FI 1933. PC: [Suomen Filmiteollisuus SF Oy - in name only] / Suomi-Filmi Oy / Suomen Tuberkuloosin Vastustamisyhdistys. [The rights remained with Risto Orko personally.] P: Erkki Karu, Risto Orko.
D: Erkki Karu. Toinen ohjaaja / Biträdande regissör / Second D: Risto Orko. SC: Erkki Karu, Risto Orko – based on the novel Ne 45.000. Tarkoitusromaani by Maila Talvio (Porvoo: WSOY, 1932). DP: Eino Kari, Theodor Luts - early sound aperture 1,2:1. AD: Carl Fager, Armas Fredman. Makeup: Hannes Kuokkanen. M: Uuno Klami. – The waltz "Kuin kevään yö" comp. Uuno Klami, lyr. V. A. Koskenniemi. – "Frühlingsstimmen" (Johann Strauss, Jr.). – Virsi 443 / Hymn 443 "Aurinko armas walollansa / Taas uuden päiwän tuonut on" (comp. trad., lyr. trad., in Finnish Elias Lagus, arranged possibly by Gustaf Rancken and Jaakko Tengström as well as Carl Gustaf von Essen). Orchestra: Helsingin Teatteriorkesteri. S: Rafael Ylkänen, Lauri Pulkkila (n.c.). ED: Erkki Karu, Risto Orko. Expert: Severi Savonen (Suomen Tuberkuloosin Vastustamisyhdistys).
C: Einar Wichmann (Aarne Hirvinen, kamreeri / treasurer), Helena Koskinen (Helmi Hirvinen), Katri Rautio (mummi / grandma), Eero Kilpi (Wiljam Ania, ylilääkäri / senior physician), Jalmari Rinne (Antti Ahonen, lääket. kandidaatti / Bachelor of Medicine), Kaarlo Angerkoski (Heikki Huhtamäki, student), Georg Malmstén (Jyrki, Helmi's osakuntatoveri / student nation friend), Laila Richter (Annikki, Helmi's student nation friend), Laura Tudeer (Greta, Helmi's student nation friend), Ellen Parviainen (Esteri, Helmi's student nation friend), Jaana Ylhä (Mirja, Helmi's student nation friend), Yrjö Tuominen (TB doctor), Elsa Rantalainen (mökin emäntä / farmhouse mistress), Unto Salminen (TB doctor), Pirkko Raitio (sairas mökin emäntä / sick farmhouse mistress), Olga Leino (mökin emäntä / farmhouse mistress), Lilli Sairio (Alina, kansakoulunopettaja / elementary school teacher), Alfred Roini (mökkiläinen / a farmer), Mimmi Lähteenoja (mattoja tomuttava muija / a woman dusting carpets), Eero Vepsälä (parantolassa ollut mökin mies / a farmer who has been at a sanatorium), Kaija Suonio (Maija), Iivari Kainulainen (talonmies / janitor). – Helsingin Teatteriorkesteri (orchestra at the ball). – N.c.: Severi Savonen (TB doctor / lecturer), Matti Aro (ylioppilas Vanhan kahvilassa / student at the Vanha Café), Kaarlo Halttunen (student in the adjoining room), Ate Holander (student in the adjoining room), Risto Orko (Kalle, a student playing chess), Oke Tuuri (a dancer).
Loc: Harjavalta: Satalinnan parantola / sanatorium – Paimio: Paimion parantola – Harjavalta: Satalinnan lastenparantola / children's sanatorium. – Helsinki: Vironkatu 10 A (the home of the Hirvinen family), Helsingin tuberkuloosisairaala / TB hospital (the Hirvinen family at the TB test), Pohjoinen Esplanaadikatu Kauppatorin kohdalla (the rendez-vous of Heikki and Mirja), ravintola Kappeli Esplanaadilla (Heikki and Mirja at a outdoors restaurant). – Siilinjärvi: Tarinaharjun parantola (the Kukkaranta sanatorium). – Kiukainen: Satalinnan parantolan työhoito-osasto. – Harjavalta: Satalinnan lastenparantola (the children patients at play). – Naantali: Kalevanniemen parantola (the children patients on the beach). – Hämeenlinna: Ahveniston parantola (meeting-place of Heikki and Antti) – Helsingin ympäristö (Helmi skiing on her counselling trips).
