Matti Kassila's early works are much less well-known than his most famous films but based on what I have seen, they are very watchable as well. After his feature debut Isäntä soittaa hanuria (1949), Kassila's next project was a societal comedy Professori Masa that was released in 1950 and remains an entertaining little rom-com with a light political touch.
Like so many films and works of fiction, Professori Masa draws humour out of class differences and secret identities. The protagonist is a mild-mannered professor of social sciences named Matias Kaarivaara (Tauno Palo) who doesn't approve the impending dock workers' strike in the city. After a student (Lasse Pöysti) accuses him of being alienated from real life, Professor Kaarivaara takes up a job at the docks under the name Masa Vaara in order to get in touch with physical labour, befriends a jovial worker called Väiski (Leo Riuttu) and starts understanding the workers' arguments better. However, working two jobs while keeping the two identities hidden from each other proves out to be more difficult than he anticipated, especially when newspapers notice the unusually well-versed opinions of the dock worker Masa.
The white lies and romantic advancements are pretty easy to guess early on and the plot doesn't even attempt to be realistic, but good actors and the light atmosphere keep the tale interesting throughout. Palo delivers a charismatic performance as both the professor and the dock worker and Ansa Ikonen's Esteri Tervola resembles a light version of the tough journalists in classic screwball comedies. Many supporting actors are amusing too, such as Tarmo Manni as the eager strike agitator Eemeli and Unto Salminen as the jaded veteran reporter Nordgren. Cinematically the best-looking scene is probably the search montage chronicling the hectic attempts to locate the missing political candidates.
The political message is kept very general as opposed to taking sides with either the conservatives or the working class: understanding and co-operation between the two opponents turns out to be the final answer, as exemplified by the suspicious similarity of both parties' chosen candidate for the upcoming minister election. Perhaps this kind of unambitious approach to the premise reduces the movie's value in critical examination but as a simple rom-com it works alright even without many laugh-out-loud moments. All in all I would say that Professori Masa is a decent example of Matti Kassila's early filmography and a fun watch for those interested in his work.
