OVP: Cactus Flower (1969)

Film: Cactus Flower (1969)
Stars: Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn, Jack Weston, Rick Lenz
Director: Gene Saks
Oscar History: 1 nomination/1 win (Best Supporting Actress-Goldie Hawn*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

When my brother and I were young, probably I was 11 or 12, one of our favorite nerdy pastimes was to flip through my almanac, and quickly figure out how many of the "Big 6" Oscar winning films we'd seen (Picture, Director, and the four acting trophies).  We did this with obscene frequency, too often, really, if you think about it, since we did it more than we would actually see the movies (in the era before home computer spreadsheets, this was really the only way you could keep track of such a thing).  I'm not going to go and do the numbers right now of where I stand (suffice it to say I have improved my counts since then), but doing this so often, weird films start to develop a mythic quality to them.  I have relatively few films from, say, pre-1995 (when this habit would've started & therefore were recited the most) that I haven't seen, so when I do, even if it's a minor film in terms of cinematic history, it still feels like a big deal, and it takes a while afterward for me to sort of stop instinctively thinking "well, I haven't seen that" because I've been saying for 25 years that I haven't.  This is probably going to be the case with a movie like Cactus Flower, which I finally saw this past weekend for the first time, and is indeed one of those "Big 6" Oscar winners.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Toni Simmons (Hawn), a young woman who lives in the Village in the late 60's (read-she's kooky & wears a mini skirt), who tries to kill herself because her dentist boyfriend Julian (Matthau) stands her up on their one-year anniversary, presumably because he's with his wife (it gets less depressing in a second).  She is saved by her cute next door neighbor Igor (Lenz), who spends the movie slowly trying to romance her (his naked torso plays a larger role in this movie than you'd think), but she is committed to Julian, particularly after he decides to leave his wife for her.  But first, she wants to make amends with his wife, which is a problem...because he made up the wife to try and get her not to want to marry him (as he's a playboy).  Instead, he convinces his rigid assistant Stephanie (Bergman) to be his "wife," and in the process, he realizes as she lets her hair down around him that she's in fact a beautiful woman (duh, she's Ingrid Bergman) who has been madly in love with him.  In the end, everyone ends up with someone, but not who they started with, and they all live happily ever after.

Cactus Flower is mostly known simply for being the movie that Hawn won her Oscar for today, but it was actually a big hit in 1969, and the score (by a young Quincy Jones) is pretty hip for its time.  Jones features covers of hits by the Monkees and Lulu in his orchestral setup, which feels right for a movie where one of the principle characters works at a record store (and because everything today is through the lens of Covid-19, man I was practically salivating at the idea of browsing through a record store).  The film manages to do something that was occasionally a struggle for American films of the era at that time, especially those focusing on youth culture-feel like it wasn't just of one specific era, but a more universal story.  Weirdly Jones' ability to put timeless hits like "I'm a Believer" and "To Sir with Love," songs that are so iconic they don't feel like part of any era, helps that situation even if they were recent at the time.

The film itself is fine, it's the sort of movie that's easy to know the plot of the second it begins.  Matthau is neither charming nor handsome, so you have to suspend belief as to why two gorgeous women are throwing themselves at him (his "swinging bachelor" is not something he ever really convinces this audience is real).  The women are much better.  Ingrid Bergman is not known for doing comedy, but she's charming as a woman finding herself, and realizing that she doesn't need to devote herself to a man in order to secure one.  This would have been too light to nominate Bergman, a long-time, serious actress for (though she did get a Globe citation), but I kind of wonder if she was closer than you'd think.  Hawn won the Oscar, and brings an innocence to the role that feels authentic.  It's a hard part to play-she has to be both brainy (it's obvious in hindsight that she didn't want to marry Julian the second he became available to her), and dumb, but that's been Hawn's schtick for forty years now so you know she can do it, even though it was brand new then.  I'm a big fan of hers in general, and it's weird to see her so young, to the point where her wealthy Beverly Hills accent hasn't yet developed into what we know from Overboard or The First Wives Club.  A great start to her career, and yet another "Big 6" victor off of my viewing list.