The Silent Partner | |
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Movie cover for The Silent Partner
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Directed by | Daryl Duke |
Produced by |
Joel B. Michaels Stephen Young |
Written by |
Anders Bodelsen Curtis Hanson |
Starring |
Elliott Gould Christopher Plummer Susannah York |
Music by | Oscar Peterson |
Cinematography | Billy Williams |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | EMC Film Corporation |
Release date
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Running time
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106 min. |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Budget | C$2,500,000 (estimated) |
The Silent Partner (French title: L'argent de la banque) is a 1978 Canadian heist film directed by Daryl Duke. It stars Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer and Susannah York.
The film was the first to be produced by Carolco Pictures and one of the earliest films from Canada to take advantage of the Canadian government's "Capital Cost Allowance" plans. The Silent Partner is also notable for being one of the very few films to have a score composed by Oscar Peterson, and for featuring an early big-screen appearance by John Candy.
The Silent Partner is a remake of the Danish film Think of a Number (Tænk på et tal) from 1969 written and directed by Palle Kjærulff-Schmidt. Both are based on the novel Tænk på et tal by Danish writer Anders Bodelsen.
Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould), a bored teller at a small bank in a large Toronto shopping mall (the Eaton Centre), accidentally learns that his place of business is about to be robbed when he finds a discarded note on one of the bank's counters. He also figures out who the would-be robber will be when he sees a mall Santa Claus hanging around outside the bank whose "give to charity" sign is in handwriting similar to that on the discarded stick-up note.
Instead of informing his bosses or contacting the police, Miles devises a way of keeping the cash from most of his window's transactions in an old lunch box rather than in the bank's till. As a result, when the Santa Claus robber holds up Miles at the teller's desk, he nets far less than the police and the bank think he has.
The thief, a psychopath named Harry Reikle (Christopher Plummer), figures out what happened, then makes a series of desperate and violent attempts to get the money (totaling CA$48,300) that Miles has kept for himself. Reikle starts following Miles to and from his home, making harassing phone calls.