Memorable, crazy movie

Instant Favorite.

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Cactus flower is a very important film Goldie Hawn's filmography. It was her first big role and it was her Oscar win. I had so much fun with Cactus Flower for so many reasons. Probably the biggest reason this one really worked for me was the cast and the great performances they gave. The fine cast includes: Walter Mattheu, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn, and Jack Weston. They are all perfect fits for their roles. I have to say that Hawn and Bergman really stole the show, I was so charmed by their performances. Hawn absolutely deserved the academy award, but I honestly wish Bergman would've won one as well because her acting here is so amazing, I couldn't take my eyes off her because of how well she can command a scene. The writing is spot on here too, funny and light hearted when it's appropriate, and very charming and sweet when it calls for it. Cactus Flower is just one of those cases of a film that gets everything right, from acting/chemistry to writing. You'll feel refreshed and happy when the credits roll. Highly suggested! 9/10.

In Manhattan, the dentist Dr. Julian Winston (Walter Matthau) works with his efficient nurse and secretary Stephanie Dickinson (Ingrid Bergman) and he likes to compare her to a cactus flower since she represses her emotions. On the first anniversary of his relationship with his twenty- one year-old mistress Toni Simmons (Goldie Hawn), he does not visit her since he dates an Austraian steward. Toni believes Julian is married with three children and stayed with his family; therefore she decides to commit suicide with gas. However her next door neighbor, the young aspiring writer Igor Sullivan (Rick Lenz), saves her life. When Julian learns what Toni did, he decides to marry her. However Toni does not want to be a homewrecker and asks to talk to Mrs. Winston to be sure that she wants the divorce. Julian does not want her to know that he is a liar, so he asks Stephanie to pose of Mrs. Winston, in the beginning of lots of confusions and misunderstandings. "Cactus Flower" is a delightful romantic comedy with an outstanding cast. Ingrid Bergman is impressively beautiful for a fifty-four year-old woman, but Goldie Hawn steals the show. The predictable conclusion is perfect for this entertaining romance. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Flor de Cacto" ("Cactus Flower")

In her Greenwich Village apartment, bubbly blonde Goldie Hawn (as Toni Simmons) attempts suicide by gas, but is saved by writer Rick Lenz (as Igor Sullivan). Looking sexy in her pink bed clothing, the 21-year-old Ms. Hawn is the girlfriend of middle-aged dentist Walter Matthau (as Julian Winston). To avoid marriage, Mr. Matthau has told Hawn he has a wife and three children. When Matthau decides to wed Hawn after all, he asks his beautiful but straight-laced nurse Ingrid Bergman (as Stephanie Dickinson) to pose as the wife he wants to divorce. To give the story more credence, Ms. Bergman looses up by dating actor Jack Weston (as Harvey Greenfield) and diplomat Vito Scotti (as Arturo Sanchez)...Filmmaker M.J. Frankovich and the studio executives took a chance on this one, and produced chance art. Director Gene Saks, comic actor Walter Matthau and the crew are dependable - but the decision to cast ditsy "Laugh-In" TV star Hawn and golden age drama diva Bergman in the co-starring roles had to make some people doing a double take. But Hawn proved she could impersonate a character from the inside out; Bergman went the Garbo route, especially emulating the actress' comic dance from her final film as "She Hangs Out" (the other songs are "To Sir, with Love" and "I'm a Believer"). Writers Burrows and Diamond wittily capture the swinging sixties' sexy sophistication, and Mr. Saks takes it off the stage.********* Cactus Flower (12/16/69) Gene Saks ~ Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn, Rick Lenz

Florigraphists, fluent in the "language of flowers", revealing a symbolic, underlying meaning to sending or receiving floral arrangements, describe cactus flower as a symbol of lust (in Japan), as well as courtship and romance (among Native Americans). All three and many other modest or excessive feelings, relationships, experiences... are nicely wrapped up in a comedy suggesting same symbolism in its title.1969 film "Cactus Flower", directed by Gene Saks (who has already introduced us, a year earlier, to another stage play classic adapted for the big screen, Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple") is a feel-good movie--based on Abe Burrows' Broadway stage adaptation of its witty French original, Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pieerre Grédy's play "Fleur de cactus"--scripted by a legendary comedic writer I.A.L. Diamond (who is, among his other memorable works, credited with the screenplay for an all-time favourite comedy "Some Like It Hot" (1959)), with impish dentist Walter Matthau, accompanied by his reputable nurse-receptionist Ingrid Bergman, coming across as likable and funny leads, further supported by young and sweet Goldie Hawn, in her Oscar awarded depiction of a-cute-dumb-blond stereotype.Bergman's Stephanie Dickinson, for all her decency and selflessness, is a character who is easy to identify with and root for in her initially seemingly unconscious pursuit of her apparently long suppressed, quietly emerging affection for Matthau's Dr. Julian Winston, a rogue we cannot hate because he behaves like a boy from Mark Twain's novel, or Dennis the menace who has grown up and old, but never out of his mischievous ways. In his no-strings-attached wished for relationship with Hawn's sparkling Toni Simmons, he pretends to be married. However, this new "fact" tickles well meant youngster's curiosity, so, surely free spirited, but not unscrupulous as eventual household breaker, Toni, tormented by many unanswered questions becomes--as seen in the introductory scene--suicidal, and... what was meant to be a small "preventive" lie asks for more lies, ultimately spiraling out of control.Interaction between the three, further helped with an additional "accomplice", Winston-like lovable cad Harvey Greenfield, played by Jack Weston, produces some truly hilarious and--specially when the most believable miss Dickinson is involved--touchy moments for a wide-range audience to enjoy. "Cactus Flower" easily stands the test of time and even improves with each repeated viewing.Current year (2011) production "Just Go with It", a loose remake of the 1969 original, provides a solid, yet, somewhat inferior entertainment when compared to its predecessor.