"There is a large measure of love-hatred [for this director, Donner' s] relationship with [his country] Finland and the Finns .. [a] fault that may derive from the persistent hostility and disdain levelled at his productions by the Finnish intelligentsia."
As, with this film, was the director's first back in his home country of Finland after a five year sojourn in neighboring Sweden - but where "he was treated [anyway] with thinly veiled scorn as a non-Swede encroaching on Swedish film tradition." - (Ingmar Bergman was his hero - he later made a documentary on him) - Donner the Finnish - but (minority) Swedish speaker - "mischievous film maker" returned to find himself "spurned by the serious critics .. accused of frivolity; [oft being considered] too casual, too flippant in [his] Finnish work .. [which were frequently] greeted with abuse from right and left wings alike [despite as for this one, suddenly] evidenced his dry but ferocious and nimble wit - superficially a commercial for Finnish standards of living, the film delved keenly beneath the surface of the Finnish welfare dream; but more subtly, [was] a condemnation of society that draws its sustenance from glamour and eccentricity."
[From Peter Cowrie in contemporaneous 'Finnish Cinema; published in '76.]