The Silent Partner is a 1978 Canadian thriller film directed by Daryl Duke and starring Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, and Susannah York.

The screenplay by Curtis Hanson is based on the novel Think of a Number (Tænk på et tal) by Danish writer Anders Bodelsen.

The film is about Miles Cullen (Gould), a Toronto bank teller, who discovers a discarded holdup note revealing an imminent robbery.

The Silent Partner, based on Anders Bodelson's 1969 suspense novel, was adapted into a screenplay by Curtis Hanson, who initially hoped to direct but was not selected.

Directed by Daryl Duke, the film marked Carolco Pictures' first production and benefited from Canada's Capital Cost Allowance incentive, promoting domestic filmmaking.

Post-production saw Hanson return to handle pick-up shots and editing after producers added a beheading scene, a decision opposed by Duke who left the project.

Harry Reikle, a mall Santa Claus outside the bank, has a "give to charity" sign whose handwriting is similar to that on the note.

Instead of informing his bosses or contacting the police, Miles begins stashing the cash from his window's transactions in an old lunch box rather than in the bank's till.

When held up at the teller's counter by Reikle, Miles hands over a small amount and then reports that he gave all the money from his day's transactions.

Anticipating that Reikle was intending that, Miles hands him a forged recreation of the original stick-up note and shouts "he has a gun" while triggering the alarm.

[citation needed] American filmmaker Curtis Hanson wrote the script on "spec" hoping to direct but was unable to persuade the producers to allow him.

Harry Reikle's hangout was The Silver Dollar Room, a well-known live music venue in downtown Toronto.

"[4] The Silent Partner did well in Canada both critically and financially, winning several Canadian Film Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

[10] Roger Ebert, in his March 30, 1979 review in the Chicago Sun-Times, awarded three-and-a-half of a possible four stars to the film, calling it "a thriller that is not only intelligently and well acted and very scary, but also has the most audaciously clockwork plot I've seen in a long time."

"[14] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film was "tense and ingenious under Duke's light touch and boasts a fine Oscar Peterson score.

"[15] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post stated, "Before it takes an appalling turn for the vicious, The Silent Partner seems an uncommonly clever and gripping suspense thriller.

Even after the story threatens to self-destruct, you fight the impulse to suffer a major letdown, for the sake of the swell nerve-racking time you've been having up to that point.

"[16] Jay Scott wrote in The Globe and Mail, "As a suspense picture, The Silent Partner is first class: the story is told cleanly and the coincidences don't strain credulity unduly, although I wish screenwriter Hanson had not exhausted his imagination on the plot — the dialogue clunks when it should canter.

[17] Even though it was the only film in competition that had not been seen by the public it won six awards: best picture (for producers Garth Drabinsky, Joel Michaels, Stephen Young); best director (Daryl Duke); sound recording (David Lee); sound editing (Bruce Nyznik); original music (Oscar Peterson); and editing (George Appleby).

When he wrote Bad Influence, which actually had elements in it that were kind of inspired by The Silent Partner, I think this is something David would be the first to say himself, the people who financed the movie were going, "Who should we get to direct this?"