The Tailor from Torzhok

65 minutesCountrySoviet UnionLanguageSilent film (Russian intertitles)

The Tailor from Torzhok (Russian: Закройщик из Торжка, romanized: Zakroyshchik iz Torzhka) is a 1925 Soviet silent comedy film directed by Yakov Protazanov and starring Igor Ilyinsky. The picture was commissioned as publicity for the State Lottery Loan.^[1]

The film takes place in Soviet Russia during the NEP in a small provincial town. Petya Petelkin is a humble tailor of a sewing workshop belonging to the widow Shirinkina. The widow decides to marry her employee and Petya buys a lottery ticket hoping to win so that he can present her with a fancy gift.

He wins the big prize, starts dreaming of having his own shop, but the winning ticket disappears and passes from hand to hand. This is the beginning of a series of comic adventures. Petya is on the verge of committing suicide, but eventually everything ends well.

• Igor Ilyinsky as Petya Petelkin
• Olga Zhizneva as Young Lady
• Anatoly Ktorov as Young Man
• Vera Maretskaya as Katya
• Lidiya Deykun as Widow Shirinkina
• Iosif Tolchanov
• Serafima Birman as Neighbor
• Eva Milyutina
• Vladimir Uralsky as Labour Union official

• The Three Million Trial
• A Kiss from Mary Pickford
• Miss Mend

• Leyda, Jay (1960), Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film, New York: Macmillan, OCLC 1683826.
• Aleinikov, Moisei, ed. (1957), Yakov Protazanov: O tvorcheskom puti rezhissera (in Russian), Moscow: Iskusstvo, OCLC 13571289.

• The Tailor from Torzhok at IMDb