Partners is a 1982 American gay-themed buddy comedy film directed by James Burrows and starring Ryan O'Neal and John Hurt as a mismatched pair of cops.

Benson (Ryan O'Neal) is assigned to go undercover as half of a gay couple with Officer Kerwin (John Hurt), a Records Clerk.

Benson grows close to Jill (Robyn Douglass), the photographer of his shoot, and plans a weekend getaway with her.

[1] Burrows later wrote in his memoirs "We needed an overtle masculine character who felt out of place in the gay community.

[1] Burrows said they almost cast Sam Elliott and Peter Riegert but Barry Diller who ran Paramount "didn't think he could sell the movie with them attached.

[5] In the original script and cut of the film Hurt's character commits suicide "because his life was so sad," said Veber.

"[4] Rex Reed, writing for the New York Post, panned the film, saying, "Hollywood's latest crime against humanity in general and homosexuals in particular is a dumb creepshow called Partners – stupid, tasteless and homophobic, this sleazy, superficial film implies that gay cops can't be trusted to work with straight cops because they might fall in love with them.

[10] He criticized the stereotypes presented in the movie, stating that "John Hurt is a terrified closet case who can't even hold a gun without dropping it or raise his voice above a timid whisper," and he also questioned the casting choices, referring to Ryan O'Neil as a "world-class homophobe".

Head of Paramount Barry Diller later said "Partners was the essence of a badly made movie, partly because it was rushed against a date.

"[6] An article in the Vulture noted the film's comparison in story terms to Cruising, observing "Where Cruising has been rediscovered and embraced, Partners remains defiantly and appropriately unloved, a movie that was dismissed as a tacky and offensive exploitation of retrograde stereotypes at the time of its release and whose reputation hasn’t exactly improved in the ensuing decades.

"[12] Partners: Music from the Motion Picture Composed and Conducted by Georges Delerue is a 1.000 Units Limited Edition soundtrack album from the film of the same name, released on March 20, 2014, by Spanish label Quartet Records.

[14] Critic James Southall describes the soundtrack as "typical of [Delerue's] work on American movies at the time – light, airy, wonderfully tuneful and very enjoyable", and concluded that it was "never unappealing.