gridoon2025

Quick! How many Finnish film noirs have you seen? For me, "Scarlet Dove" (1961) was the first (Matti Kassila's more famous "Inspector Palmu" series falls more under the whodunit category). The setup is a classic used by many American noirs of the 1940s and French noirs of the 1950s: middle-aged man suspects his wife has a lover, has his suspicions confirmed, follows them around, and plots revenge. The film is well-done in all respects, and quite provocative for its time (it opens with an extended shot of the wife from the waist down, in a swimsuit). What brings it down and makes a wholehearted recommendation difficult is the absolutely terrible ending - also sometimes found in American noirs of the period. There is a final message on the screen that says "please don't spoil the ending!", and I won't, but the ending is spoiled itself. **1/2 out of 4.

Writer-director Matti Kassila, who later made what was voted by his countrymen as the best Finnish film of all time ("Inspector Palmu's Error"), demonstrates here that commercial Finnish cinema was already alive and well in 1951. "Radio Commits A Robbery" (1951) is basically a Finnish take on the familiar "The 39 Steps" formula, where a man is wanted by the police for a crime he did not commit, goes on the run, finds a female ally who is the only person who believes he is telling the truth, and tries to expose the real criminals to clear himself. Quality-wise, this is pretty much on the level of a light Hollywood comedy of that era (the male lead even has a Cary Grant-type of hair style); not great art, but fairly amusing. **1/2 out of 4.

"Ice Palace" (1987) gives the strong impression that the people who made it found some really cool (in both senses of the word) locations, primarily the title site, and decided to film around them while barely constructing a "story" (although they did use a novel as their basis). There is sparse dialogue, no answers, absolutely no ending, just images and (mostly violin) sounds. There are several shots that look like paintings - but how long can you look at a painting before getting bored? The film suggests something lesbian, at other times something mystical, but very little comes to fruition. ** out of 4.