Reception
On release, the film was acclaimed by both critics and the general public, becoming the eighth highest grossing film of 1969. 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". Roger Ebert declared that "the chemistry works" and "the movie is better than the play".
The film marked the return of Ingrid Bergman to the movies. After the 1940s, Bergmann had moved to Europe and pursued a relationship with director Roberto Rossellini, diminishing her appeal to US audiences. After returning to film in Anastasia, Bergmann agreed to star in this film, her first comedy, again gaining critical praise.
In her first major film role, Goldie Hawn, once described as the "dizzy cream puff who is constantly blowing her lines ", was praised for being "a natural reactress; her timing is so canny that even her tears run amusingly". Hawn's performance in Cactus Flower won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, her sole Oscar to date.
Read more about this topic: Cactus Flower (film)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)