Save the Tiger

Save the Tiger is a 1973 film about moral conflict in contemporary America. It stars Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Thayer David, Lara Parker and Liv Lindeland. The film was directed by John G. Avildsen. The screenplay was adapted by Steve Shagan from his novel of the same title the first book by the author of The Formula and other thrillers, and generally regarded to be his most successful novel by literary standards.

The films main character is Harry Stoner Jack Lemmon, an executive at an apparel company close to ruin. With no legal way to keep the company from going under, Stoner considers torching his warehouse for the insurance settlement. The arson is agreed to very reluctantly by his partner Jack Gilford, a stable family man who watches Harrys decline with alarm. Through it all, Harry drinks, laments the state of the world, and tries his best to keep the business rolling as usual. This last task is complicated when a client has a heart attack in the arms of a prostitute provided by Stoner. With nerves still shaky, Stoner takes the stage at the premiere of his companys new line, only to be overcome by war memories. He ends the day spontaneously deciding to go home with a young, freespirited girl hitchhiker, whose ignorance of his generation underscores his isolation from the world around him.The movie was written by Steve Shagan and directed by John G. Avildsen. Lemmon was determined to make the movie, despite its limited commercial prospects, and so he waived his usual salary and worked for scale. The movie was filmed in sequence after three weeks of rehearsal in Los Angeles. There is also a novel version of Save the Tiger, by Shagan the title comes from a campaign to save tigers from extinction to which Stoner contributes. The movie failed financially at the box office, but critics and viewers who saw it liked the Oscarwinning performance of Jack Lemmon as Stoner. ........

Source: Wikipedia