The Silent Partner (1979)

The Silent Partner stars Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould) as a teller who gets wind of master criminal Harry Reikle's (Christopher Plummer) scheme to rob his bank. Cullen providently squirrels away $50000 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 fifty thousand 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.System Requirements:Runtime: 103 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: R UPC: 012236211716 Manufacturer No: 21171 Product Description

One of the best thrillers done in the last 30 years

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.
March 30, 2008

Good, But Worth Buying?

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! February 20, 2008

Unassuming Thriller

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. August 31, 2007

One of the best movies you've never heard of.

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. August 9, 2007

Christopher Plummer at his best...

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! July 10, 2007

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