Pähkähullu Suomi

Spede Pasanen plays William Njurmi, an American Finnish millionaire who comes to Finland.There he runs into many funny situations.The real fun starts after he teams up with Simo Salminen.These two go driving all around Finland from Helsinki to Savonlinna and from Kuopio to Turku not to forget Lapland.This movie was made to celebrate Finland, that turned 50 that year.The actors are perfect.The late Spede Pasanen is amazing in the lead.Esko Salminen plays Luigi Cravatto and Leo Jokela is a typical Finnish taxpayer.There are also Heikki Kahila, Anssi Kukkonen, Toivo Mäkelä, Pentti Irjala, Pirjo Pasanen and Veikko Sinisalo in the movie.Sinisalo's performance as Suohullu Pähkä is amazing, showing some Finnish Sisu.Director Virtanen gives a funny performance.Cinematographer Osmo Harkimo plays Detective.Tarja-Tuulikki Tarsala plays Miss Smith-Njurmi's secretary.Niilo Tarvajärvi plays himself.President Urho Kekkonen can also be seen there.And also American film star Gregory Peck.And Miss Universum Armi Kuusela with her husband Gil Hilario.Heikki Nousiainen is in a small part.And so is Pertti Melasniemi, both seen skiing.Also an actual skier, Eero Mäntyranta, is seen skiing.Marita Nordberg offers some funny moments as the Girl from farm.Pähkähullu Suomi from 1967 is a very funny comedy which was directed by Jukka Virtanen and written by Ere Kokkonen and Spede Pasanen.It was the second feature directed by Virtanen and the third produced by Pasanen.Editor and author of books about movies, Juho Gartz took care of the editing.Jaakko Salo was behind the music.There are many scenes that made me laugh.One of my favorite scenes is the war scene with Leo Jokela.It's a great parody of Tuntematon Sotilas.And when Spede and Simo become farmhands.And the scene with Nordberg's character and Spede offering some hay barn romance.I recommend Pähkähullu Suomi for every Finnish comedy lover.

To celebrate Finland's 50th birthday it is decided to make a film to promote Finland abroad to potential tourists, and use a U. S./Finnish hair oil tonic millionaire called William Njurmi (Spede Pasanen) in the film, as he travels around Finland. However after one too many saunas Njurmi escapes into the forests and is hunted like an elk, before encountering an inventor who lives in the woods called Simo (Simo Salminen). So begins a series of madcap adventures. Released in 1967 just in time for Finland's '50th birthday' director Jukka Virtanen's film is an extended joke about the Finnish national character, and national perception abroad (or rather stereotypes about them, both internal and external). Sometimes almost seeming like a silent film comedy (with a lot of visual, physical at times slapstick humour and invention) the screenplay by Virtanen, Ere Kokkonen and Pasanen takes us on a tour of Finland including (courtesy of Osmo Harkimo and Kari Sohlberg's black and white cinematography) a few of Finland's 60,000 lakes, Tapioca (the garden city), an attempted shotgun wedding, Puijo's rotating tower, Rovaniemi (gateway to Lapland), dancing in the forests, chases over rooftops, fights on ships (involving a couple of bald spies after the secret hair formula), winter sports in summer, a bit of drunkeness, and of course the odd sauna. It largely works as a film, even if it deteriorates a little in it's last half hour or so. Had somebody been on the booze when they made this?

I rarely watch finnish films but I stumbled upon this and it seemed intresting and Im so glad I did. It's made as a parody "commercial" to finland and the movie tries to find itself on the way. The narrative is great and the switches from the Njurmi tackling in the mud with moose hunters to which the "tax-payer" comments that we need to romatizice the forest not do whatever that was doing and it cuts into random ladies dancing in the forest with a grape bundle hanging from a pine tree. In the end they sing a song in english saying "please come to finland its cheap for you". The whole movie was fun to watch.