Twenty-one-year-old Toni Simmons attempts to commit suicide by inhaling gas from her stove. Toni's neighbor, Igor Sullivan, smells the gas and rescues her by using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which evolves into a kiss after Toni regains consciousness.
Toni's suicide attempt came after being stood up by her lover, Manhattan dentist Julian Winston. Julian had told Toni from the beginning of their relationship that he had a wife and three children. Unbeknownst to Toni, Julian is not married; and Toni hates lying above all other transgressions. Impressed that Toni had been willing to die over him, Julian decides to marry Toni. However, she is concerned for his wife's well-being, and insists on meeting her to ensure that she has agreed to divorce him and will be taken care of. Julian asks Stephanie Dickinson, his longtime nurse, to pose as his wife. At first unwilling, she ultimately relents, since she has long been in love with her employer.
When Toni and Stephanie first meet at the record store where Toni works, Toni senses Stephanie's feelings for Julian and asks Julian to help Stephanie find another man. Julian lies again, telling her that his wife already has a boyfriend. Toni immediately insists on meeting him, and Julian's friend Harvey is enlisted in the role of Stephanie's boyfriend. After a "coincidental" encounter with Stephanie and Harvey at a club, Harvey is swiftly chased off by Julian after his real girlfriend runs into the foursome and humiliates his supposed girlfriend.
Embracing her newfound confidence, Stephanie finally accepts the overtures of Julian's patient Señor Arturo Sánchez, a Latin diplomat. After attending a ball with him, she invites him to the club from the earlier night, where Toni, Julian, and Igor have also returned. Stephanie and Igor quickly hit it off, to the dismay and jealousy of both Julian and Toni. After dancing with gleeful abandon at the club with Igor, Stephanie arrives at work the next morning giddy and still wearing her evening gown from the night before. She happily shares a few vague details with Julian about her night spent on the beach. Stephanie then notices that the cactus on her desk has bloomed.
Moments later, Stephanie and Julian get into an argument and Stephanie quits. She visits Toni's apartment to come clean to her, telling her that she is actually Julian's nurse, and he has never been married. After she leaves, Julian arrives to tell Toni that his wife refuses to divorce him, but that he and Toni can continue their relationship. Toni is exasperated with his dishonesty, and decides to do a little lying of her own. She leaves him for Igor, but fools Julian into believing that she and Igor have been seeing each other all along.
Julian storms off and encounters Stephanie at the office the next morning. She has returned to pick up the cactus she keeps on her desk, which has flowered, like her. Julian tells her that he and Toni have split up and although he was initially devastated, he realized he was relieved he would not have to marry Toni. Stephanie is overjoyed and embraces him, just as he confesses he has fallen in love with her. They kiss.
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".[3]Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars out of four and declared that "the chemistry works" and "the movie is better than the play".[4]Gene Siskel gave the film two stars out of four, writing, "This is a film in the old style, but not in the good old style. The lines are neither current nor witty."[5]Variety wrote that the names of the stars "should pack some boxoffice punch. The film, however, drags, which is probably the [worst] thing that can be said of a light comedy. It's due to sloppy direction by Gene Saks and the miscasting of Matthau opposite Miss Bergman."[6]Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Cactus Flower was a successful Broadway comedy and it translates to the screen quite nicely ... It is a craftily contrived piece of silliness enacted by competent and attractive people: Laugh In's Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman in that order of laudability."[7]
In her first major film role, Goldie Hawn, once described by Time as the "dizzy cream puff who is constantly blowing her lines [on Laugh-In]",[8] was praised in that same magazine for being "a natural reactress; her timing is so canny that even her tears run amusingly".[9] Hawn's performance in the film won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 20 reviews, with an average score of 6.9/10.[10] On Metacritic, the film received a score of 67 based on 5 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11]
The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones and featured vocalists Sarah Vaughan and Johnny Wesley and the soundtrack album was released on the Bell label in 1969.[12][13]The Vinyl Factory stated, "The music Jones supplied for this trippy film is Quincy's nod to psychedelia and sunshine pop – covering the Monkees' (composed by Neil Diamond)'I'm a Believer', and 'I Wonder What She's Doin' Tonight', which was penned by Boyce and Hart, also of Monkees fame. Sarah Vaughan adds some gravity with 'The Time for Love Is Anytime', and there's even a groovy version of 'To Sir, With Love'. A sweet cocktail."[14] The score also contains a second Monkees cover, "She Hangs Out", written by Jeff Barry, another artist who had worked with the Monkees.
Track listing
All compositions by Cynthia Weil and Quincy Jones except where noted
"The Time for Love Is Anytime ("Cactus Flower" Theme)" − 2:48
