With the good doctors Kildare and Ben Casey capturing the hearts and ratings of Finnish television audience, it was logical for someone in the film industry to realise there would be a market for domestic medical drama on the big screen too. Actor Yrjö Tähtelä set up his own company to make the pioneering move with this (originally uncredited) adaptation of German author Stefan Olivier's novel Ich schwöre und gelöbe (I Swear and Vow). Olivier's once popular but rather melodramatic story has a surgeon (Ketonen) suspect that his high-flying colleague (Tähtelä) cannot handle the pressure of high-risk operations. The running time is padded with a side plot about Herala's womanising doctor that is the most dated part of the whole film with its tittering "naughtiness". In fact, the whole film is quite respectably executed, yet its rather demure drama and somewhat old-fashioned acting are unlikely to hold much appeal today.
Like most filmmakers at the time, the authors of Varjostettua valoa realised they would need something that television could not provide to draw in the punters. Hence they inserted a couple of gory close-ups of surgery being performed on patients. The advertising campaign trumpeted that medical assistance would be available at cinemas should these shocking scenes prove too much to audience members. In retrospect, the film's shock effects are quite mild. A random episode of ER will likely display more blood and guts. The gag proved to be a damp squib even in its day, as the film did poorly and set back the fledgling fortunes of its makers. They should have consulted William Castle!
