Jack Lemmon won Best Actor for Save the Tiger

10/5/13 Save the Tiger, Best Actor, 1973

I was surprised to find out that for as many great movies that Jack Lemmon appeared in (The Apartment, The Odd Couple, Days of Wine and Roses, Some Like It Hot among just a few) and the variety of roles he played that he only won one Oscar for Best Actor and that was in a movie I don't think I had ever heard of called Save the Tiger from 1973. In Save the Tiger, Lemmon plays Harry Stoner co-owner of a clothing design store in Los Angeles that is having serious financial difficulties. Harry's business is struggling, but so is Harry. It seems more than just a mid-life crisis as he reminisces about the Brooklyn Dodgers and past romantic vacations with his wife who is currently out of town at a family funeral. Oh, and he picks up a hitchhiker who may or may not be over the age of consent. Things are so bad with the business that Harry contemplates hiring an arsonist to burn down one of their factories for the insurance money. His business partner, Phil, played wonderfully by Jack Gilford (who reminds me of my Uncle Moe) wants nothing to do with it, and tries valiantly to play the moral conscience, but Harry sees no other alternative.  He has more than most people: a house in Beverly Hills, a Lincoln Continental with a car phone, trips to Europe, expensive clothes, but something is missing. Harry seems at different times lost, angry, nostalgic and romantic. This movie is about the choices Harry makes, which are not always easy, he is trapped between past bad decisions and limited options for future decisions. What was interesting to me watching this movie forty years later is the same discussions that Harry and Phil have in 1973 are the conversations that so many people are having now, just switch out the Vietnam War for the Gulf War (Harry is a World War II veteran who fought in Italy), the economic challenges of the early 1970s with the recession of the late 2000s, questions of patriotism. This really is Lemmon's movie, I think he's in almost every single scene, and while he plays a character you may not like a whole lot, you get to see up close his emotions, his struggles, and at the end, maybe a little hope. Los Angeles in 1973 is very gritty, or perhaps that's the pollution. I liked this movie, I love Jack Lemmon, and it was nice to see a movie about which I had no preconceptions. Lemmon beat out Robert Redford (The Sting), Al Pacino (Serpico) and Marlon Brando (Last Tango in Paris) for Best Actor, and I've heard of all of those movies, but never Save the Tiger. If you're a fan of Jack Lemmon, then you should watch this.