Jack Lemmon - Save the Tiger

The latest in my series of Best Actor Winners

Year: 1973
Actor: Jack Lemmon
Film: Save the Tiger
Director: John Avildsen
Role: Harry Stoner

Other Nominees:

Marlon Brando - Last Tango in Paris
Jack Nicholson - The Last Detail
Al Pacino - Serpico
Robert Redford - The Sting


A few days ago I wrote about Al Pacino's drunken night at the Oscars in 1974, which he lost in the Best Actor category to Jack Lemmon.  Most familiar with his work in Billy Wilder movies, with Walter Matthau and Glengarry Glen Ross, I wasn't sure what to expect with his performance here.  Given the competition that Lemmon beat I was expecting a disappointing performance.  As talented as Lemmon was as an actor I didn't imagine Oscar honoring him twice.  The win seemed to be more of the result of a vote split than anything, from what I understand his win was a bit of surprise (Lemmon's only other notable nomination came from the Golden Globes).  Despite this I approached the film with an open mind and Lemmon's performance proved award worthy.

Lemmon made a great career of imbuing in his characters an awkward sense of likability.  Many of his characters seemed unsure of their place in the world, but none quite take the existential bent Save the Tiger does.  Playing well with Jack Gilford, Lemmon's businessman Harry Stoner is a middle aged man around the age of 50 that is at lost in the modern world of the early 1970's.  Harry is a veteran of War World II who keeps nostalgic about the music and entertainment of his younger days, as demonstrated when he hook sup with a young hitchhiker and they both rattle off names of famous people.  Stone is also a man that looks back at all that he accomplished and wonders if any of it was worth it, he thinks of friends that died in Normandy and throughout Europe and wonders if he's no more alive than they are (a terrific scene occurs when Harry is presenter his business's new clothing line to an audience and all he sees are fallen soldiers.)  Lemmon plays this role so sincerely, without resorting to the sentimental traps that many actors fall into.  It's not much of a stretch to see some of Stoner in Lemmon's later role in Glengarry Glen Ross and for that matter even Grumpy Old Men.  Harry Stoner is a deeply conflicted character and Lemmon never fails to sell that.

Any one of the five nominees could have easily won this Oscar, however Brando had just won and Redford's role didn't carry the necessary dramatic weight that Oscar generally prefers.  That left Pacino and Nicholson fighting it out for the top prize in the opinions of most people, so Lemmon's win came as a surprise.  Nicholson's performance in The Last Detail is regarded as one of his finest and typfied his image at the time as a young outlandish character.  Pacino was also popular at the time for his role in the first Godfather and in his role here as Serpico as a whistle blower cop.  Given the popularity of those two actors in the early 70's, it's easy to see why they were considered the frontrunners.  Given the popularity of Pacino and Nicholson their roles in 1973 have been more highly regarded over the time, that doesn't make Lemmon's superb performance any less worthy.

Other Wins/Nominations:

Best Actor Drama Nomination: Golden Globes