Vihtori ja Klaara

Although perhaps not one of Tulio's best films, and made on a rather modest budget, Vihtori ja Klaara is nonetheless a very amusing take on cartoonist George McManus's comic creation. The plot, such as it is, revolves around Vihtori's clandestine involvement with an attractive and rather worldly young woman named Ritva, who is planning to marry boxing champion and garage owner Klasu Tullari, son of Vihtori's friend Tomi, and their interactions with daughter Vappu and her fiancé, Peter von Schaslick, a mechanic in Klasu's garage, under the nose of the threatening and suspicious Klaara, with lazy son Nisse acting as a rather sardonic Greek chorus.

The film makes hilarious use of a number of situations and set-ups taken directly from McManus's comic strips, opening with the sound of crashing crockery as Klaara attempts to coerce a reluctant Vihtori into accompanying her to the opera. Vihtori's carousing and late nights out with the boys, Klaara's penchant for wielding an over-sized rolling pin, Vihtori's hair-raising descent down knotted bed sheets from an upper-story apartment, Klaara's piano playing and atrocious singing, and Vihtori's humiliation by the neighborhood kids while walking Klaara's minuscule dog, Pipi, are all faithfully recreated from gags first portrayed in McManus's strip.

Vihtori ja Klaara has just been released on DVD in Finland, and has English subtitles, but you'll probably need a DVD player that can play European discs if you plan on adding it to your collection.