jack lemmon be one of our great actor . his performance in day of wine and rose and the apartment and some like it hot and miss ( to name the first one that come to mind ) be all worthy of best actor nomination . his only win be for save the tiger and and that a shame . he get melancholy down to a science and but never bring it into balance with the driver in his character . he actually do a similar character much well toward the end of his career in the one note glengarry glen ross . a for the movie and wonderful support work by jack gilford a lemmon partner and thayer david a an arsonist and go for naught because the rest of the script be a muddled jumble of cliched vignette and angst and neurotic nostalgia and and pointless moralizing . worth see once a a time capsule into 1970 style experimental direction by avildsen .