Kaunis Veera eli ballaadi Saimaalta

"Beautiful Veera" was a ballad of Tatu Pekkarinen in 40s. He wrote a famous play with same name and theme, too. When Ville Salminen directed the movie version of the play in 1950, it collected nearly one million spectators (which is MUCH in Finland).

At the start of the 20th century, a tar-boat "Princess Armada" sails on a lake Saimaa and visits in St. Petersburg, too. With the sailors there is a gypsy girl Veera (beautiful Assi Nortia) in the boat and she is escaping her family. More tension to the boat brings a Finnish officer who is chased by Russian army.

Music is the best part of the movie which consists few great songs by a Finnish quartet, "Kipparikvartetti". Some actors just can't act. Olavi Virta is one of the best singers of all time in Finland, but one can have many opinions considering his acting skills. Especially Assi Nortia and Uuno Laakso as an old sailor are good. A gypsy camp in the start of the movie is a fine sight.

If you like old Finnish movies you ought to see this.

Prinsessa Armada is a ship with a musical crew traveling on lake Saimaa and elsewhere too in the early 20th century. When the ship maid quits her job after becoming too proud to work upon winning a beauty contest, the crew decides to hire a new maid, as ugly as possible. They come across a rebellious runaway Romani girl Veera (Assi Nortia) after she has just fallen into a mud puddle, promptly hire her and begin a journey to St. Petersburg. Veera turns out to be not ugly at all after she's cleaned herself, but the crew doesn't mind and neither do the three stowaways the ship gets in St. Petersburg: a noblewoman fleeing an arranged marriage (Elsa Turakainen), a Finnish officer chased by the Tsar's army (Rolf Labbart) and an escapee from a Siberian prison camp (Eino Kaipainen).

The movie is notable for featuring the first appearance of the popular vocal group Kipparikvartetti who provided the singing voices for the ship's crew even though Olavi Virta was the only one of them to actually appear in the film. Music in general is the carrying theme of the film and not many minutes go by without there being a song or dance of some kind. Luckily all of the songs are very good and the lack of a good plot is never allowed to become too obvious. The ship's jolly crew and the supporting characters are funny too; especially Elsa Turakainen steals the show as the romance-hungry Russian noblewoman.

Even though some aspects of the story are heavily dated (the portrayal of the Romani people as ruthless thieves with a genuine fear of honest work is anything but politically correct these days) and the ending is pretty silly even for a musical comedy, the cheery mood of Kaunis Veera helps to make it a delightful experience. Friends of old musicals will definitely enjoy it and since the Saimaa lake scenery looks very nice too, there's no reason to miss this one out if you have any interest in old songs and mainstream entertainment of the 1950s.

Kaunis Veera Eli Ballaadi Saimaalta (1950), directed by Ville Salminen, shows us the summery Saimaa.The movie gave us the singing group Kipparikvartetti.It stars Assi Nortia as Veera, the coffeemaker.Elna Hellman is her mother.Eero Roine is Salomon, her father.Elsa Turakainen portrays Ruhtinatar Tolka.Veikko Uusimäki is Zingali.Kalle Viherpuu plays Kippari.Uuno Laakso plays the part of Laivamies Rääveli.Hannes Häyrinen is Svenski-boy.Olavi Virta portrays Laivamies.Tuija Halonen is Susanna Mäkinen.Eino Kaipainen is Escaped prisoner.Kauko Käyhkö is Mr. Head (singing voice).Rolf Labbart plays Finnish lieutenant.Auvo Nuotio provides singing voice.Kalle Viherpuu is Skipper.This movie from 60 years back, although being a bit dated, still works in many parts.The music numbers are mostly good.And it's a delight to your eyes to watch the summery Saimaa.

Elsa Turakainen sings and plays great, as does Eino Kaipainen, a gift for Finnish performing arts, even if she doesn't sing or act.