User reviews

I first saw this movie about 15 years ago and watched it again the other night. What I once considered a very good film I now consider a borderline great film due to how movies in general keep regressing. It was so nice to see a movie with adult protagonists and a well-written, clever script that doesn't resort to explosions and mindless action stunts to cater to the MTV crowd.

I won't give anything away at all -- if you like clever, twisty thrillers like The Usual Suspects, then check this one out. The acting is excellent and the script is too. Note that Curtis Hanson (Bedroom Window, LA Confidential) wrote this one 22 years ago!

Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, and Susannah York star in "The Silent Partner."

Gould plays Miles Cullen, a bank teller, who finds a discarded deposit slip with words on the back indicating someone has a gun and is going to rob the bank. When he sees a nearby Santa Claus collecting money, he notices the printing is similar to what was on the note.

Miles figures Santa will be back, so he steals the money himself and, when the bank is robbed, Santa (Christopher Plummer) is distressed to find that he didn't get anything. He zeroes in on Miles and starts threatening and harassing him. He doesn't realize that Miles is as smart - or smarter - than he is.

Really good film, with Susannah York on hand as a bank employee whom Miles falls for. Plummer is excellent, meaner than dirt, as a ruthless crook who will stop at nothing to get his money.

HIghly recommended. Very absorbing and clever.

Technically mediocre, but an adrenaline-fueled crime-thriller adapted from Anders Bodelsen's book "Think of a Number". Bank employee Elliott Gould dupes bank robber Christopher Plummer out of a small fortune, leading to a head-spinning game of cat-and-mouse. Gould and Plummer both do career-peak work, with Plummer never more riveting (violence turns him on, making him a dangerous, bloodthirsty cat). The film's R-rated mayhem may be over-the-top, but the movie is never off-putting and director Daryl Duke, working from Curtis Hanson's screenplay, nearly keeps it on track the entire way. Duke mounts the proceedings with flair, accentuating the coal-black humor inherent in the tension for a terrifically lively effect. Engrossing picture was unjustly swept under the carpet in 1978, but has more excitement than most big-budget films in this genre. Watch out! ***1/2 from ****

In Toronto, the methodical and lonely bank teller Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould) works in a bank in a shopping mall. He feels unrequited love for his coworker Julie Carver (Susannah York) but she is having a love affair with the married bank manager Charles Packard (Michael Kirby). One day, Cullen discovers a note on the counter indicating that the bank will be robbed and he soon identifies the handwriting of a Santa Claus in the mall as the author of the note. However he does not tell the police about of his findings and he hides a large amount of cash in his lunch box. When the thief heists the bank, he keeps the money for him. Soon the thief Harry Reikle (Christopher Plummer), who is a psychopath, tracks Cullen down, breaks in his apartment and threatens him to give the robbed money to him. However Cullen sets Reikle up and he is arrested for stealing a van. Meanwhile Cullen's father dies and he meets his nurse Elaine Muriel (Céline Lomez) at the funeral. They have a love affair and Cullen finds that she is working with Reikle that is in jail. But she is in love with Cullen and helps him to recover the key of the safety deposit box that he had lost. But soon Reikle is released from jail. What will happen to Cullen and Elaine?

"The Silent Partner" is one of the best thrillers from the 70's, with an intelligent story and top-notch performances. Christopher Plummer is scary in the role of psychopath. The gorgeous Susannah York and Céline Lomez have important participations. Elliott Could steals the show with another brilliant performance. The unforgettable John Candy has a minor role in the plot. The cat-and-mouse game between Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer is breathless and increases the intensity along the story. After almost forty years, this film has not lost the impact. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Parceiro do Silêncio" (VHS)("Silent Partner")

Anders Bodelson's Danish novel "Think of a Number" has been transplanted to Toronto, intelligently updated by screenwriter Curtis Hanson, and directed by Daryl Duke in brilliant fashion. What makes this film so special, I think, is that you wind up rooting for Elliot Gould, a bank teller turned thief, to best Christopher Plummer, a sadistic bank robbery, even though Gould's character is basically amoral. This is that rare thriller that works on every level. The plotting feels free of contrivance, Gould and Plummer have never been better, chilly Toronto looks spectacular, and there's a wonderfully evocative, jazzy soundtrack by pianist Oscar Peterson.

Coming as it did out of Canada in 1978, this film, despite its high quality, was almost immediately forgotten, but it is surely deserving of rediscovery. Check it out. It's one of the very best thrillers you'll ever see.

