Dr Julian Winston (Walter Matthau) is a successful dentist who leads quite an exciting life – his practice is successful, and he has amassed enough wealth to live a comfortable life. This helps him satiate his playboy tendencies, with his refusal to settle down, even in his middle age, being a distinct quality of him, and precisely what makes his relationship with Toni (Goldie Hawn), his considerably younger girlfriend, work so well. However, Julian has always had a problem with commitment, so much that he has pretended to be married for the duration of his romance with Toni, just as a way of preventing her from ever seeking anything more than just the playful fun that Julian enjoys. However, Toni is not as naive as she looks, and after a failed attempt at taking her life, she decides that she is going to demand answers from her lover, requesting that he come to a decision as to who he wants to spend his life with. Ultimately, he chooses Toni, claiming that he’ll get a divorce from his non-existent wife. However, she’s far more persistent than he’d hope, and when she requests to meet the elusive Mrs Winston, Julians finds himself in a bit of a bind. His salvation comes in the form of Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman), his nurse and dedicated assistant who is deeply in love with him, but will never admit it. Julian convinces her to pose as his wife temporarily, just long enough to persuade Toni that he is telling the truth. However, the scheme becomes more convoluted the deeper Julian ventures into it, with Toni being more perceptive than he’d originally hoped – various other characters, including the unlucky Stephanie, become embroiled in this plot, only complicating matters even more, and threatening to derail a seemingly solid plan.

Cactus Flower is a truly impressive film – on the surface, it appears to be another well-meaning comedy of manners that were made towards the end of the 1960s, and blended warmth and biting humour in an effort to be subversive to normative ideals. However, if we peer below the exterior, we see how Gene Saks, in adapting the Broadway production of the same name, made one of the most upbeat, outrageously heartwarming comedies of this era, a hilariously irreverent story of a group of people involved in a complex, but still somehow aimless, plot that involves romance and deception. Saks, a talented comedic director who made an impact on both stage and screen, does not get his due as a filmmaker, despite the evidence being that he could extract remarkable performances from his cast, and derive every bit of humour and heart out of any scene, regardless of how predictable it may be. This has never been clearer than it has with Cactus Flower, a film of such profound geniality, with Saks taking a rather straightforward stage play and turning it into one of the most lovably offbeat films of the era – filled to the brim with charm and lovable humour that draws the audience in and embraces us, and a wealth of extraordinary performances, there really is very little doubt that this is a comedic masterwork – it may not be particularly original, nor all that outstanding when it comes to conveying the twists and turns that underpin the story, but it all renders as entirely inconsequential through Saks’ innate ability to let the text speak for itself, allowing the story to unfold naturally through the actor’s interpretation, which makes this such a refreshingly light film that still manages to be quite moving when it intends to be, which is, to our immense benefit, often enough to make this an unexpectedly compelling piece of comedic filmmaking.

There are few films that feature a trio of such perfectly-calibrated comedic performances as Cactus Flower – led by Walter Matthau, Goldie Hawn and Ingrid Bergman, Saks somehow manages to assemble a cast of actors who would otherwise never cross paths had it not been for their involvement in this project (as all three of them had remarkably different career trajectories). The result is absolutely astonishing, with each of them giving memorable performances that are as entertaining as they are entirely authentic. Matthau is as endearing as ever, playing the exact kind of vaguely-manipulative everyman who would like to believe he is a step ahead of everyone else when in reality he’s yards behind those he thinks he’s outsmarting. Cactus Flower has him at his most sardonic (and strangely enough, he’s playing the role remarkably straight, avoiding the eccentricities that he normally demonstrated), anchoring the film in a way where he isn’t only making a profound impact with another one of his incredibly compelling performances, but also being facilitative of the more elaborate performances given by the two actresses who appear across from him. The film may be focused on Matthau, but the success is all due to his co-leads, who are given such exceptional work to do, single-handedly making Cactus Flower a truly memorable experience. Goldie Hawn is a delight as Toni, abandoning her ditzy, airheaded persona that he had come to be associated with through her television work, instead taking on something more serious, but one that doesn’t impede on her impeccable comic timing. This is a revelatory turn from Hawn, who essentially confirmed her place in popular culture with this performance, as one doesn’t give as endearing a performance as this not be remembered for it.

