Packaging Back
Packaging Bookend Spine
Packaging Front

Cactus Flower

Catalog Number
VH10121
-
Primary Distributor (If not listed, select "OTHER")
Release Year
Country
VHS | N/A | Slipcase
N/A (NTSC)
N/A | N/A | N/A
N/A | N/A
Cactus Flower (1969)

Additional Information

Additional Information
'Cactus Flower' Has Flower Power

and so with all its breakout joy, "Cactus Flower" comes full bloom to the screen

The prickly stage success that convulsed audiences around the world... with all its barbed wit and the sharpest comedy cast of the year!


Goldie Hawn won an Oscar for her performance as a Greenwich Village free spirit in Cactus Flower. Middle-aged dentist Winston (Walter Matthau) is enjoying an affair with Toni (Goldie Hawn) but doesn't want to be hemmed in by marriage. He prevails upon his non-glamorous assistant Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman) to pose as his wife so as to keep from campaigning for a ring. Then, to justify his "infidelity," Winston talks his pal (Jack Weston) into pretending to be Stephanie's illicit lover. Flattered by all the attention, Stephanie begins to "doll up." Confronted by a newly gorgeous Stephanie, Winston realizes that his Dream Girl has been right there in his office all along. As for Toni, she ends up in the arms of a writer (Rick Lenz), who has loved her since Reel One. Cactus Flower was adapted by Billy Wilder's frequent collaborator I.A.L. Diamond from the play by Abe Burrows -- which in turn was adapted from a French farce. ~

Cactus Flower is a 1969 comedy film directed by Gene Saks and starring Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, and Goldie Hawn, who won an Oscar for her performance. The screenplay was adapted by I. A. L. Diamond from a Broadway stage play written by Abe Burrows, which in turn was based upon the French play Fleur de cactus by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy. The film was the seventh highest grossing film of 1970.
The film has been remade twice. An unauthorized Hindi version titled Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?, starring Salman Khan, Sushmita Sen and Katrina Kaif was released in 2005. An English language remake, Just Go With It starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, was released in 2011.


On release, the film was acclaimed by both critics and the general public, becoming the eighth highest grossing film of 1969. Howard Thompson of The New York Times stated that "both the expansive scenario of I. A. L. Diamond and the flexible direction of Gene Saks open up and even ventilate the story".[2] Roger Ebert declared that "the chemistry works" and "the movie is better than the play".[3]
The film marked the return of Ingrid Bergman to the movies. After the 1940s, Bergman had moved to Europe and pursued a relationship with director Roberto Rossellini, diminishing her appeal to US audiences. After returning to film in Anastasia, Bergman agreed to star in this film, her first comedy, again gaining critical praise.
In her first major film role, Goldie Hawn, once described as the "dizzy cream puff who is constantly blowing her lines [on Laugh-In]",[4] was praised for being "a natural reactress; her timing is so canny that even her tears run amusingly".[5] Hawn's performance in Cactus Flower won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, her sole Oscar to date.


Release Date: December 17, 1969


Distrib: Columbia Pictures

Comments0

Login / Register to post comments

3

0