"The Silent Partner" is one of the best films you have probably never heard of. It had a very brief theatrical run in 1979 and I was lucky enough to see it during the one week it was in my town. I, along with the few brave others in attendance, were blown away. This is the only time I have ever seen just a handful of people in a movie and at the end we all applauded. It's that good.

Elliot Gould plays a bank teller in a mall during Christmas time. Christopher Plummer plays the mall Santa who is planning to rob the bank. Gould finds this out (How? I will leave you to discover that for yourself) and soon Plummer knows that Gould knows thus Gould becomes Plummer's silent partner and a game of cat and mouse ensues. But there is much, much more to this intense thriller and it is better for me to leave it unsaid.

Susannah York has a nice supporting role as Gould's would be girlfriend and she looks just great.

I only have one complaint and that is there are two scenes involving Plummer that are shockingly violent. We know Plummer is a bad guy after the first act of violence. Did we really need to see the second (which is far more graphic and brutal)? I found this film on video about 15 years ago and watched it again and loved it just as much. I haven't seen it since. If you are a fan of thrillers then this is one of the best and I urge you to search far and wide to find it. You won't be disappointed.

Recluse bank teller Gould spots a robbery in the making when he eyes a creepy mall Santa carefully planning his heist. Rather than alerting the authorities he decides to one-up the robber by stashing a hefty sum in his lunch box and only handing over a portion of it to the robber. Then begins a cat and mouse game between the teller and the psychotic robber.

Despite being a wonderful time capsule in showing the 70's decadent lifestyle, this little suspense film serves up the goods in many respects. The tight and incredibly inventive script, deliberate pacing and some show stopping moments (including one particularly nasty scene) ensure "The Silent Partner" is a real keeper.

Gould does well in the lead, delivering his usual relaxed performance but Plummer is the real winner here. Here he creates a truly disturbing sociopath who really gets under your skin.

As said, the script be Curtis Hanson is top notch. The Gould/Plummer duel is excellent and the fairly plot ridden story is tightly written, although some twists were fairly obvious.

I think one of the reasons that I enjoyed this film so much was that I got to watch them film all of the bank scenes over a one or two week shoot. The location was the Toronto Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto and I was working at my first full-time job. Next door to where I was working, a fake bank was set up and across the hall was where the actors and one of the producers used to sit during breaks. The producer, Stephen Young was the first person that I recognized because of his co-starring role in a Canadian TV series from the 60s (Seaway 1965). Elliot Gould was also there for most of the time, sitting on a couch at the front of an empty, former, furniture retailer. The escalator just outside the bank (lower level of the Toronto Eaton Centre in case anyone is interested in filming locations(was closed down to shoppers during the filming of a few key scenes and I remember that one customer of mine, who was standing at the front of the store ducked for cover when she heard a (prop)gunshot close by.

Obviously, my choice in seeing this movie at the theatre was influenced by my experience of the filming but I thought the movie was great. It is a highly entertaining crime film and the cast was very strong. I would have to say that Christopher Plummer's performance is my favourite of the film but all of the actors did a great job in bringing life to their characters.

If you have not seen this film yet, and enjoy a good crime story that is well scripted and has solid performances from the cast, I definitely recommend you give it a look.

Cheers!

Modest but enjoyable suspenser was directed on location in Toronto by Daryl Duke, from an early scripting effort by Curtis Hanson. Elliott Gould gives one of his least casual performances as a bank teller who's a lot smarter than he looks. Christopher Plummer is his nemesis; a cold-blooded thief with a plan to hold up a bank at Christmas time dressed as a sidewalk Santa. Gould manages to turn the tables on him but then has to spend the rest of the film trying to evade both the criminal and the cops.

In my book, Plummer has always been most effective as a villain, and he looks like he's really having fun in this playing a sadistic psychopath. Watch out for that aquarium scene!

Christopher Plummer robs a bank branch at the Eaton Center. He gets away with about a couple of thousand dollars. Chief Teller Elliott Gould pockets $50,000..... Canadian, but even so. When the bank reports the total loss, Plummer, who has been quickly shown to be a sadist and murderer, wants all the money. He and Gould begin a cat-and-mouse game. However, who's the cat, and who the mouse?

I have some issues with the way beautiful women keep falling for awkward, aloof, intellectual Gould, but in this struggle between two unlikable men, the tally against Plummer keeps rising throughout. The struggle is quite cleverly done in a script co-written by Curtis Hanson. With Susannah York and John Candy.

