Laitakaupungin laulu

The golden sweethearts of Finnish 1930s film operetta, Tauno Palo and Ansa Ikonen, take on totally different roles in this overblown melodrama, proving for a change to be strong character actors under proper director.

At the outskirts of a booming city (Helsinki), the shady world of slums lives its own isolated life, with criminals, cripples and heavily painted women of notorious morality as its inhabitants. A pure-as-snow social worker (Ansa Ikonen) is determined to make things right, but is confronted by the top dog of the slums (Tauno Palo) and most of his former mistresses. Of course, she is just a woman, so she can't resist eventually falling for the roughneck and getting involved in crime.

The settings and story are as objective as a Salvation Army sermon, but regardless of the implausible and exaggerated situations and locations (in once scene, a young woman has died and left her hubby living in a basement room the size of a closet with eight children, all seemingly of the same age!) the film is pregnant with the slimy atmosphere of the seamy underbelly of a big town. This surely is a world gone by.

The actors are over the top; especially enjoyable is Ella Eronen as the hard boiled evil top bitch, very properly called Judith (living in a Salome Alley!). This type of woman, with the looks of a hooker and the morals of a hyena, but often with a golden heart beating under the sediment of scum, is a prominent - and very enjoyable - feature of Finnish films of the immediate post-war years.

Life seems very mirthless at the outskirts of Helsinki.A social worker, Helmi Heino, comes to this part of the city, which they call Sin Alley.There she meets all sorts of people, like Sokea-Hanski and Kupletti Fransu.And also a criminal called Jukka Kyrö.Something starts happening between Helmi and Jukka, even though he's married to Aliina, a woman who doesn't talk.He also has a son, Reino, who's on his way of becoming a criminal himself.At the end we're at the courthouse.Laitakaupungin laulu (1948) is an ambitious movie directed by Edvin Laine.It has taken some influences from French cinema.The script was written by Olavi Vesistö and some work was done by Laine's cousin Toivo Kauppinen.Everybody's favorite couple, Ansa Ikonen and Tauno Palo play Helmi and Jukka.Edvin Laine's wife Mirjam Novero does a fantastic job as the wife of Jukka, Aliina Kyrö.Veli-Matti Kaitala is just the right boy to portray Reino Kyrö.Aku Korhonen, the man behind many comedic roles, does memorable work in a dramatic role as Sokea-Hanski.Also brilliant is Trina Taipale as his daughter Raili.Ella Eronen, the lady of many theater roles, does a great movie role as Juudit, Jukkas's jealous lover.Arvo Lehesmaa is terrific as Fransu Byman, who can also be very funny, especially with all those kids.Fine work done by Wilho Ilmari as President of the court.Elna Hellman is great as the marketplace seller, Matilda Kivinen.Ansa Ikonen's husband plays Prosecutor.Uuno Montonen plays Constable Muhonen.Rauha Rentola is Esteri.The part of the doctor is played by Helge Ranin.Tarmo Manni plays Constable Virtanen.Eino Kaipainen narrates the story.Also in this movie are seen Martti Katajisto, Aarne Laine.The movie won two Jussi awards for best supportive actor and actress.Aku Korhonen and Elna Hallman were the winners.The playing of the accordion by Sokea-Hanski sets the atmosphere of this movie.His daughter, Raili, speaks the most bautiful poetry, in which she describes how beautiful everything is.This movie shows us that even in the worst conditions there can be seen some ray of light.