Cinema
Inspector Palmu's Mistake
Komisario Palmun erehdys
Matti Kassila · 1960
Synopsis
In the Helsinki of the thirties, the wealthy, debauched Bruno Rygseck is found dead in his bathtub, behind closed doors. Inspector Palmu, gruff and stubborn, is called in with his assistants Virta and Kokki. He alone holds that what looks like an accident is a murder, and the investigation leads him into the dead man's family, among his friends, his butler and a visiting writer, all with good reasons to keep silent.
Context
The film adapts the second detective novel by Mika Waltari devoted to Palmu, published in 1940, from a screenplay by Kassila and Kaarlo Nuorvala; it was the producer T. J. Särkkä who had proposed the subject, and Kassila put into it, he said, everything he had learned in eighteen films. Joel Rinne plays Palmu, in studio sets where the camera moves in a way that was then new. Released on 9 September 1960, it began a series of four films, all directed by Kassila.
Who it is for
A crime comedy of one hour forty, in Finnish; one has to like the locked-room puzzle and black humour.
Prizes and reception
Voted the best Finnish film of all time in a poll by the Finnish public broadcaster in 2012.