Visions of Sugar Plums

The Silent Partner (1978)
directed by Daryl Duke
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

I can't even begin to guess what sort of research Christopher Plummer brought to his role in this one, except that like so many British Canadian actors let run amok inside the heads of street criminals, he plays your run-of-the-mill nutcase like Baron Von Trapp caught in his Austrian basement with an incriminating SS hat and the wrong riding crop. Plus sex in movies from the seventies is always weird, which is why the awkward romance between Elliott Gould and Susannah York is never as convincing as Gould's nerdy arrogance at his own superiority. Gould sells that inner confidence as well as anyone; the plot mechanics back him up (it's a sharp thriller), but frankly, there's too much ham on the soup bone.