Save the Tiger: A Review

SAVE THE TIGER

Despair was rarely as overwhelming as it is in Save the Tiger, a dour portrait of a failed successful man. Strong performances from its cast and an engaging story lift Save the Tiger from total moroseness. 

On the outside, Harry Stoner (Jack Lemmon) seems to have it all. He has a successful business. He is married to Janet (Patricia Smith) and has a daughter in a Swiss boarding school. Harry has a passion for baseball, particularly his youthful days on the diamond.

However, early on we see that Harry is a man teetering on the edge. He has nightmares of his war days. He struggles with getting to work in more ways than one. He is also, unbeknownst to almost everyone, virtually dead broke. His Capri Casuals clothing firm is about to introduce a new line. However, he has been cooking the books and is barely squeaking by if at all.

His longtime business partner Phil Greene (Jack Gilford) is deeply upset that they have been juggling the numbers and knows that they will collapse. Harry, however, has a couple of schemes up his sleeve. The first is to do a favor for Freddie Mirrell (Norman Burton), who has been a longtime buyer. Harry will procure Freddie's favorite hooker Margo (Laura Parker), which Harry has done in the past. Margo is adamant that she is too busy with other buyers to cater to someone she finds too kinky. Somehow, Harry persuades, pressures or bribes her into doing one last trick for Freddie.

That is nothing compared to Harry's wilder scheme. He decides that the best plan to get badly needed funds is to commit arson. Phil, already disgusted by Harry hiring Margo the unhappy hooker, is downright appalled, disgusted and enraged at Harry's plan to set a Capri Casuals textile factory on fire to collect the insurance. Nevertheless, he goes to an adult theater with Harry to meet Charlie Robbins (Thayer David), an old hand at helping businessmen with their fire sales. Robbins accepts a retainer and will case the joint to give them a full report on what he can do.

As the day goes on, Harry faces other crises. Freddie has an almost fatal encounter with Margo the unhappy hooker. Harry has a bit of a breakdown while speaking to potential buyers. He also reencounters Maya (Laurie Heineman), a hippie he had given a ride to earlier that day. They spend the night together, but not in the usual way. Robbins has good news/bad news for Phil and Harry, but thinks things can still work out for them. They just have to be willing to let the business below them go up in flames. Will Harry sink further into despair? Will he find respite in children at play?

What makes Save the Tiger good watching is Jack Lemmon in his Best Actor Oscar-winning role. Harry Stoner is not a bad man. He is, instead, a desperate man. Harry is someone who wants to do the right thing but finds that he needs to do the necessary thing as he sees it. He embodies the idea that one can start out doing a little shifty business and see that snowball. In some ways, Harry has given up and died with the other men at Capri during the war. Many times, in Steve Shagan's screenplay, Harry mentions something battle-related. "He's not a man, he's a casualty", Harry remarks about someone. He rambles about various Nazi figures to an unaware Maya, who did not even know that the U.S. had fought Italy in any war.

Lemmon has a manic, nervous energy and physicality to the role. Early on, his monologue about the wild pitches he used to throw have him lean in on how Lemmon loves to move. However, as Save the Tiger continues, we see Harry slowly crumbling under the weight of his own guilt. He has reached a point where he can still justify his actions but knows that they are gnawing at his soul. Harry can rationalize committing arson and soliciting. It is when he faces the ghosts of his past that we see a man falling apart. I think the phrase "company men" threw him into a strange world. As he speaks, I think "company men" as in buyers blended with "company men" from his old platoon. The breakdown was, as acted by Lemmon and directed by John G. Avildsen, not big or overboard. 

That is what makes the scene so good. It is acted and directed to show a man genuinely struggling; he knows that he needs to pull himself to the present, but he keeps seeing more and more of his fallen comrades. Knowing that the beaches that he saw men die in agony is now populated by girls in bikinis does not anger him. It troubles him. Harry continuously finds quips and excuses for the decline around him. Phil comments that the theater they are meeting Robbins at (a nice art deco movie palace fallen on hard times) he saw Ben-Hur. Now, it shows lurid films like Denmark Speaks. "Same thing. They just took the togas off", is Harry's reply.

Save the Tiger earned its third Oscar nomination with Jack Gilford's supporting performance. As Phil, Gilford is the moral center of this world. He shows that he is already in a tight spot by going along with how they cooked the books to keep the company going. Phil, however, knows that some lines are not crossed. Getting hookers in exchange for buyers is one. Arson is another. Phil may bend to Harry's logic, but Phil seems more willing to declare bankruptcy than dive further into white-collar crime. One sees an almost sense of relief when Robbins tells them that the factory is too dilapidated to burn. 

Other performances, like Norman Burton's tragic Freddie and Lara Parker's Margo enhance the film. A nice standout moment is when Harry finally talks to his longtime cutter, Meyer (William Hansen). Meyer, a Holocaust survivor, does not have the despair that Harry has. "Just surviving. No dreams, no hopes?" he tells his boss. Meyer has seen horrors far worse than Harry, albeit Harry's potential PTSD is not something to minimize. Meyer shows that his American dream is successful because he opted not to pursue Harry's American dream. 

Save the Tiger was wise to cover just a day and a half of Harry Stoner's life. We are left with an ambiguous ending, one where we do not know what will happen after he tells Robbins to go through with the plan (while keeping Phil in the dark). Perhaps the symbolism of having Harry stumble onto a Little League game is a bit too much. 

On the whole, Save the Tiger is a good exploration of one man's desperation. Ably acted by Jack Lemmon and Jack Gilford, Save the Tiger is a good, albeit sad, film.

DECISION: B-