Save the Tiger (1973): Jack Lemmon Gets Lost in a B Movie Universe

Jack Lemmon is great in his dramatic role of Harry Stoner, aka Cuban Pete, in Save the Tiger, a low-budget neo-noir with a script that Lemmon liked so much he agreed to work for scale so that he could be part of it. It is the story of a little more than twenty-four consequential hours in the life of Stoner, president of a garment company called Capri Casuals, Inc., and his business partner and accountant Phil Greene. The title comes from Stoner’s chance meeting on a street in Los Angeles (L.A.) with a conservation activist, who is trying to collect signatures for a petition to save the tiger. The implication is that, in the early 1970s, middle-class U.S. businessmen who served in World War II needed help—and badly—like tigers facing extinction.

Stoner definitely needs help. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of his service in the war, which is revealed in his flashbacks, nightmares, and ability to lose himself in daydreams about the past and about baseball that worry his wife and, occasionally, his business partner. He is becoming increasingly desperate to keep his company afloat. Even though his clothing line is snapped up by store buyers, he is still having trouble raising enough money to put the clothing line into production for another season, and he worries about paying his many employees. A lot is at stake.

Harry Stoner has his faults. He spends too much money on himself (and on others, so he is generous, too), and he is willing to commit criminal activity like fraud and arson to solve his financial worries. And yet he is still sympathetic. Who doesn’t want to make family and friends happy? Who hasn’t had financial worries? Who hasn’t reminisced about a past that seems more appealing with every passing day that troubles mount?

Stoner isn’t just a nice guy with troubles, however; he makes bad choices that he justifies to himself easily. He deserves to succeed and have his slice of the American dream because he has sacrificed so much for his country. His business partner and friend Phil Greene presents some opposing arguments. Viewers get to see how easily Stoner’s life turns into a noir narrative that could have been filmed in black and white in the immediate postwar period of the late 1940s and 1950s.

The film starts quietly with a solo trumpeter playing soft jazz (“I Can’t Get Started”) on the soundtrack. When the opening credits and the song end, the film cuts to a shot of flowers in a field (on Mulholland Drive, according to the DVD commentary), then it pans up to a shot of the L.A. skyline. Then it cuts to a shot of a large suburban home with a built-in pool and morning fog rising lazily over the scene. Now viewers hear birds chirping and a dog barking two or three times in the distance.

Everything is flowers and peace (note the period references!) until the film cuts to Harry Stoner, who is in bed groaning and yelling in his sleep until he awakens, clutching his pillow and gasping for air. He has just suffered another nightmare. His alarm goes off, and for a few seconds, he has trouble adjusting to his surroundings. As he starts his day, his wife Janet tells him that he screamed in his sleep for the second time that week. She wants him to see a doctor.

In the bathroom, they talk about their daughter Audrey, who is attending school in Switzerland. Harry wants to visit her, but Janet doesn’t even answer his proposal. She keeps insisting that Audrey is better off in Switzerland because teenagers take drugs in the high school bathrooms in L.A. She wants to protect her daughter from city violence and drugs generally. She tells her husband that Europe is more civilized. She doesn’t even notice the irony of her comment: her husband fought in Europe during World War II trying to bring it back from total destruction.

On his way to work driving a large Lincoln Continental (the tank-like version from the 1970s, of course), Harry picks up a hitchhiker, Myra, who states that she rides back and forth on Sunset Strip all day. She compliments Harry’s suit, then asks him if he would like to have sex with her. Harry declines Myra’s offer, although he does chuckle about it.

Myra’s compliment about Harry’s suit seems to be a running gag in a film that is not a comedy by any means. In the DVD audio commentary by the director John G. Avildsen and screenwriter Steve Shagan, I learned that the suit was tailor-made for Jack Lemmon. They mention that it was a good investment because Lemmon wears it in the role of Harry Stoner for almost the entire film.

Harry Stoner arrives at a garment factory that is already in full work mode, with seamstresses at sewing machines and models getting ready for the annual fashion show later that same day. Harry is greeted by an argument between Rico, a young designer, and Meyer, an old man who is the best cutter in the business (a relationship that illustrates the generation gap, a popular phrase in the 1970s). Neither appreciates the other, and Harry needs to smooth things between them because he needs them both. (When Harry arrives at the management offices, the receptionist greets him with a compliment about his suit, as does an employee that he passes in the hallway on the way to his office. Harry’s response to both: “Passatti, Italian silk.”)

(This article about Save the Tiger contains spoilers.)

When Harry arrives in his own office, Phil Greene is on the phone talking about a bank note he cannot meet. When Phil gets off the phone, he and Harry discuss their money problems. Harry asks about the Long Beach factory and whether the insurance policies are all paid up. Then he gives Phil a piece of paper with Charlie Robbins’s phone number on it. Phil is appalled. He already knows from the name that Harry is thinking of torching the Long Beach factory to collect on the insurance. They argue because arson is a line that Phil won’t cross. They have cut what Phil calls “sharp corners” before with creative accounting, but arson he won’t condone. Harry calls Charlie Robbins himself.

