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Rating:  -
Elliot Gould as a mopey schmuck who gets in way over his head in a robbery scam. His life is turned upside down as he feuds with the robber he instead robs.Christopher Plummer has few lines as the sadistic criminal Gould crosses,and the viewer can only guess what kind of danger he is. Great and not overdone.
Rating:  -
I remember seeing this movie back in 1980 on HBO and was so surprised that I had not recalled seeing it on the theatre marquee, or in fact never even heard anything about it.
This movie is probably one of the most underrated, under publicized and best movies one could possibly stumble upon.
The Silent Partner has it all, suspense, intrigue and drama all wrapped up in a cast of well thought out players ranging from a sociopathic murderer, to a thoughtful opportunistic bank teller who turns the tables on his tormentor time after time.
Elliot Gould plays reserved bank teller Miles Cullen who turns the tables on would be bank robber Harry Reikle played by Christopher Plummer. The movie begins with Cullen finding a discarded deposit slip on which a hold-up note has been written but for some reason has not been given to the teller to complete the robbery. Cullen decides to keep the theft note for some reason and begins ponderring on it. One day at one of his breaks Cullen notices a mall Santa ringing his bell collecting donations for the poor. What grabs Cullens attention is the lettering on Santa's sign matches the stick-up note that he had previously found. Putting two and two together Cullen decides that this is the would be robber and that he is in fact casing the bank and will be back to finish the job. What follows then is a masterful job of timing on Cullens part whereby he figures out when the Santa-robber will attempt the robbery and takes a very large deposit and actually pockets it for himself. When the robbery happens Cullen gives the Santa clad Reikle only a fraction of the actual deposit and ends up blaming Reikle for boosting the entire deposit.
What then follows is a very serious cat and mouse game being played between Reikle and Cullen, with the cat and the mouse changing roles as the movie progresses. Reikle is a very dangerous man bent on revenge, but we also find out Cullen is nobody to play games with as well.
The story builds to a suspensful climax and an ending that I won't give away but will close the story with no doubts.
As much as I love this flick I cannot for the life of me wonder what in the world is going on with the cover art for the DVD. Apparently whoever did the cover artwork never saw this movie before and just slapped this together.
If you enjoy grown-up, suspensful movies that you will watch time and time again, by all means buy this cheap DVD. You won't be dissapointed.
Rating: -
I totally forgot about this thriller until a friend reminded me about it. I saw it back when it first came out and then again on tv. It kept me on the edge of my seat then and still does today. I just bought the DVD (nothing new was added). This is an excellent suspense thriller. Briefly, Plummer plays a bank robber that discovers more money was missing from the bank than he got. He knew right away that the bank teller (Elliot Gould) had something to do with the rest of the money and he tries immediately to get it. The plot is full of twists and turns and keeps you in suspense the whole length of the film. There was something for every movie lover---fright, suspense, romance and slight comedy. The comedy was courtesy of a character played by a young John Candy! When Plummer says, "One night when you come home you'll find me inside waiting and that will be the night you'll wish you'd never been born," scares the pants off of you. The "aquarium" scene was a bit too much for me to bear, as I am an animal lover (yeah, I felt worse for the fish), but very, very suspenseful!
Rating: -
Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould) is a somewhat meek, thoughtful bank clerk who turns out to have unsuspected depths of resourcefulness and questionable morality. Harry Reikle (Christopher Plummer), a bank robber, is definitely not meek. He's just as resourceful as Miles but also is a murderous psychopath with a taste for beating women. When Harry says to Miles, "One night when you come home you'll find me inside waiting and that will be the night you'll wish you'd never been born," we believe Harry means it. Miles believes it, too, and it's great, nasty fun to see how Miles deals with Harry.
It's Christmas time in Toronto and Miles is at work at his bank branch in a brand new shopping mall. Miles realizes that the jolly Santa outside may be planning to rob the bank. Miles thinks about this. When Santa finally acts a couple of days later, Miles is ready. But Miles is ready with his own plan. He cleverly palms the $50,000 in his bank tray, gives Harry chump change, and only then sets off the silent alarm. Harry barely escapes with little but the assumption from the police that he got away with $50,000. Miles places the money in one of his bank's safe deposit vaults, then plans to wait a while before quitting his job and starting over. In his own quiet way, he hopes that Julie Carver (Susannah York), who also works at the bank and is his bosses mistress, will join him. Harry, however, is smart as well as violent. He realizes what Miles did and finds out where Miles lives. And then Miles gets that phone call one night. All Harry wants is "his" money from Miles, whom he even sees as sort of a partner.
For the next hour or so we are up to our necks in a genuinely creepy and clever heist film. Miles may have been a meek kind of guy, but he's not about to give up that money. He manages to track Harry down, turn the tables on Harry, use a beautiful young woman who is trying to use him, still wants Julie but is not above using her as well, and is forced to deal with a grotesque murder Harry leaves in his room. Elliott Gould does a great job as Miles. This isn't the flip, smart-alecky Gould who wore out his welcome after his great success in MASH. Here, Miles is thoughtful. He collects tropical fish. He's underestimated. Our pleasure in part is trying to think ourselves of what Miles can possibly come up with against a killer like Harry Reikle. Christopher Plummer does not have all the screen time that Gould gets, but he is a powerful, compelling presence. Reikle is not just unpleasant, he really is a controlling psycho. Miles has become his "partner," and he is determined to get the money from Miles and, we are almost sure, will kill Miles. Harry doesn't like being taken advantage of. Plummer has given many excellent performances over the years. Harry Reikle is one of his best.
Curtis Hanson, who wrote (and directed) L. A. Confidential, has given us a screenplay that is almost funny at times, certainly clever with unexpected twists, logical enough to work and just unpleasant enough to be satisfying. There is really only one scene of startling violence, but the jolt comes as much from what we realize has just happened than from what we actually see.
The Silent Partner is a sly, clever and queasy cat-and-mouse game, where at least some aspects of Miles' morals may not be much better than Harry's. I liked the movie a lot. The DVD transfer is okay but nothing special. There are no extras.
Rating: -
When this movie came out, I'd seen Siskel and Ebert's "At The Movies" review (the first show of its kind) and both enthusiastically endorsed it. I had a limited, but definite appreciation for Elliott Gould. So I took it in. Suspenseful, clever, and well conceived plot and script with enough mental and physical terror to keep you on your toes is performed by a very capable cast. I loved it. It made me even more a Gould fan, and Christopher Plummer is perfect as the angried, sadistic bank robber. Some of the content is very dated. The mall design reminded me of the passe architecual designs of the 70s. And the constant bubbling between bankers after the robbery about how they'd fullfill their many fantasies if they had $50 thousand like the bank robber made away with. Kind of equal to "Austin Powers'" Dr. Evil threatening to destroy the world unless he receives $1 million! Those minor points aside, this is a legitimate thriller that actually won Canada's best picture award that year. A great cat and mouse game of wits that is pleasing to your brain as it keeps you intrigued from start to finish. Watch for a very young Canadian actor named John Candy, right about the period of his hugely successful "SCTV" late night comedy series. Also, the DVD reproduction is excellent in it's remastering. Much crisper and richer look than my mega-rewound VHS version of many years, which begs the questions- what took them so long to get this movie on DVD?
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