[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_silent_partner.jpg]]

''The Silent Partner'' is a 1978 Canadian {{thriller}} film directed by Daryl Duke, written by Creator/CurtisHanson, and starring Creator/ElliottGould, Creator/ChristopherPlummer, and Creator/SusannahYork.

Miles Cullen (Gould) is a bank teller realizes the bank is about to be robbed after noticing a MallSanta casing the joint. Cullen secretly steals money from the bank before the robbery, and fakes giving it over to the robber when he finally makes his move. However, the robber, psychopathic career criminal [[BigBad Harry Reikle]] (Plummer), realizes this and starts trying to intimidate Cullen into giving him the money. This leads to a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between the two thieves.

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!!Provides examples of:
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Downplayed with Elaine, who winds up ditching the psychotic thief Reikle for the affable GentlemanThief Cullen at the first opportunity.
* AxCrazy: Reikle is an unhinged psychopath with a propensity for violence.
* BadSanta: Before his initial bank robbery, Reikle dresses as a mall Santa to disguise himself.
* BigBad: Harry Reikle schemes to rob the bank that Miles Cullen works at, and when Cullen steals the money for himself, Reikle spends the movie trying to intimidate him into giving it back.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Cullen manages to escape with the money, gets Reikle killed, and finally gets together with Julie, but Elaine is still dead.]]
* ChekhovsGun: The silent alarm that goes off when $100 bills are removed, which [[spoiler:Cullen uses to get Reikle killed.]]
* TheChessmaster: Cullen, who quickly proves to be a master of XanatosSpeedChess.
* DeadpanSnarker: Cullen.
* DepravedBisexual: Reikle's implied to be one. He wears eyeliner, sports long fingernails, dreams of Cullen, and dresses in drag in the finale.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Reikle is polite, but it's paper-thin and barely masks the monster he really is.
* TheFilmOfTheBook: Adapted by screenwriter Creator/CurtisHanson from Danish author Anders Bodelsen's 1969 novel ''Think of a Number''.
* GentlemanThief: Cullen is polite and affable, and always dresses in a suit (albeit because that's the wardrobe required of a bank teller).
* OutGambitted: Cullen consistently manages to outwit Elaine and Reikle, and even gets Elaine to turn against Reikle when he points out that she has no real reason to stay with him if he'll kill them both ForTheEvulz.
* PopStarComposer: The film's score was composed by Canadian jazz legend Music/OscarPeterson.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Downplayed, since Cullen is also a thief, but [[spoiler:Reikle murders Elaine after she turns against him and decides to help Cullen.]]
* SmugSnake: Reikle, who's nowhere near as clever as he thinks.
* StrawMisogynist: Reikle, who often shows a derogatory attitude towards women and on some occasions reveals an outright hatred of them that results in him doing some pretty horrific things to several women he encounters; he rapes and nearly kills a teenage girl at the start of the film and is wanted by the police for that, and it's heavily implied Reikle's done things like this before

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