I always get excited when I come across a new mystery
series in book or film form. I love trying to figure it out along with the
protagonist. It doesn't matter if it is of the cozy variety among the upper
classes or as hard edged as a sharpened steel razor. Or where it is from.
Mysteries are universal and great ones have come from everywhere. This one
is from Finland, written by Mika Waltari who has a reputation for his historical
novels but also managed to squeeze in three Inspector Palmu books - 1939,
1940, 1962 - and all three were adapted to films in the 1960s'. This is the
second one. Amazon doesn't carry the books which is a shame if this
film is to go by. It is clever, complicated with doses of sharp absurd humor
injected into it at times. Palmu is a character - he looks a bit like Stalin
with a horse laugh and a grumpy attitude towards those above or below him.
I would guess Maigret influenced him as he did many European mystery writers
once. Now I have to track down the other two films.
The smell of gas is coming out of the apartment of Mrs. Skrof, an elderly
wealth widow that no one has a good word to say about. When they break in,
they find her dead, the dog dead and the gas on. Accident or suicide. Palmu
(Joel Rinne) shows up in his bulky jacket and hat and declares it murder
within a few minutes. The dog's neck is broken and the milk on the stove
has spilled over. There are only a few suspects - her granddaughter who hates
her, her playboy nephew who needs money, a pastor who seems a bit too friendly
around the young girls in his parish and the nephew's creepy friend who has
a Caesar haircut. Palmu and his mopey assistant Virta (Matti Ranin), who
throws out random theory after random theory like a pitcher, run around questioning
everyone. They all seem to have airtight alibis but somewhere one of them
has to crack down and fall apart. Or maybe not. And if you throw out enough
theories, one of them may be correct eventually. Good fun and a good mystery.
