The Silent Partner (1978)

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Directed by Daryl Duke.

Starring Elliott Gould, Celine Lomez, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York.

The Canadian "sleeper" The Silent Partner stars Elliott Gould as a teller, Miles Cullen, who figures out psycho Harry Reikle's (Christopher Plummer) scheme to rob his bank, several days ahead of time. Cullen providently squirrels away 50,000 dollars in a safety-deposit box before Reikle strikes. After the robbery, the papers report the amount of the bank's loss. Reikle realizes that there's 50,000 extra bucks floating around that he hasn't gotten his hands on. The soft-spoken but sadistic Reikle puts the screws on Cullen to fork over the dough -- but Cullen has lost the deposit-box key. Be forewarned: this one gets extremely brutal and bloody at times, with sudden bursts of graphic violence. Also featured is Susannah York as the fluctuating-loyalty heroine, and a very young and hairy John Candy. Future L.A. Confidential scribe Curtis Hanson loosely adapted the Danish novel Think of a Number, by Anders Bodelsen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Before Curtis Hanson's success as a director in the 1990s, he was known mostly for a handful of well-respected, edgy screenplays. Adapted from a novel by Anders Bodelsen, the cerebral thriller The Silent Partner was little-seen upon release, but in hindsight, it stands out as one of the best sleepers of the late '70s. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Daryl Duke, Partner gets a lot of mileage from its star, Elliott Gould, who is at his laconic best as the surprisingly smooth bank teller. Similar to his distanced performance in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, Gould subtly plays an everyman struggling to regain control of his life, on his own terms. In his role as an enraged bank robber, Christopher Plummer brings an unexpected menace to the film. Hanson would go on to write 1982's highly controversial Sam Fuller film White Dog and 1983's Never Cry Wolf before hitting box-office gold with The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992). ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide

Tags: noir , underrated , clerk , criminal , deception
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