Suomen Tuberkuloosin Vastustamisyhdistys [STV] [The Finnish Anti-Tuberculosis Society]
had acquired a German anti-TB film in 1927 for their circulation. They
saw an Italian anti-TB film in 1928 in Rome, and were also offered
French anti-TB films in the same year, but then decided to embark in
1929 into a film project to be produced in Finland. They contacted the
prominent writer Maila Talvio who wrote a tendency novel on the topic in
1931 for Suomi-Filmi, published as a book in 1932. The contract with
Suomi-Filmi made STV a co-financer with rights to the 16 mm distribution
oin their own tours (which drew audiences of a 100.000 annually). A
requirement of the contract was that Risto Nylund (Orko) would become
the second director. He belonged to the Maila Talvio circle and had negotiated with Suomi-Filmi and Karu as a representative of STV and Talvio.
Talvio and Orko belonged to the student nation Satakuntalainen Osakunta in the context of which the student ball of the opening sequence takes place, Orko, himself, appearing as a student.
The title refers to the number of patients that died of TB during a five-year period in Finland at the time.
Helsinki premiere: 12.11.1933 Kino-Palatsi - Tampere: Scala, Turku: Scala, Viipuri: Scala, distribution: Suomi-Filmi – tv: 22.9.1979 MTV2, 17.5.2011 YLE TV2, 9.9.2013 YLE TV1 – vhs: 1989 Suomi-Filmi – classification number A-223 – S – 2765 m / 100 min
A new print was struck in 2007, financed by Filha r.y. (Finnish Lung Health Association, the current name of STV), made at Finn-Lab.
KAVI print (the 2007 print) viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Erkki Karu), 28 May 2014
TB's
killing me
– John Lee Hooker
AA: There was as much drama behind the screen as on screen as Erkki Karu was ousted from Suomi-Filmi, the company that he had founded, while the long-drawn-out production of Ne 45.000 was brought to a finish by his partner and successor Risto Orko.
Two of the biggest Finnish film moguls collaborated in this prestige production.
Intriguingly, Risto Orko, who personally got to own the rights to this film, is seen in the first scene, a students' ball, as a chess-playing student, playing against the male protagonist, Antti (Jalmari Rinne). Orko gets the first line of dialogue: "Checkmate!"
Ne 45.000 is still a clumsy movie in the early sound film mode, stiff and tentative, like a baby learning to walk, or an accident victim re-learning to move. Only for die-hard aficionados of Finnish cinema and for students of medical history. Yet I confess again that there is something sympathetic in the uncertain approach of these early Finnish sound films.
Ne 45.000 tells a medical story with many non-fiction aspects and sequences. It is a Finnish
Kulturfilm, mixing documentary with an acted narrative in the spirit of education and enlightenment.
Almost all members of an urban family - three children and their grandmother - have been infected with TB and are taken to a modern sanatorium. Many sanatoriums are covered in the films. The fictive main sanatorium, shot mainly at Tarinaharju, north of Kuopio, the central sanatorium of Northern Savo, opened in 1931, now Tarina Hospital, is situated on a pine ridge and has a beach by the lake.
More remarks:
1. The scientific, medical and documentary aspects are the most engrossing thing in this film, especially the introduction to the sanatorium starting with a long backwards tracking shot along its corridors. The baths, the ovens, the lab, the pharmacy, the operation room, the sterilization department, the wash basins, the light cure with carbon light, the light cure with Alpine sun, the pneumothorax cure, the outdoors rest department with sun and air. There is a wonderful long panning shot on the sun balcony of the Tarinaharju sanatorium compared with the sun deck of an ocean liner. The big modern kitchen, the dining hall, the chess room, the workshop, the oat field, the garden plot, the henhouse, the apple garden, the sewing room, the book binding room, the sanatorium school, the children at play, the baseball game, and the sand beach for swimmers. - Heikki's X-ray sequence has an educational character, too.
