Awakening in a scream for the second time that week, and acting out pre-war Brooklyn Dodgers baseball games in the bedroom − including a wild pitching windup he nostalgically recalls − he is urged by his wife, Janet, to call a Dr. Frankfurter for a hypnosis session.

− and that they have to somehow finance a new line of female fashion at work, after doing "ballet with the books" the previous year to stay afloat (triggering a possible audit).

Dismissing all legal ways to come up with the money, while asking Greene if he really wants to be out on the street looking for a job at his age, Stoner poses the possibility of torching their Long Beach factory for the insurance payout.

Still shaky from dealing with his client's medical emergency, Stoner takes the stage at the premiere of his company's new line, only to be overcome by war memories as he imagines seeing injured soldiers in the audience.

Explaining that the Capri in his company name is the island in Italy where he was treated for his war injuries in a barely coherent ramble, he's saved by the event's emcee.

Stoner and Greene furtively meet the arsonist Charlie Robbins in the balcony of a blue movie theater, passing him an envelope containing a $2,500 cash retainer and keys and address for the factory he is to burn down.

The only way would be for him to start the fire in another business on the ground floor, owned by someone Stoner and Greene know, and funnel the flames into their second-floor space above.

[3] New York Times critic Vincent Canby called it "not a very good movie but it's a rather brave one, a serious-minded examination of some of the least interesting aspects of the failed American dream".

The consensus summarizes: "Jack Lemmon's outstanding performance helps Save the Tiger grab early '70s American anxiety firmly by the tail".