Inspector Palmu's Error

Helsinki. A rich and thoroughly disliked businessman is found dead in his bath. The door is locked from the inside. Inspector Palmu takes the case, with a young officer and a sergeant alongside him. The house is crowded: the man's nephew, the housekeeper, a secretary, a woman, and everyone with a stake. Palmu asks, listens, loses his temper, and makes a mistake. That is where the title comes from. In the end the solution is not in the locked door but in who did not see whom, and when. Matti Kassila directs the Finnish film; a hundred and nine minutes, with Joel Rinne as Palmu. It is adapted from a novel by Mika Waltari, better known for The Egyptian. It became the first of four Palmu films and remains one of the best-known domestic films in Finland.