2. Another engrossing tour in the film is Helmi's ski trek. Having been cured from TB Helmi becomes a nurse, and she counsels families in farmhouses in the countryside. The authentic locations are heartbreaking in the austerity of the circumstances of the homes (contrasted by the splendour and magnificence of the surrounding nature). The homes look more arid and desolate than in Finnish rural fiction films. (Although the set decoration and the costumes are not always consistent to the concept!).
3. A further heartfelt episode is Helmi's rushed hike over the swamp, led by a seasoned guide, as soon as she hears that Heikki is in his death-throes at the hospital. Also the hymn-singing sequence is memorable with its studies of faces marked with grief.
4. Ne 45.000 is largely and consistently an Erkki Karu film. As a documentarist or semi-documentarist, Erkki Karu had made an industrial promotion film (Mr. Elanto), and the fifth anniversary film of Finnish independence (Finlandia), and he created a trilogy about the Finnish military forces. The film is yet another expression of Erkki Karu's patriotic spirit. The Finnish flag is being waved copiously. Here it is an image of the fresh wind that can chase away the TB peril. Ne 45.000 was dear to Risto Orko, as well, as he, too, had a passion for the documentary. Orko was later very proud of the film he produced about the eclipse (1945), and his favourite film was his documentary feature Taistelun tie (1940) about the Winter War.
5. This was the first film contribution of the then prominent (now forgotten) author Maila Talvio, who belonged to the nearest circle of Risto Orko. It includes also the only original film contribution of V. A. Koskenniemi, the poet laureate of Finland (he wrote the lyrics to Finlandia, for example) - here he wrote the lyrics to the Wiener salon waltz sung by Georg Malmstén. The composer was Uuno Klami, the first serious Finnish composer to score a sound film (Armas Järnefelt and Armas Launis had done great scores for silent films). Neither Talvio nor Klami fared well in this film adventure, but Koskenniemi's lyrics work fine in the waltz.
6. The token narrative is merely a frame for TB propaganda. The narrative is slight, the characters are not well-rounded, and the dialogue is wooden, but there is charm and dignity in Helena Koskinen's performance in her second and final film. Critics singled out her clumsy line-reading, but I find the amateur Helena Koskinen more touching than theatre warhorses such as Jalmari Rinne. The line-reading is stilted throughout. Helena Koskinen lacks routine, but her heart is in it.
7. Helmi gets to Heikki's deathbed in the nick of time, and their misunderstanding is cleared. "A man is stupid, and when he gets wise it's too late". The doctor lifts his cap, closes Heikki's eyes, and covers him with a white sheet. A wind swings the curtain. The shadow of the window frame casts a cross on Heikki.
8. Although the film is a failure, it is clearly a labour of love. There is a sense of urgency and a sense of dignity in the approach to the calamity that TB then was. The film catches an authentic healing spirit of doctors and nurses, also evident in the architecture of the sanatoriums: buildings as medicine. - On a personal note, my father also caught TB as a teenager and faced the probability that his days were numbered, but he fought to victory. Since the mid-1940s penicillin was being produced industrially, and that helped him beat the lethal TB.
The sound is weak and uneven, and there are abrupt interruptions through the entire duration.
There had not been a theatrical print of 45.000 for generations, but it has been available for telecasts and a vhs release. It was a pleasure to see this new almost mint print which does justice to the cinematography of two fine professionals, Eino Kari and Theodor Luts.
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| Erkki Karu: Ne 45 000 (FI 1933). Tarinaharju Sanatorium. Please click on the photo to enlarge it. |
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| Erkki Karu: Ne 45 000 (FI 1933). |
