1973 . . . . "Save the Tiger" . . . .

[defendandprotect]

Just came across this movie again tonight ---

I don't know if I entirely agree with the plot --- yeah, "Harry Stoner" isn't a nice guy.
But, I do think it may have been the period when we really began to see how the rug was
being pulled out from under "America" as we knew it --- ???

Everything was being cheapened and turned upside down ---

Harry Stoner arranges business deals by servicing his clients with prostitutes...

I remember working for a company with rather otherwise normal guys ---
and my shock when I found out that they had been out one night and had actually arranged
to take a prominent foreign customer to a whore house -- high class, of course.


and finally agrees to torch his warehouse to collect the insurance money

This scene takes place in the balcony of a porn movie theater ---
And Lemmon has a line I can't remember exactly but it is a comment on the world as it is being reshaped at that time . . .
and it's something like a recitation of the crap that's going on in the world at the time, "including rats crawling over the sleeping faces of children in Harlem --and we're sitting the balcony paying to have our business burned down..."

Save the Tiger | Plot Synopsis
Plot Synopsis
Star Jack Lemmon was so eager to see Save the Tiger make it to the big screen that he waived his salary rather than have the film exceed its tiny budget. Lemmon portrays "the great American tragedy" as upwardly mobile garment manufacturer Harry Stoner, whose underhanded business tactics are beginning to catch up with him, and whose keeping-up-appearances lifestyle has forced him into bankruptcy. The script, by producer Steve Shagan, does nothing to endear us to Stoner: he flagrantly cheats on his wife, arranges business deals by servicing his clients with prostitutes, and finally agrees to torch his warehouse to collect the insurance money, all the while paying empty lip service to his lost ideals. Nonetheless, one "feels" for Stoner throughout, especially when he breaks down while giving a speech to his assembled buyers, imagining that the audience is populated by his dead army buddies, who gave up their lives to make the world safe for good-for-nothings like himself. Lemmon's performance won him an Academy Award. Appearing in supporting roles are Jack Gilford as Lemmon's conscience-stricken partner and Thayer David as a smarmy arsonist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

I loved most of the Jack Lemmon films --- The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, Missing -- and many which seemed to be personally picked for their message ...

[enigmatic]

1. Fantastic Film

Lemmon is great in this; the scene near the end where Stoner breaks down during a speech is brilliant..