On Criterion, I watched the 1978 Canadian thriller The Silent Partner, directed by Daryl Duke and written by Curtis Hanson, and starring Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, and Susannah York. I had heard of this film from the podcast Critically Acclaimed Network, where the hosts did an episode each counting down their top 10 favorites of "The Best Non-Traditional Christmas Movies Ever!", and discussed this as a thriller set at Christmas time that felt unsettling and tense to watch.
Miles (Gould) is a teller at a bank in the mall in Toronto, and finds a note threatening to rob the bank, and figures out that it's the mall Santa (Plummer), Arthur Reikle, who is planning to do it, based on matching the note's handwriting to his handwriting on a sign encouraging donations to the needy for Christmas. Anticipating the robbery, he skims some money for himself, and gives the rest to Reikle when he commits the robbery. The robbery makes TV news, and Reikle realizes he's been shorted on the money, goes into his psychotic mode, and proceeds to threaten and terrorize Miles throughout the film, like calling him from a pay phone outside his apartment building, ransacking his home searching for the money, and even pops open the mail slot on his door to reveal his icy eyes as he makes more threats.
Even though Miles seems more like a mild-mannered dork, he's smart enough to anticipate what Reikle is going to do, and makes sure he's a step ahead of him as he's being stalked. Like he doesn't identify him in a police lineup because he knows Reikle will out him for stealing from the bank, but he was smart enough to store the money somewhere where he can't be accused of being a thief. It is interesting to watch as Miles is a little messy, and knows that Reikle could easily kill him, but has the sense to think ahead of him, especially in the finale. Gould has had this interesting 70s appeal of looking like a hairy Jewish stud who talked in a Brooklyn accent and combined this dorky neuroticism with a wiseass attitude.
Reikle is ruthless, and a violent misogynist, as this movie does have some graphic violence against women that does get grisly and disturbing to watch. Duke refused to film a scene in post-production where a woman is brutalized, so he was replaced by Curtis Hanson to film that part, and even over 45 years later, it's still uncomfortable and awful to watch. Plummer is excellent in this role, having this classic handsomeness that still can make him look chilling and intimidating to watch.
The film isn't great for female characters, as they are largely cast to be romantic interests for Miles, with brief nudity, and having one-dimensional depictions that aren't as interesting. Susannah York and Celine Lomez are both good to watch, but the film doesn't offer them much depth besides seeming just to serve Gould's character in different ways. There is also another bank employee, a cute young blonde, who often wears shirts with cheeky slogans on them, like "Penalty or Early Withdrawal."
The film is notable for being an early film appearance of John Candy, who has a small part as one of the bank employees, and though he doesn't really do much in the film, it's still nice to see him anyway.
I really liked this film a lot, and liked how it was a 70s thriller that felt very Canadian, being a cat and mouse caper set around Christmastime, and it felt unique and interesting to watch.
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