Cactus Flower (1969)

A young girl (Goldie Hawn) attempts suicide after her married lover (Walter Matthau), who's a dentist, stands her up to be with his wife and children. What she doesn't know is that her lover is a bachelor who made up the wife and kids to avoid commitment. He finally gives in and proposes marriage but she insists on meeting his wife first. To this end, the dentist asks his nurse (Ingrid Bergman) to pose as his wife. Based on the play by Abe Burrows (in turn based on the French farce FLEUR DE CACTUS by Pierre Barillet and Jean Pierre Gredy and directed by Gene Saks (MAME). This Broadway to Hollywood romantic comedy has aged better than most stage adaptation of that era. Most of the credit goes to the cast rather than the traffic cop direction and the formulaic script. If you take away the mini skirts, love beads and discos, the film could have come right out of the 1940s or 1950s. It's still a head scratcher why Goldie Hawn won an Oscar as the ditzy mistress but she holds her own in her first leading role opposite such heavyweights as Matthau and Bergman. Co-starring Jack Weston, Irene Hervey and Rick Lenz.