Like Hammer Films' CASH ON DEMAND (1961) which I watched earlier the same day, this is a bank heist thriller set during Christmastime but with the location transposed to Canada instead of Britain; the stars are New Yorker Elliott Gould, native Canadian Christopher Plummer and British Susannah Yorkalthough, truth be told, their limelight is somewhat stolen from right under their noses by sexy Canadian starlet Celine Lomez who is given ample opportunity to show off what Mother Nature provided her with! She would eventually be up for the role of TV's CHARLIE'S ANGELS cult series but she was deemed too hot for the small screen!! Incidentally, THE SILENT PARTNER also provides an early role for future burly star comedian John Candy (as a philandering banker).
Despite the Yuletide festivities going on and the presence of Gould, the film is no light-hearted affair and, indeed, is a pretty unpleasant one at times: apart from the abject use of recreational drugs and illicit sexual encounters taking place during a supposedly wholesome Christmas party, Plummer is a psychotic robber who takes to dressing up as Santa Claus in the vicinity of a bank branch housed inside a shopping mall before he is nabbed by the police for rape, assault and battery charges (towards a singing waitress in an episode that occurs inside a gym's sauna). Alerted to his criminal intentions by a note handed to him during an aborted robbery attempt, bank teller Gould outsmarts Plummer by handing him only a fraction of the loot on a subsequent retry while he does away with the lion's share of the stolen money. This does not sit in well with the increasingly impatient and unhinged Plummer (especially after learning, through a TV interview that acquires Gould instant celebrity status among his clientele, that the missing cash holdings amounted to around $50,000) who starts to pursue Gould by contacting him from a phone booth underneath his apartment and even raiding his home in search of the hidden cash.
To complicate matters further, fellow worker York (who is their boss' mistress) also starts getting interested in Gould but she cannot understand the way he brusquely cuts off an amorous dalliance (upon receiving yet another phone call from Plummer) or when he fails to identify him during a routine suspect identification parade down police headquarters. But, as already intimated above, Gould has his own scheme to ensure Plummer's capture but the latter has another trick up his sleeve as he send another waitress/lover (Lomez) to seduce Gould into revealing the whereabouts of the money. What he had not counted on was that the two would eventually fall for each other (after laying all the cards on the table - she had posed as a carer for the senile father he had just buried and, eventually, dresses up as a luscious, curly-haired and bespectacled safety deposit locker owner!) but Plummer soon reveals his utter ruthlessness by beheading(!) Lomez on the broken glass of Gould's beloved aquarium (having previously pinned his prized fish to the wall!) and presenting himself once again at the latter's counter in drag! Actually, Plummer's characterization had been rather flamboyant throughout - with prominent use of the eyeliner - so watching him dressed in women's clothing is not that much of a stretch as it might initially appear)! By this time, Gould has had enough and he sets off the alarm system - an action that is repaid by a bullet wound from Plummer's gun and the latter is in turn shot repeatedly by the bank's security guard while making his escape in a crowded escalator. Written by future director Curtis Hanson (of 1997's L. A. CONFIDENTIAL fame) and directed by Daryl Duke, the movie (which contrives a happy ending with an ambulance reunion between Gould and York with the money safely in tow!) emerged triumphant at the Canadian Film Awardsdespite falling somewhat between the cracks in the interim until a barebones DVD release brought it back into public availability.
Despite the Yuletide festivities going on and the presence of Gould, the film is no light-hearted affair and, indeed, is a pretty unpleasant one at times: apart from the abject use of recreational drugs and illicit sexual encounters taking place during a supposedly wholesome Christmas party, Plummer is a psychotic robber who takes to dressing up as Santa Claus in the vicinity of a bank branch housed inside a shopping mall before he is nabbed by the police for rape, assault and battery charges (towards a singing waitress in an episode that occurs inside a gym's sauna). Alerted to his criminal intentions by a note handed to him during an aborted robbery attempt, bank teller Gould outsmarts Plummer by handing him only a fraction of the loot on a subsequent retry while he does away with the lion's share of the stolen money. This does not sit in well with the increasingly impatient and unhinged Plummer (especially after learning, through a TV interview that acquires Gould instant celebrity status among his clientele, that the missing cash holdings amounted to around $50,000) who starts to pursue Gould by contacting him from a phone booth underneath his apartment and even raiding his home in search of the hidden cash.
To complicate matters further, fellow worker York (who is their boss' mistress) also starts getting interested in Gould but she cannot understand the way he brusquely cuts off an amorous dalliance (upon receiving yet another phone call from Plummer) or when he fails to identify him during a routine suspect identification parade down police headquarters. But, as already intimated above, Gould has his own scheme to ensure Plummer's capture but the latter has another trick up his sleeve as he send another waitress/lover (Lomez) to seduce Gould into revealing the whereabouts of the money. What he had not counted on was that the two would eventually fall for each other (after laying all the cards on the table - she had posed as a carer for the senile father he had just buried and, eventually, dresses up as a luscious, curly-haired and bespectacled safety deposit locker owner!) but Plummer soon reveals his utter ruthlessness by beheading(!) Lomez on the broken glass of Gould's beloved aquarium (having previously pinned his prized fish to the wall!) and presenting himself once again at the latter's counter in drag! Actually, Plummer's characterization had been rather flamboyant throughout - with prominent use of the eyeliner - so watching him dressed in women's clothing is not that much of a stretch as it might initially appear)! By this time, Gould has had enough and he sets off the alarm system - an action that is repaid by a bullet wound from Plummer's gun and the latter is in turn shot repeatedly by the bank's security guard while making his escape in a crowded escalator. Written by future director Curtis Hanson (of 1997's L. A. CONFIDENTIAL fame) and directed by Daryl Duke, the movie (which contrives a happy ending with an ambulance reunion between Gould and York with the money safely in tow!) emerged triumphant at the Canadian Film Awardsdespite falling somewhat between the cracks in the interim until a barebones DVD release brought it back into public availability.