Verdict
Summary
A deceptively mundane drama that feels poignant and gripping simply because of how Jack Lemmon portrays this guy who has lost his zest and his spirit, and the movie holds tight to nostalgia and innocence even as it dribbles through the character’s fingers. It’s a fascinating film to watch, and Lemmon really was one of the great actors of all time and proves it here.
Plot:
A self-made owner of a clothing business has been held aloft by fraud, and his American dream is ripping apart by the seams.
Review:
Harry Stoner (Jack Lemmon in an Academy Award-winning performance) wakes up one morning and sees his wife off to the airport where she’ll be gone for 10 days visiting family. Harry drives to work in his sedan and immediately grapples with the stress of his occupation: He owns a sweatshop clothing design company in the heart of the Los Angeles garment district and his right hand man (played by old timer Jack Gilford) is very blunt with their prospects for their upcoming line: After a year of being held aloft by fraud, the company must make a huge sale to department stores or the company will go out of business in the next few months. Harry is completely compromised as a businessman and as a man, and he knows it. He has no honor or dignity left, what with his willingness to supply women he knows (his office is always full of models) to buyers as a bonus for keeping his company in business, but business is drying up and with poor designs in the upcoming line, the collapse of his little empire is imminent. He spends the next day or so just drifting, and when he picks up a pretty hitchhiker who offers herself to him, he all but has a nervous breakdown when he refuses to sleep with her even if he could do it without any real consequence. What makes everything worse is that he commits to insurance fraud by hiring a guy to burn his factory down, and now there’s no going back. Harry’s American dream is ripping apart at the seams …
A deceptively mundane drama that feels poignant and gripping simply because of how Jack Lemmon portrays this guy who has lost his zest and his spirit, and the movie holds tight to nostalgia and innocence even as it dribbles through the character’s fingers. He loses his soul, while still remembering what it was like to have a clear conscience. Director John G. Avildson (Rocky, The Karate Kid) did a really remarkable job with this material, and it arrived at the crux of time when cinema was transitioning from the classic era to the modern one, with a tainted spirit (Vietnam coverage on TV as well as PTSD from the Korean War is a prominent presence in this film) that feels like an infection. It’s a fascinating film to watch, and Lemmon really was one of the great actors of all time and proves it here.
Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray edition of Save the Tiger is presented in a new HD master from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative, and the transfer is quite wonderful and likely has never looked this good on home video before. The disc comes with two audio commentaries – one with director Avildson (who is no longer with us) and another one with a film historian, plus the trailer and a slipcover.
