A very good thriller in a very '70s style, with a languid style of storytelling punctuated by scintillating genre set pieces, a shambling, handsome-ugly hero, and lots of women without any clothes on.

Elliott Gould is a Toronto bank clerk, in love with co-worker Susannah York, who realises he's about to be stuck up by a department store Santa (Christopher Plummer) and decides to turn the situation to his advantage. Unfortunately his adversary turns out to be an absolute psychopath – shades of Charley Varrick – but Gould's dalliance with illegality seems to have woken him from his stupor, and sharpened his wits.

In plot terms it's reminiscent of Wait Until Dark and the later Hopscotch, it's thematically and stylistically…

The 1970s Crime Season!

At this rate I think there is a good chance that Elliott Gould could become one of my favourite actors of all time based on his 1970s output alone. This is the second crime film I've seen with him in from that decade in the last couple of months, after The Long Goodbye, that turned out to be nothing like I expected.

I only had vague notions what The Silent Partner might be about anyway before I watched it - all I knew about it was that it has received almost totally positive reviews from everyone that has watched it on my activity page since I joined Letterboxd last year. I certainly wasn't expecting a cat-and-mouse…

The Silent Partner is a surprisingly grim film, considering a good portion of it is Elliot Gould swanning about the late 1970s Canada like an absolute boss.

I had never seen The Silent Partner before so I did not really know what to expect; so when it opens with a faintly comic bank robbery sequence that lasts about 20 minutes, with Christopher Plummer dressed as Santa and Elliot Gould flirting with fellow bank employee Susannah York, I assumed that I was in for a lighter crime film from the 1970s, with some great character work from Gould. However, the film takes quite a turn, when Plummer's character is more unveiled, with one of the most disturbing, and arguably out of…

I don't have Netflix so I don't know if "tough 70s Hollywood thrillers" is a category, but if it is it would be my favorite one. This is a pretty exemplary piece in that category, with lots of suspense and two terrific actors (Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer) keeping things extra-flavorful.

No one's liable to confuse Daryl Duke with Hitchcock any time soon, but he does know when to steal from the Master when it counts - I will never look at a fish tank the same way again. Some scenes could probably use another going-over, like the "oh so you ARE putting your letters back into your safety deposit box," to make them a little more trusting of the…

I really like ‘The Silent Partner’ even though it takes place in the very 1970’s that ‘Anchorman’ is trying to parody.
 Elliot Gould plays Miles Cullen, a bank teller at a Toronto bank located in a mall. Miles is very DTF his co-worker Julie Carver-Susannah York, she likes him but his married boss, Micheal Kirby, lets Miles Know he is already fucking Julie and needs Miles to drive her around so his wife won’t suspect. How can Miles show Julie he is the more Sophisticated man? His tropical fish don’t seem to do the trick. Well, Miles discovers that Christopher Plummer disguised as a mall Santa has been casing the bank for a robbery. Miles prepares and allows Plummer to…