This Canadian remake of a Danish film called Think of a Number (Tænk på et tal) has timid bachelor bank teller Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould) held up at gunpoint – but he has anticipated the robbery and stolen $50,000 of the money himself before the crook, Harry Reikle (Christopher Plummer), arrives.
When the sadistic crook realises he’s been fooled, he tracks Miles down and engages him in a cat-and-mouse battle of wits for the cash.
Miles goes through a Walter Mitty-like transformation. One moment he’s a bumbling loser trapped in a meaningless, humdrum existence, then – poof – he suddenly emerges as a man not only capable of outwitting the psychopathic bank robber but a superstud who not only seduces Reikle’s girlfriend, Elaine (young Quebec actress Céline Lomez, who walks through the movie with very few clothes on) but his boss’s mistress (Susannah York) as well.
The former falls so hard for Miles that she’d rather have her head sawed off and dumped in his fish tank than turn over the keys to the vault where the money is hidden.
Susannah York is like an orchid blooming among all the dandelions. She inexplicably falls for the bank manager, sharing him with his equally dull suburban wife. The manager callously hands her over to Miles as the official escort for office do’s to circumvent his suspicious wife. “She won’t mind,” he smugly assures Miles as he presses him into service for the office Christmas party.
Filmed entirely on location in Toronto, the main location is the Eaton Centre – a mall and office tower complex which opened a few months before the movie was shot.
Silent Partners was the unlikely winner of the best Candian film award.
Miles Cullen
Elliott Gould Harry Reikle
Christopher Plummer Julie
Susannah York Elaine
Céline Lomez Charles Packard
Michael Kirby Bank Guard
Sean Sullivan Detective Willard
Ken Pogue Simonsen
John Candy Louise
Gail Dahms Berg
Michael Donaghue Fogelman
Jack Duffy Mrs Packard
Charlotte Blunt Mrs Evanchuk
Aino Pirskanen Bank Assistant
Candace O’Connor Freddie
Stephen Levy
Director
Daryl Duke
Related Posts
Adventures of a Plumber's Mate (1978) Plumbing seems an agreeable enough occupation for Sid South (Christopher Neil) whose job offers him ample opportunity to bed a…
Stagecoach (1966) In 1939, director John Ford took a story by Ernest Haycox and turned it into one of the great Westerns…
Split, The (1968) Director Gordon Flemyng rounded up a fine cast to pull a daring daylight heist of gate receipts totalling half a…
Silent Movie (1976) In a (virtually) dialogue-free movie, Mel Brooks plays film director Mel Funn, who plans to make a modern-day silent movie…
Stone Killer, The (1973) A rather violent crime film based on John Gardner's book, A Complete State of Death. Detective Lou Torrey (Charles Bronson)…
Money Movers (1978) Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Bruce Beresford and starring a cast of fine Australian actors, Money Movers is a fast-moving, ultra-violent tale…
Boys From Brazil, The (1978) The film begins in Paraguay, where a resourceful young American Jew, Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg), tracks down several Nazi war…
Sleeper (1973) In this delightfully sparse but fanciful futuristic comedy, Woody Allen plays Miles Monroe, a 35-year-old clarinettist and owner of the…
