Miles Cullen (Eliott Gould) is a mild mannered bank clerk in Toronto. His only hobby is collecting tropical fishes for his aquarium in his apartment. Even though oozes his musky charm around female co-workers, he doesn't seem all that interested in opposite sexes. It's Christmas time. Cullen notices that someone scribbled a robbery attempt in those triplicate carbon bank deposit slip but didn't go through with it and becomes suspicious of mall Santa Clause who frequents the bank which is located in the mall. Santa (Christopher Plummer) turns out to be a sadistic career criminal. Cullen devises a plan to swindle money from the bank for himself while waiting for the impending robbery. So he might be able to escape from the rat race of a life he leads, perhaps with Julie (Susanna York), one of his co-workers. After tripping the alarm and securing everyone's safety during the robbery and gets interviewed on a local TV, he becomes a hero.
So the criminal, Reikle, gets incensed that it was Cullen who made out with most of the money from the robbery. Now Reikle is out to settle the score. It is funny to see Gould as a sort of hang dog sex symbol with his trademark nonchalance. He is a natural ladies' man without trying to hard. It is also cool to see Plummer as a slick, menacing criminal with eyeliners and in a chain neckless. We even get to see him in drag! Since it's a Canadian production, we also get the appearance of young John Candy. Silent Partner is an odd movie following the Hitchcockian cat and mouse thriller tradition. It has tons of that 70s weird charm all over it.
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