Holiday of St. Jorgen Review: A Hilarious 1930s Scam Movie

If you have an hour and a half to spare and want to see how people were making fun of greedy institutions back in 1930, you should definitely watch Holiday of St. Jorgen.

It’s perfect for anyone who likes heist movies where the 'heist' is actually just a big social lie. If you're easily offended by jokes about church officials being obsessed with money, you’ll probably want to skip this one. ⛪

I wasn't expecting a Soviet silent film to feel this much like a modern sitcom. The way the two main crooks, Korkis and Schulz, interact has this weirdly modern energy.

There is a scene early on where they escape prison and just... end up at this massive church festival. The crowd scenes are actually kind of terrifying because of how many people are there, all waiting for a miracle that the priests clearly don't expect to happen.

The priests in this movie are basically just accountants with really fancy hats. They spend more time looking at stock tickers and counting coins than doing anything holy. 💰

I loved the moment when Anatoli Ktorov (who plays the lead thief) realizes he can just fake being a saint because the crowd is so desperate to believe in something. His face when he’s trying to look 'holy' is hilarious because you can see him thinking about how much money he's going to make.

It’s much more energetic than something like The Cathedral Builder, which feels like a slow Sunday morning in comparison. This movie moves fast.

One thing that stuck with me was the 'miracle' scene. The way the crowd reacts when the 'saint' tells a man to throw away his crutches is actually pretty uncomfortable to watch even now.

The movie does this thing where it cuts between the 'holy' event and the police and church leaders arguing over who gets the biggest cut of the souvenir sales. It’s not subtle at all.

Actually, there’s a bit with a ladder that goes on for way too long, but it’s so slapstick that I ended up laughing anyway. 🪜

I did notice the film quality is a bit rough in parts—some of the transitions feel like the editor just gave up for a second. But the acting from Igor Ilyinsky is so rubber-faced and frantic that you don't really care about the technical skips.

It reminds me a bit of the cynical humor in Black Is White, though the setting here is much more specific.

The ending is a bit of a rush. It’s like they realized they were running out of film and had to wrap up the whole 'fake saint' plot in about three minutes.

Still, for a movie made almost a century ago, it feels incredibly biting. It turns out people have been using big events to fleece the public since forever.

Didja notice?

• The way the priest checks his watch while 'praying' is a top-tier comedy bit.
• There's a lot of focus on fancy cars, which must have looked like spaceships to the audience in 1930.
• The fake beard on the saint looks like it might fall off if he sneezes too hard.
• The police uniforms are impressively shiny for a movie about being poor.

It's not a 'masterpiece' that you have to study in a dark room. It’s just a funny, slightly mean-spirited comedy that still works because greed never really goes out of style.