St. Jorgen's Day

St. Jorgen's Day,[1][2] (Holiday of St. Jorgen, The Feast of St. Jorgen, Russian: Праздник Святого Йоргена, romanized: Prazdnik svyatogo Yorgena) is a 1930 Soviet, partly silent comedy film by Yakov Protazanov and starring Igor Ilyinsky.

St. Jorgen's Day
Official film poster
Directed byYakov Protazanov
Written byHarald Bergstedt (novel)
Yakov Protazanov (screenplay)
Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov and Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (cues)
Music bySergei Boguslavsky
CinematographyPyotr Yermolov
Release date
  • 1930 (1930)
Running time
83 minutes
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian
Part-talkie with
Russian intertitles

Uncredited are the original novel by Harald Bergstedt, and the cues written by Ilf and Petrov (with the additional contribution of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky).

Plot summary

Before the church holiday celebrating St. Jorgen, the thief Korkis (Anatoli Ktorov) escapes from prison and mingles with the gathering celebrants. He sees the large amounts of money being made by those hosting the celebration, who are mainly clergy. Korkis cannot refrain from getting involved in this venture. Together with an accomplice (Igor Ilyinsky) they conceive and realize a way to fraudulently extract at least a small part of the money flowing into the hosts' coffers.

Cast

Credited crew
  • Director: Yakov Protazanov
  • Script: Yakov Protazanov, Vladimir Shveitser
  • Operator: P. Yermolov
  • Co-director: Porfiri Podobed
  • Composer: Sergei Bugoslavsky
  • Soundmaster: D. Blok
  • Zvuk: S. Yurtsev, N. Ozornov
  • Orchestra and chorus of Mezhrabpom-Film
  • Tagefon sound system

Part-talkie

Films from this period often combine silent and sound sequences.

Most of St. Jorgen's Day was shot without recorded sound. These sequences have Russian intertitles, an orchestral and choral score, and occasional sound effects (e.g. the sound of a hand knocking on a door) or added dialogue. A specific scene can use sound effects and intertitles together. The often-impressive exterior scenes were shot silent on location. Interspersed throughout the film are short indoor scenes with recorded sound. The opening credit sequence uses sound, with the principal performers speaking in costume as their characters.[3]

Quotes
  • «Primary task in a thief profession as in the saint profession is to vanish at right time!»
  • «Learn how to handle it without a jemmy!»
  • When I was just an infant... My dear poor mother had dropped me from the ...nth floor...
  • - Please, make one more miracle - an ascension!
    - And how about ascendables? (Korkis, talking about money)

See also

References
  1. Jay Leyda (1960). Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film. George Allen & Unwin. p. 270.
  2. "The crudely antireligious Holiday of St. Iorgen (aka St. Jorgen's Day...)", Rollberg (q.v.), p. 548.
  3. Source: DVD release from Незабытое Кино.
  • Rollberg, Peter. Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema.


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