Riveting battle of wits. Clever bank teller Cullen (Gould) figures out way to filch cash from bank and get it blamed on a robber (Plummer) who gets away with only a minor amount. Trouble is robber Reikle figures out where the bulk went and decides to harass Cullen into sharing his amount. But Cullen cleverly leads cops to Reikle's flat where they arrest him. Now it looks like Cullen's home free, but is he.

Cullen's a fascinating character. Humorless and nerdy, he appears married to the bank and his big aquarium. But inside that deadpan appearance lurks a calculating brain that knows an opportunity when he sees one. Thus, as Cullen knows, strength can lie in being underestimated as he usually is.

This would seem one of actor Gould's easier assignments since Cullen rarely breaks an expressionless exterior. Nonetheless, the humorless part really requires a lot of self-control, which Gould manages in ace fashion. On the other hand, Plummer doesn't get much screen time, but Reikle's icy stare and mocking voice make an unsettling contrast to Cullen. Girl-wise, the blonde York has a rather thankless role as bank co-worker Julie who sort of likes the diffident teller, but can't figure him out. On the other hand, Cullen seems mildly interested one minute only to turn cold the next as he calculates what his various schemes require. It's really Lomez who gets the plum part as the steamy Elaine. Not bothered by his odd manner, she quickly attaches to the conflicted Cullen who has trouble resisting.

All in all, the plot threads are cleverly woven into a compelling whole, along with an apt ending . And I like the idea of the enclosed but breakable aquarium as a key metaphor. Anyway, the film's an outstanding 110-minutes, whether taken as a solid crime suspenser or as an imaginative character study. Either way, it's highly entertaining.

If you like your bad guys evil and believable, see Christopher Plummer do his thing in this entertaining film. The plot is very well conceived and the setting in Toronto is perfect. A word of warning to the sensitive -- watch out for a very attractive woman's encounter with a fish tank.

I saw this movie when it was in the theater originally. I remembered liking it a great deal and had looked for it for a long time. Although I remembered it as being excellent, I was 17 when I saw it originally, and probably drunk. I wasn't sure I would like it nearly as well when I was 47 and sober.

I was very pleasantly surprised. Eliot Gould doesn't work for me all that often. Seems like he is unbelievable/miscast in most roles. This role is perfect for him and he does a great job. The only thing wrong with Christopher Plumber (Plummer?? I can't spell) is that he hasn't really gotten that many good roles. He has a great role in "The Silent Partner" and he swings hard and connects fully. He is completely believable and his eerie character is highly memorable.

I can't think of many movies that I consider true "sleepers"-- movies that are vastly better than you would think given the lack of public attention or critical acclaim. "The Silent Partner" is on that short list. In a way it kind of reminds me of two other movies on my very short "sleeper" list-- "Blood Simple" and "Miller's Crossing." Tough to call any Coen Bros. movie a sleeper, but those got way, way less acclaim than they deserved. The Silent Partner has a similar kind of eerie intrigue to those movies. It is more similar to Blood Simple than Miller's Crossing. The plot and characters in Miller's Crossing were pushed to the point of hyperbole--and that line was kept the whole movie, but never crossed to the point of eroding the suspense. But, The Silent Partner displays many of the same virtues Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing have. It cracks into my top 50 movies. If you watch it on DVD, treat it like you are at the theater-- dark room, no interruptions, etc. It would be a waste not to.

The elderly Alfred Hitchcock apparently wished he directed the script for The Silent Partner. That was how impressed he was with this movie when he saw it.

Writer Curtis Hanson was certainly inspired by Hitchcock in movies like The Silent Partner and The Bedroom Window.

Introverted bank teller Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould) anticipates that his bank will be robbed by a man dressed in a santa costume. So Miles hides a large sum of money in his lunch box. When the thief arrives, the alarm is triggered, he leaves and is blamed for the loss of the money.

The thief Harry Reikle (Christopher Plummer) does not like being duped. He is a sadist and tracks down Miles and demands his money back. However Miles sets Harry up for a van theft to get him out of the way.

Miles also needs to retrieve the stolen money which he has placed in the bank's safety deposit vault. That is operated by Julie Carver (Susannah York) a co-worker that Miles has been casually seeing.

After the death of Miles father in a care home, he meets nurse Elaine Muriel (Céline Lomez) and also has a fling with her. Miles has a suspicion that she is in cahoots with Harry.

