Jos oisi valtaa... (1941) Online

At the time of writing this, I have only seen four films by director Yrjö Norta (1904-1988). The comedies Asessorin naishuolet (1937) and Lapatossu (1937) didn't impress me much, while the drama Yövartija vain… (1940) is actually pretty alright. Jos oisi valtaa, the follow-up to the latter, is not exactly a masterpiece of cinema, but works fine as a silly little comedy.

The story is a variation of the traditional rags-to-riches pattern: a poor but well-liked and jovial garbage paper collector Mikko Nousiainen (Aku Korhonen) stumbles upon a winning lottery ticket and becomes filthy rich. With his friend Riku (Lauri Kyöstilä), he purchases a nickel mine from a greedy industrialist Irvas (Yrjö Tuominen) and becomes attracted to Irvas' pretty daughter Aune (Sirkka Sipilä) who doesn't mind his affections at all. However, troubles are caused by the schemes of Irvas and his business partner Berg (Joel Rinne), as well as several romantic misunderstandings.

Even though the movie is not really a genuine musical, the plot quickly becomes secondary to various musical numbers like songs, dances and even a puppet show. Luckily the score by Martti Similä sounds very nice and the opera singing and ballet dancing are entertaining in their own right, which is fortunate for the movie considering how much time they take from actually advancing the plot. Not that the story is too strong to begin with: the writing goes for the most obvious jokes and all the tensions between the characters soon fizzle into nothing without much effort. Being his usual lovable if not too handsome self, Aku Korhonen may not be the most convincing love interest for the cute Sirkka Sipilä, but who cares, unlikely romances are pretty much a staple of the genre anyway.

Everything mentioned in the paragraph above is true until the very last scene that completely changes the sugary taste the movie had been leaving in the audience's mouth before. The melancholic twist can feel like a disappointing downer at first, but I think it ultimately raises the movie above run-of-the-mill musical nonsense, as much I like silly song-fests. In any case, despite Norta's direction coming across as a bit aimless at times, I enjoyed Jos oisi valtaa a lot, largely thanks to the charisma of Korhonen and the numerous musical scenes. In the end, the bittersweet tone earns the movie a place among my favourite Finnish films of the 1940s.