A Finnish-American mine worker Esa Coolman (Esa Pakarinen) receives a letter written by his niece Marketta (Sirkka-Liisa Wilén). In the letter she asks him to return to Finland to sort out a situation regarding the family's home that is about to be overtaken by a crass family who have forged an important will in their favour. Esa and his friend Jaska (Henry Theel) begin their journey to Finland on a cruise ship, while Marketta and Esa's mother try to cope with the advances of their oppressors, a lazy drunk named Justus (Oke Tuuri) and his parents (Tyyne Haarla and Pentti Viljanen).
The comedy rests largely on Esa Pakarinen's lovable Savonian personality and dialect. With his down-to-earth Finnish habits he baffles the slick American cruise ship staff after being mistaken for a millionaire and continues to talk his way out of any problem he encounters even after arriving in Finland about halfway into the movie. Only his old girlfriend Hilkka (the always funny Elsa Turakainen) manages to make him temporarily lose his gift of speech, leading to a funny romantic lesson given by his friend Jaska.
The plot may not be very tightly written, but the focus is always on the silly fun anyway, so things like poorly resolved plot lines regarding some missing diamonds and a pair of journalists following Coolman don't do any harm to the whole. The many songs are also amusing, and even if Lännen lokarin veli is nothing deep or imaginative, I was very entertained by it, thanks to the natural sense of comedy surrounding Pakarinen and Turakainen. The other actors do their parts well enough too, so I recommend the film to friends of old slapstick comedies and musicals.
