British Radio Advert Not on the DVD: The Silent Partner (1978, Daryl Duke)

The late Daryl Duke mostly directed for television in his native Canada, but there were a handful of feature credits as well, which include two superior films: Payday and The Silent Partner.  The former, from 1973, is a particularly dark and uncompromising character piece starring Rip Torn as an out-of-control, ego-maniacal country singer.  Made at a time when there was no shortage of provocative, challenging character studies, often of deeply flawed people, Payday stands out for its unvarnished view of its rather unappetizing main player and his world.  It's highly recommended, as is The Silent Partner, made five years later.

Just past his peak years of stardom, Elliott Gould headlines this Canadian tax-shelter jewel, as a mild-mannered bank clerk who tangles with a vicious thief played by recent Oscar winner Christopher Plummer.  Canadian Plummer looks to be returning home and getting as far away from the Sound of Music and Broadway as possible, relishing the brutality of his character here.  The always interesting Susannah York co-stars as one of two women in Gould's life.  French-Canadian singer and sex symbol Celine Lomez is the aforementioned "other woman" and a very young John Candy appears, in a fairly straight role, as a fellow bank employee.

The Silent Partner was based on Anders Bodelsen's novel Think of a Number, which was adapted by Palle Kjærulff-Schmidt for a 1969 film of the same title.  Both, alas, are unavailable in English translations, as far as I can tell.  For The Silent Partner screenplay, future White Dog scribe and L.A. Confidential helmer Curtis Hanson very adroitly moves the narrative from its native Denmark to North America.

EDIT: I was a bit hasty in writing that Bodelsen's novel wasn't available in English, as one commentor helpfully pointed out to me.  It's the original Danish film adaptation that appears to remain un-translated into English.  It appears the book was first available to English speakers in the late '60s, making it a little easier for screenwriter Curtis Hanson to adapt the novel than I had previously imagined.

The Silent Partner DVD from Lionsgate is barebones, but, most importantly, is 16x9.  I haven't located a trailer yet, but this radio advert from England (featuring a North American-accented English v.o.) is an entertaining diversion for fans of the film.