The Silent Partner

Shadow Watcher
Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake

Written by Curtis Hanson and directed by Daryl Duke, this 1978 Canadian-made film remains a first-rate thriller after thirty years.

Elliott Gould stars as a laid-back bank teller who correctly suspects that the guy dressed up as Santa Claus (Christopher Plummer) is planning to hold up the bank within the next day or two. Planning to take advantage of this knowledge, he short-changes the thief during the robbery, then hides the bulk of the money in his own safety deposit box.

Plummer is a violent criminal; not to be cheated. He begins to stalk Gould, setting in motion a tense cat-and-mouse game in which Elliott's life is at stake.

Susannah York and John Candy co-star in this suspenser that is filled with clever plot twists.

Plummer makes a marvelous villain.

© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (available December 2008)

Excellent. Five stars! One of the best thrillers I've seen in the last 30 years. It's difficult to find such a perfect cast like Elliot Gould, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York and Celeine Lomez, together. Impeccable direction by Daryl Duke, who paid attention to every details with a quick mind. The film has one or two terrifying scenes and one hour and 40 minutes of real thrilling, from the first appearance of Plummer in the bank in front of a surprised clerk (Gould). The intelligent bank clerk plays a cat and mouse game with a psychoytic Plummer.
Gould also plays erotic scenes with Lomez and romantic moments with York.

An entertaining movie that I would have been happier having seen renting it. Buying it? I'm not so sure. But judging by the reviews it looks like a movie many people feel should be definitely on your shelf.

A lot of twists and turns in this highly unbeleivable but still entertaining suspense movie make it worth watching, but renting it should be enough for most. No problem. If you want to buy it I'll be selling mine soon!

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.

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.