The Silent Partner went under the radar and is now considered to be a cult classic. It features an early performance from John Candy. Céline Lomez is deliciously sultry.

Plummer is very evil and the movie does have some sadistic violence. This very much increases the peril that Miles is in. He is amoral betraying the trust of his employers and you think he is far over his head by going toe to toe with Harry.

The film is set in Toronto and it is a strange hybrid of thriller, romance and even sleazy horror.

Director Daryl Duke makes a very taut thriller here about a figurative chess game between Elliot Gould, a bank teller who stole in excess of $48,000, and Christopher Plummer the real thief who gets outwitted. Gould and Plummer have some remarkable scenes between them - most of them on phones - one upstairs and the other in a phone booth. The tension created has roller-coaster effects through much of the film to see what the next move is for each character. I was riveted through much of it. Added in for some extra measure are various love liaisons for Gould and lots of depth given to the main characters. Gould does a very good job carrying off a very difficult role as a man who is quiet, overlooked, and introspective. Plummer is his equal as a maniacal killer/thief who knows how to play cat and mouse. The film has several memorable scenes: the ending in the mall was just fantastic as were all the scenes shot in Gould's apartment. Susannah York gives an integral performance as a co-worker at the bank. The director gives this rather pedestrian material lots of life, though the film obviously is a product of the 70s with way too much nudity for a film like this. Just about every woman in the movies goes bare-chested at some point(not that I am complaining mind you). If you are looking for a real edge of your seater then the Canadian production The Silent Partner might just be what you need to see.

Following the passing of the great Christopher Plummer, some of the performances that came to my mind, along with his timeless (and more sympathetic) performances in movies like The Sound of Music to his swan song Knives Out, were his villainous performances. He could play evil so well, as he did in sleepers such as 1984's Dreamscape and this little-known Canadian gem (which also happens to mark John Candy's film debut).

Elliot Gould plays a mild-mannered bank teller who discovers that one particular customer is planning to rob his bank. Without giving too much away of the intricate plot (written by future LA Confidential director Curtis Hanson), the would-be robber ends up in a game of cat and mouse with the teller, who has decided to keep some of the money robbed from the bank himself.

Plummer's character is not your typical bank robber. As one character comments, he's a "real weirdo," but really a misogynistic psychopath who commits several truly unsettling moments of violence in the film. Part of the reason the film may be so hard to find now is due to the fact that the main villain is a woman-hater who really wants to be a woman himself. LGBT groups will not be happy with this character. You may not remember much about the plot, but you will not soon forget Plummer's performance.

Gould's performance is quieter - reserved, even. But cunning in his own way. A far cry from his more showy roles in some of his Robert Altman films of the '70s.

A thriller well worth checking out, if you can find it.

A razor-sharp suspense drama with plenty of nifty, nasty surprises.

Gould gives one of his top performances, and Christopher Plummer is a revelation: you'll never look on him as the stalwart Herr Von Trapp again as he turns in one of the most cold-blooded sociopathic performances ever committed to celluloid. (Yeah - right up there with Robert Mitchum's Max Cady in Cape Fear.)

And yes – this does have some moments of honest-to-God, shockingly intense violence (it sure ain't no chick-flick ;-)

But for my money – IF SOME CHOWDERHEADS WOULD RELEASE IT ON DVD, ANYWAY – this is one of best suspense dramas in the past 30 years, much in the league of films like Point Blank and Charley Varrick.

Don't miss this one.

A pretty good flick overall. As I began watching it, I thought that the somewhat goofy-looking Elliot Gould was miscast. But later on, I realized that this was deliberate, as other characters kept on underestimating Gould's character. It was well-acted, well-directed, and well-photographed. Susannah York and Celine Lomez looked great, and hit all the right notes. Christopher Plummer was suitably menacing.

An interesting (Canadian) movie about a bank robbery and its aftermath. Elliott Gould stars (or that is, tries to star) in a weird comedy, that really isn't. Christopher Plummer is the real star of the film. Canadian, and far from his innocent roles from the Sound of Music, Plummer plays a convincing maniac who will stop at nothing for revenge. Gould on the other hand, is far from likable. His character, from the beginning of the film is not well defined. The audience is left far away in left field as his character plays further and further away from his true intentions. This is not a mystery or a thriller. The Silent Partner plays off as some kind of black comedy but remains a dark drama where nothing is learned by the end of the movie. Some interesting moments but far from anything really good. John Candy plays a small role but nothing worth mentioning.