''Millipilleri'' is a 1966 comedy film directed and written by

Spede Pasanen Pertti Olavi "Spede" Pasanen (10 April 1930 – 7 September 2001) was a Finnish film director and producer, comedian, and inventor. During his career he directed, wrote, produced or acted in about 50 movies and participated in numerous TV p ...

Ere Kokkonen Erkki Olavi "Ere" Kokkonen (7 July 1938 – 16 October 2008), born in Savonlinna, was a Finnish film director and screenwriter. He worked closely with Spede Pasanen all the way from the 1960s until Spede's death, as a director, writer and also ...

and Jukka Virtanen. The film was Spede's second starring feature after

X-Paroni ''X-Paroni'' (X-Baron) is a 1964 Finnish comedy and the debut of Spede Pasanen as a leading male role and debut as a co-writer and director of a full-length film. Plot summary The plot concerns a wealthy baron (Pasanen), who is so interested in f ...

, Pasanen having established himself as a popular comedian in both radio and television. The film was one of Spede's biggest hits and launched his film career further. It also features several actors who would star in Spede's consequent films Pähkähullu Suomi and Noin 7 Veljestä.

Plot

Tarmo Saari is the prodigal nephew of Councillor Ö (Häyrynen) who has several university degrees but has not worked a day in his life. Ö, becoming fed-up with his lazy nephew orders him to earn a million Finnish marks in one month or he will testament his fortune to an antiquities society. A group of gangsters led by Mr. Big (Kokkonen) overhear the councillor and plot to rob him of his fortunes. Tarmo is disheartened by his fate until his friend Hannu (Salminen) helps him with some morale boosting pills. The pills are actually just sugar pills but Tarmo feels their effects nevertheless.

Cast

as Tarmo Saari *

Simo Salminen Simo Veli Atte Salminen (8 November 1932 – 2 September 2015) was a Finnish comic-actor best known for his many performances in movies and television shows by Spede Pasanen, usually playing his sidekick in some fashion. Salminen alongside Vesa- ...

as Hannu * Hannes Häyrynen as Councillor Ö (Ö is the Swedish word for ''island'', which is in Finnish is ''saari''). *

as Herra Iso (Mr. Big) * Jukka Virtanen as Tappaja (Killer) * Aarre Elo as Aivo (Brain) *

Juhani Kumpulainen Juhani "Juhku" Kumpulainen (31 July 1925, in Viipuri – 12 November 1991, in Helsinki) was a Finnish actor and director. He did a total of 85 movie roles between 1950 and 1991. Kumpulainen was also the official YLE's administrative and organiz ...

as psychiatrist von Hermander

Production

Pasanen and his co-directors of X-Paroni,

Risto Jarva Risto Antero Jarva (15 July 1934 – 16 December 1977) was a Finnish filmmaker. Jarva usually approached his long films and short documentary films from some social problem and from one or more possible ways to solve it. Such problems included t ...

and Jaakko Pakkasvirta parted ways after Spede's first feature. The film was the first co-operative film between Spede, Ere Kokkonen and Jukka Virtanen. Kokkonen and Virtanen were primarily responsible for directing the film while Spede planned most of the gags and humour.Milli Pilleri Commetary, Jukka Virtanen, 2001 The film also included the first notable appearance by Simo Salminen in Spede's films as his side-kick after playing a minor supporting role in X-Paroni. Juhani Kumpulainen and Marita Nordberg, both of whom appeared in numerous future Spede films, also made their first appearance in Spede's films here.

References

External links

* Finnish comedy films 1966 films 1960s Finnish-language films {{Finland-film-stub