Cactus Flower(1969)

Submitted by Julio M

Oscar Winner : Best Supporting Actress – Goldie Hawn.
Short pooper:
Julian (Walter Matthau) ends his relationship with Toni (Goldie Hawn, in her film debut), who, in turn, gets together with her neighbour Igor (Rick Lenz); at the same time, he acknowledges he loves his secretary Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman), which rejoices her, as she had always secretly loved him.

Longer version:
Stephanie, both flustered by the charade she has been duped into playing along with -as the alleged wife of Julian- and emboldened by the propositions from Señor Sanchez (Vito Scotti), agrees to return, on a date with him, to the same club as before, where they coincide, AGAIN, with Julian, Toni and Igor. Surprisingly, though, she finds herself making a connection with Igor and dancing repeatedly with him -to both Toni’s and Julian’s chagrin- and having a joyous good time. The next day, when she arrives at her work, at Julian’s dental office -still wearing the attire from the night before-, Julian questions her of her whereabouts and she evasively tells him about “the time she and Igor spent at the beach”. This infuriates Julian, leading to an argument between them which culminates with Ingrid quitting her job.

Fed up with the lies and complications, Stephanie resolves to reacquaint with Toni and tell her the truth about who she really was in Julian’s life, his never-before-married assistant, which obviously has Toni floored. Shortly after Stephanie leaves, in comes Julian alluding -still maintaining the farce, not knowing Toni already knows everything- “Stephanie would never divorce him, but he is free to be with Toni if he wishes to”. Upset with his ongoing dishonesty, Toni then decides to get back at him by announcing “she has already been seeing Igor for a while”; he leaves her, dismayed, but, in reality, she does use this to finally get together with Igor, who has had feelings for her, all along.

The next morning, Julian arrives at his consult and finds Stephanie there, who has returned to pick up the rest of her belongings, including the cactus she kept on her desk -which, symbolically, has developed a flower, just like she did with her recent experiences-. She appears initially cold and indifferent when he confesses the end of his relationship with Toni and how it, at first, hurt him; however, she feels elated when he furthermore admits his relief of having ended it and not getting to the point of marrying her. It is here he finally acknowledges he had been repressing his true feelings for Stephanie the whole time, as she embraces him and they seal it with a kiss.