cactus flower be a delightful 1969 comedy base on a neil simon play about a dentist ( walter matthau ) have an affair with a young free spirit woman ( goldie hawn ) and totally unaware that his devoted nurse or assistant ( ingrid bergman ) be in love with him . matthau can play this kind of role in his sleep and he doesn not disappoint a the philander dentist and dr. julian winston and who be date one woman but really have no clue that he in love with another . goldie hawn win an oscar for her sparkling performance a toni simmons and the age flower child who slowly come to realize she be trap in a dead end affair and be not as dim a she appear on the surface . but the real pleasure for me in this film be the performance of the legendary ingrid bergman a stephanie dickinson and dr. winston completely devote assistant and who be willing to to bury and sacrifice her own happiness as long a dr. winston be happy with tony . bergman be luminous in this film and look absolutely beautiful ( though the camera have always love her ) and show an unforeseen knack for light comedy . yes and the dialogue and the setting be slightly date and but the story be timeless and the performance by the star make it imminently watchable .