Fred Mirrell, one of the buyers in town for the fashion show and the new clothing line, arrives in Harry’s office. He doesn’t go to the hotel where the fashion show will take place because he wants Harry to arrange another “date” with Margo, whom he remembers from the previous year. He and Harry argue because Fred makes this request at the last minute, at a time when all the buyers are in town and Margo is already booked. Harry has to call her himself to beg her to accommodate Fred, even though Margo remembers him, too, from last year and calls him a freak. Thus, Harry is involved in prostitution in addition to fraud and possibly arson. It may involve prosperous businessmen, but it’s prostitution all the same. Phil is quick to point out the moral shortcomings of this illegal activity, too.

With all their differences, especially when it comes to ethics, it is still obvious that Harry and Phil have been good friends for a long time. In fact, Phil’s loyalty may be his own undoing. On their way to lunch in Chinatown, Phil asks for eye drops because his eyes are burning from the L.A. smog. Harry doesn’t have any, but he offers an old joke:

• Harry: “I tell ya, Phil, there’s one wonderful thing about Los Angeles.”

• Phil: “What’s that?”

• Harry: “It’s not Buffalo.”

• Phil: (laughs) “You son of a bitch. You know how many times that I’ve fallen for that?”

Over lunch, Harry tells Phil about his trip the previous year to see the cotton mills in Milan, Italy. From Milan, he flew to Rome and then drove to Anzio to revisit the site where he was wounded and where so many of his friends died in World War II. The beach that he saw soaked with blood during the war is now a resort covered with bikinis, cute little buckets as he puts it. Phil is sympathetic, but he acknowledges that the events from World War II were a long time ago now (almost thirty years in 1973). He uses the occasion to remind Harry about the present and his opinion of using arson to solve their problems.

After lunch, Phil and Harry go to the Belgrave Hotel where the fashion show is about to start and where Fred Mirrell is meeting Margo. Harry gets a call while he and Phil are at the bar: Fred is suffering a heart attack. Harry arrives in the hotel room, panicky and angry that Margo let things go too far, as he puts it. Phil has to remind Harry that they are responsible, and both he and Harry are shaken by the possibility that Fred Mirrell might die because of what they (really Harry) arranged for him.

Harry next has to speak at the fashion show in the hotel. As he starts to introduce the fashion line, he experiences a serious of short flashbacks, which are most likely prompted by seeing Fred Mirrell close to death so recently. In his flashbacks, he sees the dead soldiers he knew as friends sitting in the audience instead of the clothes buyers. The flashbacks appear one after the other, and Harry is overcome with emotion. It’s obvious to everyone in the audience and to his employees behind the scenes that he is troubled. To them, it seems to come out of the blue, but to viewers, it makes more sense because the story is told from Harry’s perspective. Jackie, who introduced Harry Stoner to the fashion show audience, saves him from talking on and on about his war experiences.

Sid Fivush, a mobster, offers to help Capri Casuals with money, that is, a loan with ever-increasing interest rates. He proposes this idea to Phil Greene first, but Harry Stoner intervenes to say that he’ll pass. He doesn’t want anything to do with Sid or his mob tactics. For once the roles are reversed: Harry refuses to get involved with the mob, for obvious reasons of personal danger, but Phil Greene is open to the idea because they would have the money they need without resorting to arson. (Sid compliments Harry’s suit and guesses correctly that it is Passatti, Italian made. He knows his fashion!)

Phil and Harry have to leave the fashion show for their appointment with Charlie Robbins in an adult movie theater. Charlie Robbins will investigate the Long Beach factory, and he asks that Harry and Phil meet him again at 10 a.m. the following morning. (Robbins also compliments Harry’s suit during their brief negotiation.)

Harry returns to the office at Capri Casuals later that night, and Phil Greene tells him that the fashion show was a success. They argue about the arson. They are two small businessmen trying to make payroll and keep their employees working, something both can agree on. But Phil is very upset about the arson and Harry’s ability to rationalize it away. Harry doesn’t want to hear Phil selling America to him because he, too, believed in America, but World War II and postwar life changed all that.

On his way home late at night, Harry sees Myra again hitchhiking and picks her up. She invites him to spend the night at the beach house that she is house-sitting, and he accepts this time. She notices the scars on his back after they sleep together. When he tells her that he got them in Italy, she assumes that he got them in a fistfight. She doesn’t know that the United States fought a war with Italy because she is so young and because history has been revised to make Italy a victim and a U.S. ally, which leaves Harry feeling alone and isolated again. This sequence with Myra shows once again how hard it is for Harry to feel connected to people generally and especially to Myra, who is barely older than his own daughter, a fact he pointed out to Phil Greene earlier in the day when he told him about meeting her.

