Meidän poikamme merellä

Våra gossar till sjöss / [Our Boys at Sea]. FI 1933. PC: Suomi-Filmi. P+D+ED: Erkki Karu. SC: Erkki Karu, Georg Malmstén. DP: Theodor Luts. M: Georg Malmstén. Starring Georg Malmstén (Senior Sergeant Pekka Kuusisto), Kati Aspelin (Navy nurse Leila), Aku Käyhkö (Navy Doctor Väre), Jaakko Korhonen (Captain of the submarine). Centenary of Finnish Fiction Film Print, 35mm (Suomen elokuva-arkisto 2007). Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, Boxing Day, 26 Dec 2007. 109 min. An early Finnish military farce and an early Finnish musical, a vehicle for Georg Malmstén (1902-1981), the heroic opera barytone who became a wonderful popular singer-songwriter and conductor-bandleader, and was also a trained marine. Erkki Karu, the greatest Finnish silent film director and the visionary chief of the Suomi-Filmi company, had lost his touch as a director. There is no sense of visual expression, montage, direction of actors or sense of humour in his work by now. In the Navy exercises, the singing marine Pekka tries to find any excuse to see the charming Navy nurse Leila. His rival is the navy doctor. Pekka's submarine sinks to the bottom, and he volunteers to swim to the surface, risking his life, this being before the era of professional scuba gear, but in Leila's hands he is cured, the cure seen as a montage superimposed on his fever chart. The soundtrack is technically not especially good. The only reason to see this is the warm, exuberant, vital, irresistible Georg Malmstén, excellent as singer, songwriter and bandleader:
"Meidän Maija" [Our Maija], dedicated to the navy canteen hostess
"Kuu hopeoitaan hohtaa" [The Moon's Silvery Glow], with a nocturnal montage of the sea
"Leila", theme tune of the film, one of the most beloved Finnish waltzes
"Sinitakkien marssi" [March of the Bluecoats], a merry Marine anthem
"Hyvästijättö Havaijille" [Farewell to Hawaii], a Pacific parody in drag
"Aallokko kutsuu" [The Call of the Waves], another evergreen
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Malmst%C3%A9n