After seeing Vatsa sisään, rinta ulos! by Aarne Tarkas one can but compare it to Some like it hot by Billy Wilder. Similarities between these two films are striking as both of them belong to the same category of cross-dressing comedy and what more fascinating, both of the titles are from the same year (1959). The first one shows us a current (1950s) world of girls' school and garrison in an idyllic Finnish town whereas the latter one allows history to soften themes a bit. In both films there are three major characters: two men whose masculinity is under review, and a woman, who is like a sexual angel.
In Wilder's film the distinction between two major male character is shown as possibility to change the identity role, and Some like it hot even gives us a great laugh of a couple of millionaire and transvestite ("woman"), while in Tarkas' farce the much greater fear of homosexuality is handled quite openly. The transvestite theme is only like a token idiom. Happy end is more open in Wilder's film than in Tarkas' as the main characters end up in opposite possibilities: in first one impossible end and in second one totally accepted, but obviously most improbable.
Both films include musical elements, but very different ways: Wilder puts music to be an integral part of his masterpiece while Tarkas uses some popular singers in his title without any need. I mean that music in this Finnish farce could be better in few moments, but otherwise all the things seems to fit rarely well. Tarkas' Vatsa sisään, rinta ulos! gives us excellent characters - perhaps even more than Wilder in his film -, and marvellously played. Helge Herala's neurotic officer also allows us allusions of Hynkel from Charles Chaplin's The great dictator...
Surprisingly good, if we forget the overage schoolgirls and like that. A good comedy indeed.
