Written by Jennifer
March 02, 2009
It's the image of Captain Von Trapp in full drag that makes this movie a must see.
I watched The Silent Partner at the end of a day spent convalescing with a horrible headache and listening to Christopher Plummer read The Nutcracker on tape. By evening I was feeling much recovered, and had comforting visions of Candy Town dancing in my head. I was pleased to finish the day with one of Christopher's movies, and it never occurred to me that he would freak me out. But he did. He's just that good.
When bank teller Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould) finds a note threatening a robbery, the wheels in his head start turning. He realizes that with careful planning, he could steal a portion of the loot and blame it on the thief. He spots a bell-ringing mall Santa (Christopher Plummer) across the way, and matches the distinctive handwriting on his placard to the writing on the note. He puts the pieces together, fills a lunchbox with money, and waits for Santa to hold him up.
When the big moment arrives, Santa snarls "Give me all the money f---er." Ha ha! Santa just used the F word, and I bet he doesn't give one cent of the bell-ringing money to charity. But then Santa gets into his car, pulls off his disguise, and things get weird.
At this point, it becomes clear that Santa (a.k.a. Harry Reikle) is wearing eyeliner, and the removal of his red coat reveals a mesh top and pimp necklace. Oh dear. He looks like a long lost member of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, only not as much fun. When he realizes that he's been duped, he heads to some sort of kinky spa to take out his frustration. He meets up with a girl, then suddenly starts beating her up. He finishes by sort of stepping on her face with his bare foot. Oh my. Ew. That was really strange and upsetting.
It is soon abundantly clear that Miles has chosen the wrong robber to mess with, and it really cramps his style. Elliott Gould's not exactly hot, but it's the 70's, and apparently everybody's swinging. He's forever picking up girls, but the next thing he knows, Harry is breathing down his neck, threatening him with things that will make him wish he'd never been born. An elaborate battle of wits ensues, and it doesn't even let up when Harry goes to jail. He just sends in his girlfriend to do the dirty work, and when she crosses him, he slits her throat on a fish tank. Holy crap! That's weird even in the realm of killing people.
It is to Christopher Plummer's credit as an actor that he could give me a bad case of the creeps as a psycho bank robber on the same day he lulled me to sleep with his lovely reading of a cherished holiday story. Usually when someone I like plays a bad guy, I realize it's not real, and just enjoy them enjoying themselves. For the first part of the movie, I actually had knots in my stomach, but by the end, I had a big, dumb grin on my face.
After much ado, Christopher's character shows up to finish the robbery DRESSED AS A WOMAN. Ah yes, the eyeliner comes full circle! And I must admit, he looks kind of pretty. As he stands in line, patting his hair and looking ladylike, I started to smile. I recognized the usual mischievous twinkle in his eye, and I could finally see that he was just having fun. I continued to smile as he attempted to run the wrong way up the escalator in his little wool skirt, and didn't stop smiling, even when the cops shot him and he fell backward down the stairs. I have always had a fear of being ground up at the bottom of an escalator where teeth meet and the stairs disappear into the floor, but I remained unfazed, even as this came perilously close to happening to Harry Reikle. It was simply too much fun to resist.
Despite the fact that The Silent Partner is rather dated and sometimes disturbing, the storyline is clever and quite riveting. I think it's the first actual Canadian movie I've ever seen, complete with Canadian money. An adorably young John Candy even works at the bank with Elliott Gould! You just want to pinch his cheeks he's so cute. Even so, it's the image of Captain Von Trapp in full drag that makes this movie a must see.
