We've been Netflixing Jack Lemmon movies at LohHome, which naturally leads to Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau movies, which leads to Walter Matthau movies.
Walter Matthau shares "Cactus Flower" with everyone else on screen. Ingrid Bergman (gorgeous as always), Goldie Hawn (who won an Academy Award in her first screen role), Rick Lenz (who is very appealing), Jack Warden, Vito Scotti, Eve Bruce ("rotten, rotten"), Irene Hervey. First-rate job of casting. I saw the movie when it was new and watched it the second time 40 years later (yesterday) and watched it the third time today.
There's a lot to like. The dialogue is priceless and my guess is that Abe Burrows, who adapted "Cactus Flower" for the Broadway stage from a French farce, deserves the credit. I.A.L. Diamond wrote the screenplay but I would bet an awful lot of Abe Burrows' stuff is included. I need to find a copy of the play and read it. I'm sure I would laugh out loud, just as we did at the movie.
The sets are wonderful. I loved the art museum with its echo. The dentist's office is perfect. It's startling seeing a dentist work on a patient without a face mask or latex gloves. And the X-ray without a lead apron for the patient is noteworthy. And that record store! All those LPs and adults waiting on other adults.
I also enjoyed Goldie Hawn's clothes. The one discordant note in the whole movie was Ingrid Bergman's ballgown. It's heavy satin, does not fit well and is so dowdy it makes you cringe. What was Moss Mabry thinking? The saving grace here is that she wears it in a very funny scene. She and her date (Vito Scotti as a U.N. delegate) have been to a formal dance and stop in at a discotheque later.
I could wish Barry Nelson, who originated Matthau's role on Broadway, had been in the movie. It would have made it more believable when Goldie Hawn's character, Toni, says her dentist lover is good-looking.
Walter Matthau shares "Cactus Flower" with everyone else on screen. Ingrid Bergman (gorgeous as always), Goldie Hawn (who won an Academy Award in her first screen role), Rick Lenz (who is very appealing), Jack Warden, Vito Scotti, Eve Bruce ("rotten, rotten"), Irene Hervey. First-rate job of casting. I saw the movie when it was new and watched it the second time 40 years later (yesterday) and watched it the third time today.
There's a lot to like. The dialogue is priceless and my guess is that Abe Burrows, who adapted "Cactus Flower" for the Broadway stage from a French farce, deserves the credit. I.A.L. Diamond wrote the screenplay but I would bet an awful lot of Abe Burrows' stuff is included. I need to find a copy of the play and read it. I'm sure I would laugh out loud, just as we did at the movie.
The sets are wonderful. I loved the art museum with its echo. The dentist's office is perfect. It's startling seeing a dentist work on a patient without a face mask or latex gloves. And the X-ray without a lead apron for the patient is noteworthy. And that record store! All those LPs and adults waiting on other adults.
I also enjoyed Goldie Hawn's clothes. The one discordant note in the whole movie was Ingrid Bergman's ballgown. It's heavy satin, does not fit well and is so dowdy it makes you cringe. What was Moss Mabry thinking? The saving grace here is that she wears it in a very funny scene. She and her date (Vito Scotti as a U.N. delegate) have been to a formal dance and stop in at a discotheque later.
I could wish Barry Nelson, who originated Matthau's role on Broadway, had been in the movie. It would have made it more believable when Goldie Hawn's character, Toni, says her dentist lover is good-looking.