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Cactus Flower

Cactus Flower

List Price: $19.94
Your Price: $17.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cactus Flower has laughing power
Review: The 1969 movie version of Abe Burrows' hit Broadway play "Cactus Flower" although a bit dated still has the ability to make me laugh. The stand out here is an impressive movie debut by Goldie Hawn (in the role of Toni - originated by Brenda Vaccaro on stage). Her cupie doll looks and sing songy voice give her character just the right naivete needed to pull off this role. Ingrid Bergman as Nurse Stephanie (played on stage by Lauren Bacall) is hilarious in a bit where she mocks the latest dance of the period by creating a new dance called..The Dentist! Walter Matthau holds his own as the philandering dentist who leads Toni into believing he's a married man with kids in order to avoid a more "serious" relationship with her. All-in-all a worthy movie version of a great but long-forgotten play.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cactus Flower has laughing power
Review: The 1969 movie version of Abe Burrows' hit Broadway play "Cactus Flower" although a bit dated still has the ability to make me laugh. The stand out here is an impressive movie debut by Goldie Hawn (in the role of Toni - originated by Brenda Vaccaro on stage). Her cupie doll looks and sing songy voice give her character just the right naivete needed to pull off this role. Ingrid Bergman as Nurse Stephanie (played on stage by Lauren Bacall) is hilarious in a bit where she mocks the latest dance of the period by creating a new dance called..The Dentist! Walter Matthau holds his own as the philandering dentist who leads Toni into believing he's a married man with kids in order to avoid a more "serious" relationship with her. All-in-all a worthy movie version of a great but long-forgotten play.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Delightful comedy with excellent cast!
Review: This classic comedy of mix-ups and mistakes is sure to please. Walter Matthau is the "dirty married bachelor", dentist Julian who lies to his girlfriend, Toni (Goldie Hawn)by pretending that he is married. When he discovers that she tried to kill himself for him, he invents a little more so that he can get a "divorce" from his "wife" and marry Toni. But since Toni won't be a "house-wrecker", he also has to come up with a wife! Ingrid Bergman as Julian's stiff Swedish nurse is excellent as she comes to his aid. As can be expected, the situation gets stickier and stickier as the movie gets funnier! Anyone who enjoys mix-up situation comedies will love this movie. Other suggestions are "Housesitter" (Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn) and "9 to 5" (Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton). Happy watching!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Delightful comedy with excellent cast!
Review: This classic comedy of mix-ups and mistakes is sure to please. Walter Matthau is the "dirty married bachelor", dentist Julian who lies to his girlfriend, Toni (Goldie Hawn)by pretending that he is married. When he discovers that she tried to kill himself for him, he invents a little more so that he can get a "divorce" from his "wife" and marry Toni. But since Toni won't be a "house-wrecker", he also has to come up with a wife! Ingrid Bergman as Julian's stiff Swedish nurse is excellent as she comes to his aid. As can be expected, the situation gets stickier and stickier as the movie gets funnier! Anyone who enjoys mix-up situation comedies will love this movie. Other suggestions are "Housesitter" (Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn) and "9 to 5" (Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton). Happy watching!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Leanord Maltin is Wrong
Review: This comedy is not thin. It has absolutely no sag, a good and actually believable storyline, likable and believable characters, great acting, and it's very funny. This is what they mean when they say they don't make comedies like this anymore. Written at a time when Hollywood did not presume that the audience only needed a display of bodily fluids and lame story lines to be satisfied.

The film demonstrates another point: the great comedic actors don't try to be funny. They just act. I don't know if Walter Mathau ever won an Oscar, but if he didn't he would be, like Cary Grant, one of the greatest actors never to have done so. He was not only a great comedy actor ("Cactus Flower", "Odd Couple" and "A New Leaf"), but could quite convincingly play a thug ("Strangers When We Meet") and a tough, no-nonsense cop ("The Laughing Policeman").

In this film, he's brilliant as always. With all respect to the new 20 million dollar a film generation, could Adam Sandler play the role of Julian Winston without simply playing, oh, Adam Sandler?

Ingrid Bergman is incredible. And by that, I mean incredibly sexy. You have no difficulty whatsoever seeing why Walter Mathau eventually picks her over a 21 year old Goldie Hawn. And you fully understand why the much younger man nuzzles her neck while dancing with her. While watching the film, I kept reminding myself that it had been made 25 years after "Casablanca" and yet there she was, still looking smashing.

So yeah, it's "dated". Were that more contemporary Hollywood comedies, maybe even one, were so dated.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Leanord Maltin is Wrong
Review: This comedy is not thin. It has absolutely no sag, a good and actually believable storyline, likable and believable characters, great acting, and it's very funny. This is what they mean when they say they don't make comedies like this anymore. Written at a time when Hollywood did not presume that the audience only needed a display of bodily fluids and lame story lines to be satisfied.

The film demonstrates another point: the great comedic actors don't try to be funny. They just act. I don't know if Walter Mathau ever won an Oscar, but if he didn't he would be, like Cary Grant, one of the greatest actors never to have done so. He was not only a great comedy actor ("Cactus Flower", "Odd Couple" and "A New Leaf"), but could quite convincingly play a thug ("Strangers When We Meet") and a tough, no-nonsense cop ("The Laughing Policeman").

In this film, he's brilliant as always. With all respect to the new 20 million dollar a film generation, could Adam Sandler play the role of Julian Winston without simply playing, oh, Adam Sandler?

Ingrid Bergman is incredible. And by that, I mean incredibly sexy. You have no difficulty whatsoever seeing why Walter Mathau eventually picks her over a 21 year old Goldie Hawn. And you fully understand why the much younger man nuzzles her neck while dancing with her. While watching the film, I kept reminding myself that it had been made 25 years after "Casablanca" and yet there she was, still looking smashing.

So yeah, it's "dated". Were that more contemporary Hollywood comedies, maybe even one, were so dated.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ingrid Bergman?
Review: Walter Matthau (a delight as usual) wants to marry free swinger Hawn, and pretends to have a wife already to prove his unfaithful marriage to his blonde love interest. Predictable stuff which alters from comedy to melodrama in an unpleasing way. Also not to mention, it has a very miscast Bergman as the "wife" to be divorced.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "One of the best comedies I ever saw." "My favorite"
Review: When I first saw Cactus Flower I was 13 and because of this movie I became a devoted fan of Ingrid Bergman. Now I'm 35 and still enjoy the film every time I see it. Ingrid was wonderful as the proper Sthepanie Dicksinson, (Dr Winton's secretary) and the same goes to Goldie Hawn as Toni Simmons, his young and ingenuous girlfriend. Watch for the discotheque scenes...you will laugh and laugh.....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lots of laughs!
Review: Will established dentist Julian Winston (Walter Mathau) end up with Toni (Goldie Hawn), his young and goofy mistress or his assistant and fake 'wife' Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman), solid, smart and secretly in love with her boss?

This is one of my family's most beloved movies. Clever and funny, with a cast that shines in every scene. I agree with other reviewers that Ingrid Bergman's comedic timing is superb! And Goldie Hawn is so very young in it, and already a high-class performance that won her an award.


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