User Reviews

Finnish military farces were never too well-made, and this is no exception. Undoubtedly it is also usually very enjoyable director Roland af Hälltröm's worst effort, an absolute routine comedy. Farce is built around a millionaire recruit who tries to get away of every unpleasant task by hiring some other conscript to do it for him. Not counting the title character Lasse Pöysti - the basic naive character of our national cinema - the actors are either bad or misused. Especially the end is a huge disappointment: as soon as there has some kind of tension developed between the characters the whole story is rushed within few minutes into a happy conclusion.

Lasse Pöysti plays a millionaire called Lasse Vihuri.He goes to army and tries not to stress himself too much, so he keeps giving money to his army buddies so they can do all the work for him.That doesn't make him too much liked in the army, he notices soon.But he does make a girl like him, and money has nothing to do with it.Fennada-Filmi Oy's Miljonäärimonni (1953) is directed by Roland af Hällström.Lasse Pöysti is excellent as always portraying the character so typical to him.Pentti Viljanen is fantastic as the Sergeant Kulkunen who gets annoyed by the private Vihuri, a lot.Sakari Halonen plays Private Pekka Miettunen, who does most of the singing.Both his acting and singing is great.Heikki Savolainen is terrific as Private Mikko Mönttö.Toini Vartiainen is wonderful as Lasse's love interest, Toini.Same thing with Airi Uitto, who plays Irja.Elvi Saarnio is brilliant as Miina, the canteen worker.Reino Valkama does good job as General Peltomies.And so does Heikki Heino who plays Captain Mänty.Kauko Vuorensola plays Caretaker/Private and he's good.This movie represents the genre of military farce, which was very popular in the 50's.I find them funny, even though many people of the modern society wouldn't agree with me.I find most of the modern Finnish movies garbage.These old movies are innocent in a good way.I liked the cat gag.Lasse's roommates pull a prank on him and they put a cat on his bed, under the sheet.Then we see the cat under the Sergeant's coat who's been told the cat belongs to the General.And the scene where Lasse falls on that horse from a tree backwards and the girls think he's a hero.This is a movie old folks can enjoy and refresh their memory, and so can us younger folks watch this and see how our country was funnier then.