At the follow-up meeting with Charlie Robbins, Robbins insists that he will not set fire to the Long Beach factory because of the many fire code violations: The insurance company will never pay out because of them. Harry is discouraged and Phil is relieved, but Robbins has an alternate plan to set fire to Siegel’s shirt factory on the first floor. Robbins and Harry complete the deal in the theater lobby, but Harry insists that Robbins keep Phil Greene’s name out of it. (Charlie Robbins doesn’t compliment the suit this time, but he does notice that it is the same one that Harry wore to their meeting the day before.) Harry is still generous: He will protect his friend and business partner.

The DVD audio commentary by director John G. Avildsen and writer Steve Shagan is definitely worth a listen. The two provide a lot of information about the film. Avildsen and Shagan go off topic here and there, but they are good friends it seems, so it is probably inevitable that they would talk about other things besides the film. The following list of some of their points shows that their audio commentary is packed with information:

◊ Lemmon was in Steve Shagan’s mind as he wrote the script, and they were lucky to get him. Lemmon was up for something different from his usual comedic roles. He and Jack Gilford acted in roles that were very different from their previous work.

◊ The film was shot entirely on location. Nothing was shot on a studio lot because it would have been too expensive. The factory scenes were filmed in a real factory, but the offices were built for the film.

◊ The film is a snapshot of America in the 1970s.

◊ The cinematographer made do with the natural lighting that was available as they were shooting.

◊ Jack Lemmon knew how to take his time with the tasks of everyday life. One good example is when he calls Margo to convince her to see the buyer Fred Mirrell.

◊ Steve Shagan wrote the script from anger. He was a World War II veteran, and all the men who fought in the war were now in the middle class getting the short shrift. The president [Richard Nixon] could have been a mob collector.

◊ In the name game scene between Harry Stoner and Myra, Steve Shagan tried to fit everything in about World War II; the Vietnam War; the assassinations of Jack Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and others; and other contemporary topics.

◊ Harry Stoner’s audio flashback on the beach at the beach house is from the winter of 1944 at Anzio, Italy.

◊ Baseball represents the theme of lost innocence in America, especially for Harry Stoner.

◊ The film clip on the television in the bar at the Belgrave Hotel is from a Bogart film. It shows a baseball rolling up to Bogart as he sits on a bench.

◊ Save the Tiger is an old-fashioned film driven by the script and has no special effects. When Harry Stoner sees the dead soldiers during the fashion show for his company, the viewers see them, too. It also has a lot of dialogue: The film has some very long scenes in which the actors deliver several lines.

◊ Jack Lemmon lost himself in the character of Harry Stoner. He inhabited the role and was emotionally drained by it.

I have loved Save the Tiger since the first time that I saw it, and that was in a movie theater. But did I see it when it was first released? I’m not so sure. Maybe the film was rereleased to theaters after Jack Lemmon won his Academy Award for Best Actor in 1974 and that was when I saw it. I remember having to convince my mother to see Save the Tiger, an R-rated film. How did I ever manage that! Save the Tiger was a financial failure at the box office, so I guess I was one of the few people to see it in the theater. It’s too bad more people didn’t see it originally, but thanks to modern technology, now everyone can enjoy it.

This article about Save the Tiger is my entry for the Third Annual Favorite Stars in B Movies Blogathon, hosted by Brian at filmsfrombeyond.com. Click on each day (each is a link) below for a day-by-day list of links to participants’ blogs. The list is updated each day of the blogathon, from March 28 to March 30, as follows:

Day 1, March 28, 2025

Day 2, March 29,2025

Day 3, March 30, 2025

February 14, 1973, release date  •  Directed by John G. Avildsen  •  Screenplay by Steve Shagan  •  Based on the novel Save the Tiger by Steve Shagan  •  Music by Marvin Hamlisch  •  Edited by David Bretherton  •  Cinematography by James Crabe

Jack Lemmon as Harry Stoner (aka Cuban Pete)  •  Jack Gilford as Phil Greene  •  Laurie Heineman as Myra  •  Norman Burton as Fred Mirrell  •  Patricia Smith as Janet Stoner  •  Thayer David as Charlie Robbins  •  William Hansen as Meyer, the cutter  •  Harvey Jason as Rico, the designer  •  Lin Von Linden as Ula  •  Lara Parker as Margo  •  Janina as Dusty  •  Eloise Hardt as Jackie, the fashion show announcer  •  Ned Glass as Sid Fivush  •  Pearl Shear as the cashier  •  Biff Elliot as the “save the tiger” petitioner  •  Ben Freedman as the taxi driver  •  Madeline Lee as Ida, the receptionist at Capri Casuals

Distributed by Paramount Pictures Corporation  •  Produced by Filmways, Inc., Jalem Productions, Inc., Cirandhina Productions, Inc.