}) that can be seen, respectively, at the marquee or on the stalls of the afore- mentioned record shop!