Best Supporting Actor 1973: Jack Gilford in Save the Tiger

Jack Gilford received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Phil Greene in Save the Tiger.

The simple fact about Save the Tiger is that it is an acting showcase for Jack Lemmon as the lead of Harry Stoner no one else. Lemmon's performance is the entire film, and because of that I am a little surprised that Gilford managed to get noticed by the academy as well. Gilford plays Phil Greene who is Harry Stoner's business partner who although is facing the same sort of a financial problems as Harry he is not facing as severe of psychological problems.

Gilford there acts as basically the sidekick to Harry extreme measures he takes to deal with their problems. Gilford is just fine in showing how they both have been partners for a longtime, and been in the same business for too long. He has the same sort of exhaustion as well as frustration as harry, although Gilford always shows that Phil is able to deal with it with far more easily than Harry.

Phil mostly just follows along Harry with every one of his plans the only thing he does is offer a less pessimistic view as well as act as the more conscience of the two. Gilford is good in realistically showing Phil's disbelief in the lengths Harry goes, but only showing enough disbelief to voice slight objections but never completely object to the idea either. After this though Gilford is not really given much to do, he is consistently fine but every scene he is in always belongs to Jack Lemmon not to him.