St. Jorgen's Day

St. Jorgen's Day
Official film poster
Directed by	Yakov Protazanov
Written by	Harald Bergstedt (novel) Yakov Protazanov (screenplay) Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov and Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (cues)
Music by	Sergei Boguslavsky
Cinematography	Pyotr Yermolov
Release date	1930 (1930)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian Part-talkie with Russian intertitles

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

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

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.

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.