Prickly Heat

Life begins at 50 -- Picture courtesy of Columbia Pictures

by blogSpotter
I subscribed to Netflix about six weeks ago, not for the DVD mail order but the streaming video service. I've since found the mother lode of forgotten nuggets like The Big Sleep and How to Marry a Millionaire. Some of these are movies that you might easily catch on TBS late at night but Netflix gives you what you want, when you want it. Their streaming is excellent, with no delays and very few interruptions. You can always pause to get a snack or whatever -- truly hard to beat for $10/month.

This past weekend, I rented a terrific movie from 1969, Cactus Flower. Old movies are fun to watch on so many levels. Even if the movie itself is a bomb, it still serves as a time capsule -- a cultural barometer for the times in which it was released. You can relish the music, the styles and the attitudes even if not the plot line. Cactus Flower was in fact not a bomb -- it was a hit based on a long-running Broadway play by the same name.

Cactus Flower stars Walter Matthau as a middle-aged playboy dentist, Dr. Julian Winston, who routinely lies to his lady friends to avoid marriage or commitment. He tells the wide-eyed, innocent Toni (played to blonde perfection by Goldie Hawn) that he’s married with 3 children. He even stands her up on the anniversary of their meeting to show her “who’s boss”. She makes a half-hearted attempt at suicide which prompts the guilt and love-addled Dr. Winston to admit he really loves Toni – he then proposes marriage.

Toni feels bad that she’s being a home wrecker – she wants to meet the ex-Mrs. Winston to clear the air and make things right. There is no Mrs. Winston, so Julian asks his stodgy, prim middle-aged secretary Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman) to pretend she’s his wife. She does so and does it so well that it introduces a slew of new problems and complications. This plot is a formula as old as Shakespeare, a comedy of errors with mistaken identities and lies built upon lies. I’ve actually never seen it done so skillfully as in this movie; Cactus Flower also calls to mind The Bird Cage where comic pretensions unfold and a silly lie becomes the most amazing truth.

Ingrid Bergman shines as Stephanie – she is in fact the “cactus flower” that blooms in mid-life exuberance. It’s a bit of Cinderella for the 50-something set – a concept I think would fly at least as well now (in the baby boomer age) as it did in the late 60’s. All the main actors and even the supporting cast give sterling performances. Speaking of the late 60’s, the sleek suits, tailored dresses and double-breasted blazers of 1969 leave me wondering what happened to fashion in the last 40 years. This movie looks and sounds really good – the music is an eclectic mix including Sarah Vaughn. You might think it’s a much more recent movie based on certain cues (if you weren’t looking at a young Hawn or still handsome 48-year old Matthau).

If you haven’t yet, watch Cactus Flower and be completely entranced as the prickly plant unfolds a beautiful late-in-life blossom. Nobody would ever guess that Bergman could do such excellent deadpan humor, but she could and she did.

NINE TO FIVE

You’re blessed with a two-in-one review today. I also watched 1980’s Nine to Five which I actually saw when it came out. The movie was then a sentimental favorite because it featured two lovely liberal ladies – Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda and introduced the buxom, spirited Dolly Parton in her first film role. The three women play put-upon girls in a male-dominated workplace – dominated by the fun-to-jeer Dabney Coleman (of Mary Hartman fame). This movie makes the women somewhat endearing at the start and also makes some impassioned arguments for things like flex time and equal rights at the end. But the big middle of the movie is a big mess – a mixture of lame plotlines, stale gimmicks and what you would have to describe as childish nonsense. Was the screenplay written by a 5th grader?

Nonetheless, you might just get some jollies watching three great ladies on a jaunt from 30 years ago. My words above apply here – even if the movie is a bomb, it can give you a picture of styles, mores and attitudes of yore. Nine to Five featured some dope-smoking and male-bashing which would probably not make the cut nowadays. Interesting how, as a society, we lighten up in some ways and tighten up in others.

In conclusion: Cactus Flower is a must-see. Nine to Five is a fun-to-see-while-you-pay-bills -- full attention not required but fun if you have 110 minutes to kill.

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