神探帕穆的错误

A vintage murder mystery from Finland, based on Mika Waltari’s popular novel. Inspector Palmu (Rinne) is a slightly grumpy, Stalin lookalike, as all those iconic screen sleuths, he is intuitively astute, whip-smart and cannot suffer fools gladly, he can smell foul play after a single look at the lock on the door, and throw back talk like nobody’s business.

Before the decadent fop Bruno Rygseck (Jurkka) is found dead in the bathroom (a lavish one with a leisure pool), we glimpse a gathering of friends the night before, where the soon-to-be victim dresses up as the Grim Reaper, an antic prefiguration enhanced by the impression of a stiff-looking manservant Veijonen (Kuuranne, Gothically saturnine), who becomes an obvious suspect after acting strangely and flubbing his memory, the first red herring.

Director and scenarist Matti Kassila is well versed in the modus operandi of a whodunit, every suspect has something to hide, which can be traced by their individual temperaments. It is a smorgasbord of one-note performers, a buffoonish lush Aimo (Siimes) and his seemingly innocuous sister Airi (Salo), whose finance Erik (Oravisto, showing horrible teeth) is a humorless square. There is Bruno’s harpy aunt Amalia (Saara Ranin, a hairy mole near her mouth almost steals her thunder) and his estranged wife Alli (Mantsas) who has a proclivity of hysteria. Also obliviously join the fold is a meet-cute between an appealing socialite Irma (Pohjanpää) and a name writer Laihonen (Riuttu). Ergo, it requests some quality time to suss the whole ensemble, plus subtitle-reading does not help.

So just when audience gets a rough picture of who is who, Kassila cunningly muddies the waters by introducing a second murder and in the person of Palmu’s two goofy, none-the-wiser assisting detectives Virta and Kokki (Matti Ranin, Saara’s son and Jokela), several possible scenarios are sketched out (to further complicate the myth), but one might wonder, what is Palmu’s titular mistake? That part is lost on me.

Proficiently carving out Palmu’s investigation with a keen eye on mobility and composition, Kassila asserts himself as a competent filmmaker and raconteur. INSPECTOR PALMU’S MISTAKE takes a dim view on the wealthy class, whose empty life is rife with caprice, debauchery, deceit, blackmailing, venality and lunacy. In toto, the film doesn’t take itself or the murder cases too seriously, Osmo Lindeman’s arch score is a boon, a sense of humor always breathes in amid the macabre affairs and the routine procedures, the culprit is a joke but you can see the inspiration of psycho-biddy from here, a fun watch, but if there is anything endemically Finnish, Yours Truly needs some enlightenment.

referential entries: George Pollock’s MURDER AT THE GALLOP (1963, 5.9/10); Aki Kaurismäki’s LE HAVRE (2011, 8.3/10).

English Title: Inspector Palmu's Mistake

Original Title: Komisario Palmun erehdys

Year: 1960

Country: Finland

Language: Finnish

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Mystery

Director/Screenwriter: Matti Kassila

based on the novel by Mika Waltari

Music: Osmo Lindeman

Cinematography: Olavi Tuomi

Editing: Elmer Lahti

Cast:

Joel Rinne

Matti Ranin

Leo Jokela

Elina Pohjanpää

Matti Oravisto

Pentti Siimes

Elina Salo

Leo Riuttu

Aino Mantsas

Leevi Kuuranne

Saara Ranin

Jussi Jurkka

Risto Mäkelä

Arvo Lehesmaa

Toivo Mäkelä

Rating: 7.1/10