The Silent Partner

The Silent Partner (1978) is a Canadian thriller you can watch online on iFILM if you love a clever criminal puzzle. Directed by Daryl Duke, it runs on a tense cat-and-mouse game between a mild bank teller and the robber who comes after him.

A few days before Christmas, bored teller Miles Cullen, played by Elliott Gould, realizes his mall branch is about to be held up. Rather than sound the alarm, he works an angle of his own — he pockets a large sum and lets the thief take the blame for the missing cash. The plan works beautifully. The catch: robber Harry Reikle, played by Christopher Plummer, figures out where the money went and shows up to collect. And Reikle is a psychopath who stops at nothing.

What follows is a duel of two schemers where any move can be fatal. The screenplay came from Curtis Hanson, who would later write L.A. Confidential, and his taste for slippery morality is already on display. Plummer, slipping into a Santa suit and then a dress to do his worst, is a grim highlight all his own. A lean, badly underrated thriller with ice in its veins. Stream The Silent Partner (1978) online on iFILM.