Palmu can also sometimes act more jovially, and makes jokes to irritate suspects to take action, and reveal their motives.

Palmu has a tendency to take credit for Virta's ideas, but he also turns to him whenever he has trouble remembering sophisticated terminology.

Palmu's age is a constant source for jokes in the films, such as his tendency to take naps in his office.

Palmu is also extremely meditative, adding to the illusion that he is too old for his job, while in reality he always thinks of the most likely solution to the crime first.

Each of the Palmu films depicts police work in very meticulous detail, while containing elements of more traditional murder mystery fiction.

Also, one of the recurring themes is that the victim of the murder is a person who, before own death, has a questionable reputation or this collapses fatally into obscure acts.

"Just Relax Already, Inspector Palmu") was completed,[8] but the realization of the film project failed in the 1963-1965 Finnish actor strike [fi].

Hannu Salmi compares the idea to George Cukor's 1947 film noir A Double Life, where the crime takes place in the middle of Othello.

[1][12] Among other things, the manuscript copy is in the possession of Panu Rajala, the author of the Waltari's biography, who considers it a success.