VMV 6 (1936) Review - Pure Baltic Bootlegging Fun

If you have seventy minutes to spare and a weird soft spot for old wooden boats, VMV 6 is absolutely worth a watch tonight. If you hate black-and-white movies where everyone talks like they have a mouth full of crackers, you should probably skip this one. 🚢

It is basically a 1930s action movie about Finnish coast guards chasing sneaky alcohol smugglers across a very chilly-looking Gulf of Finland during prohibition.

What I loved right away is how real the water feels. You can almost feel the salty spray hitting your face through the screen, mostly because the camera is practically bolted to the deck of these tiny, bobbing motorboats.

It reminds me of the rustic, rugged outdoor vibes in The Lumberjack, but with way more wet wool sweaters.

The plot itself is pretty simple—cops vs. bootleggers—but the pacing is surprisingly quick for a movie made in 1936.

There is this one scene where a guy tries to hide a bunch of canisters under a tarp, and he is so incredibly bad at it. The coast guard guy is standing right there, just staring at him with this deadpan look that made me laugh out loud.

Joel Rinne plays the main hero guy, and he has this magnificent hair that somehow stays perfectly combed even during a storm. It’s wild.

On the other hand, the main villain is just so cartoonish. He sneers so hard I thought his mustache might fall off his face.

Some of the indoor scenes feel a bit like a stage play, which is typical for this era. When they go inside the cabins, the sound gets all echoey and weird.

But once they get back on the water, the movie gets its energy back. The night scenes are especially cool, even if you can tell they used a giant spotlight that probably blinded the actors.

I did get a bit confused by the romance subplot, which feels like it was shoved in just because some executive said they needed a girl. Regina Linnanheimo is great, but her character just sort of exists to look worried on the shore.

There's also a weirdly long sequence of people just drinking coffee. Like, we get it, it’s cold in Finland, but do we need three minutes of sipping? ☕

Still, the boat chases have this clunky charm that modern CGI movies can never replicate. When those wooden hulls smack against the waves, you feel the crunch.

Didja notice?

• The incredibly loud engine noises that drown out half the dialogue?
• That one extra who definitely didn't know how to row a boat.
• The way everyone wears heavy coats but no one seems to have gloves.
• The dog! There is a dog on the boat for like two scenes and then he just disappears. Hope he's okay.