CACTUS FLOWER

This adaptation of a Broadway comedy wasn’t known to me despite it being a hit in the year it came out, 1969.

The main reason I watched it was that it gets the thumbs up from the usually reliable “Sunday Times Guide to Movies on TV”,  plus I was intrigued by the combination of Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman and (in one of her first film appearances) Goldie Hawn.

Matthau is Julian, a dentist who for the last year has been enjoying a dalliance with Toni, a much younger woman (Hawn).  To keep her at arms length he has pretended that he is married, a stratagem that has worked well until now when he decides it would be a good time to settle down and marry her.

This necessitates a further lie, that he is now divorcing his fictitious wife, but complications ensue when Toni wants to meet his wife.

This is a classic comedy setup from this era, and in the wrong hands it could end up being laboured or silly or both.

Fortunately the play was adapted by I.A.L. Diamond, best known for his collaborations with Billy Wilder, and he seems to have done a good job because the screenplay contains plenty of sharp and witty lines.

Matthau and Hawn both have the comedic chops to make the most of these lines, but what about Bergman who one does not readily associate with comedy?

She plays Stephanie, Julian’s long suffering secretary, who's splendidly efficient at making sure that his life runs smoothly, so who better to pretend to be his wife?

Given that she is a more age-appropriate partner for Julian (and is probably carrying a secret torch for him)  and given also that Toni has a young attractive neighbour, Rick, it’s blindingly obvious where this story is going to end but it’s fun getting there.

Of the three, Stephanie is the most adult and also the one most vulnerable to being hurt, qualities that play to Bergman’s strengths.

Mind you, there’s a scene at a psychedelic nightspot where she ‘lets her hair down’ and gets on the dance floor.  This has the potential to be very cringe-worthy but in fact Bergman acquits herself surprisingly well.  It’s a funny scene and I was amused that Julian’s idea of dancing with the young folk is to stand in the background moving his thumbs to the music.

The director Gene Saks keeps the thing moving apace, bringing it in at 103 minutes, and managing to avoid it looking too ‘stagey’.   

So although even by 1969 it’s looking a little old fashioned I enjoyed it and I can understand its appeal.

It certainly did well enough to help Goldie Hawn make the transition to the big screen by picking up the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.