Excellent, smart action film.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Womanizing Dr. Julian Winston (Walter Matthau) has told his new girlfriend, Toni (Goldie Hawn) that he is married, to prevent the relationship from getting serious. He decides he does want to marry Toni, and tells her that he will get a divorce, but she insists on meeting his wife first. He persuades his longtime nurse Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman) to pretend to be his wife. Stephanie and Toni meet, but things don't turn out just the way Julian had expected.This romantic comedy is pure fun, with great lines and perfect delivery from the two veteran actors. Goldie Hawn's Oscar winning debut performance is a true delight. The sets and costumes looked wonderful, and the supporting cast of Jack Weston, Rick Lenz, Vito Scotti, and Irene Hervey added greatly to the overall experience. This is a film well worth watching.

When I saw the name, Gene Saks, listed as director on the poster outside the cinema, I almost turned tail and ran. As a director, Mr. Saks is not noted for his glossy visual style. In fact, he is hopelessly dull. If you don't believe me, just try to watch this movie. Fortunately, it has a hard-working cast. Ingrid Bergman has to bear the weight of Mr. Saks's deadly dull direction. She puts up a game battle and spends most of her scenes force-feeding funny lines to the likes of Walter Matthau, Jack Weston and Goldie Hawn. This does get rather tiresome, particularly as Miss Bergman is none too flatteringly photographed by Charles Lang, of all people! Lang is usually a really masterful cameraman (156 credits, including 3 wins and 17 nominations) but he was probably bored stiff by Saks's lifeless direction and his insistence on insipid camera angles. I'm not familiar with the original play, so I can't judge how well I.A.L. Diamond has jazzed it up, but I certainly expected something more in the way of wit from Billy Wilder's frequent collaborator. To sum this movie up: Dull, dull, dull!

Dentist Julian Winston (Walter Matthau) is a real ladies man. He's dating younger Toni Simmons (Goldie Hawn) but avoids a commitment to her by lying and saying he's married with kids. Finally he decides to marry Toni...but she wants to meet his wife. He gets his receptionist Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman) to pose as his wife and all sorts of complications occur.This plays like a Neil Simon play/movie. There are non-stop one-liners and everything comes out fine and good at the end. That's not saying it's a bad movie--just not a great or realistic one. Berman and Hawn (winning her first Oscar for this) are great! They have incredible comic timing and easily fling out the lines with ease. Bergman especially cuts loose at the end. It moves at a quick pace and I was never bored. There are only three serious problems with this--Matthau, Rick Lenz (playing Igor) and Jack Weston. Having Matthau playing a ladies man is a stretch and he has zero idea of how to do comedy. He always has a blank look on his face and says his lines in a monotone. Even worse is Lenz who is (I think) supposed to be charming, handsome and funny and is none of those. A very dull one note performance. Also Jack Weston is incredibly annoying as Matthau's best friend. Still this is worth seeing for Bergman, Hawn and the lines.

In her Greenwich Village apartment, bubbly blonde Goldie Hawn (as Toni Simmons) attempts suicide by gas, but is saved by writer Rick Lenz (as Igor Sullivan). Looking sexy in her pink bed clothing, the 21-year-old Ms. Hawn is the girlfriend of middle-aged dentist Walter Matthau (as Julian Winston). To avoid marriage, Mr. Matthau has told Hawn he has a wife and three children. When Matthau decides to wed Hawn after all, he asks his beautiful but straight-laced nurse Ingrid Bergman (as Stephanie Dickinson) to pose as the wife he wants to divorce. To give the story more credence, Ms. Bergman looses up by dating actor Jack Weston (as Harvey Greenfield) and diplomat Vito Scotti (as Arturo Sanchez)...Filmmaker M.J. Frankovich and the studio executives took a chance on this one, and produced chance art. Director Gene Saks, comic actor Walter Matthau and the crew are dependable - but the decision to cast ditsy "Laugh-In" TV star Hawn and golden age drama diva Bergman in the co-starring roles had to make some people doing a double take. But Hawn proved she could impersonate a character from the inside out; Bergman went the Garbo route, especially emulating the actress' comic dance from her final film as "She Hangs Out" (the other songs are "To Sir, with Love" and "I'm a Believer"). Writers Burrows and Diamond wittily capture the swinging sixties' sexy sophistication, and Mr. Saks takes it off the stage.********* Cactus Flower (12/16/69) Gene Saks ~ Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn, Rick Lenz