Hawn is contrasted quite sharply (but without ever conflicting) with the work done by Ingrid Bergman, who is undeniably the heart of Cactus Flower – as the insecure, vulnerable nurse who represents the titular cactus flower (a prickly entity that most would prefer to distance themselves from, but can sometimes bloom when one least expects it), Bergman abandon all inhibitions and gives a beautifully liberated performance, one that allows her to simply have fun in the role. Stephanie is a character that many actresses could have played successfully – but there’s something in seeing Bergman take on a much lighter role that elevates it, as evident in the third act, when Stephanie finally decides to surrender herself to the encroaching desire to emancipate herself from her preordained social position, and instead just embrace the unknown. It’s a beautifully subtle performance that sees the celebrated actress rely on her incredible nuance, and a sense of comic timing that can only come from decades of working mainly as a serious actress, that makes this such an enchanting performance. Whether it be in her hilarious line-readings (the script is unusually biased towards Bergman, giving her some of the best material), or her incredibly nuanced physicality, expressed in something as simple as a dance, as we see towards the end of the film, Bergman is incredible, taking on the role with such passion and ferocity, it’s surprising that she didn’t ever make many other major comedies, as she truly had it in her, as proven by her incredible work in Cactus Flower, becoming the most memorable part of an already incredible film.

Cactus Flower is one of those effortlessly outrageous comedies made during this period, which it accomplishes through a combination of remarkable simplicity and an intelligent approach to a story that is essentially quite straightforward, with the success coming in how Saks keeps us captivated, despite the likelihood that we will be able to predict exactly where this film is heading almost immediately. A film that can take a very familiar formula, and still keeping us engaged is certainly worth something, and while Cactus Flower doesn’t go anywhere particularly profound in terms of the storyline, it’s the journey towards this narrative destination that means the most and allows this to be one of the most memorable comedies of the era, something that can still be appreciated as a hallmark of elegant comedy that relies on smart humour and a well-written screenplay to entertain the audience, rather than going for the cheaper laughs. It isn’t entirely wrong to assume that the film thrives on the performances, which bolster it and single-handedly make it worth watching, but to only confine this film’s success to the work done by the actors, and not the wonderful script (written by I.A.L. Diamond, one of the greatest screenwriters to ever work in the medium, who brings the same sparkling wit to this film as he did his numerous collaborations with Billy Wilder) and the impressively coherent work done by Saks, who puts together a film that flows extremely well, blending the quirky upbeat nature of the Golden Age with the more trendy, challenging qualities of New Hollywood, which was still in its infancy at the time. Comedy is obviously a very tricky business, and Cactus Flower overcomes many of the challenges by being a cheerful diversion that doesn’t lack substance – how often do we see such exuberant comedies that feature attempted suicide, marital strife and discourse on ageism? It’s a gleefully bawdy comedy that attempts to infuse some mischief into a story that relishes in how it breaks from tradition in minor, but thoroughly brilliant, ways and challenging some of the small intricacies of a genre that often benefits from such subversive perspectives.

Ultimately, Cactus Flower is a lot of fun – there isn’t much to this film based on the surface, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was just another entertaining but otherwise aimless comedy about mistaken identity and duplicity, existing for the sole purpose of amusing rather than making any profound statement. However, as we venture deeper into the film, we start to realize there’s something quite brilliant underlying it – a wonderful sense of humour, and a script that manages to go against every convention in a way that didn’t necessarily deviate from the trusted formula but rather presented in a way that was unexpectedly enduring, separating it from the many other similar films produced at the time. The performances are the heart of the film, with Walter Matthau giving some of his finest work, Goldie Hawn giving her breakthrough performance and Ingrid Bergman demonstrating an impressive comic timing that makes us yearn for her to have done more high-profile comedy work, as her talents as a dramatic actress made this an unexpectedly explosive piece of lighthearted brilliance. Wonderfully-constructed by a director who puts the strengths of a film like this at the forefront instead of reinventing the genre, Cactus Flower is a magnificently fun film that stands as one of the most assured and heartwarming comedies of its era, and a film that still remains as hilarious and irreverent today as it did half a century ago.