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The Twelve Chairs (1970 film)
Encyclopedia
The Twelve Chairs is a 1970 American slapstick comedy film
directed by Mel Brooks
, starring Frank Langella
, Dom DeLuise
and Ron Moody
. The screenplay was written by Brooks. The film is loosely based on a Russian 1928 novel The Twelve Chairs
by Ilf and Petrov
. The novel had been previously filmed as Keep Your Seats Please by Ealing Studios in 1936 starring George Formby
and It's in the Bag!
(1945) as a starring vehicle for Fred Allen
.
in 1927, Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov (Ron Moody
), an impoverished aristocrat
from Imperial Russia, is summoned, along with the village priest, to the deathbed of his mother in law. She reveals, before passing, that a fortune in jewels had been hidden from the Bolshevik
s by being sewn into the seat cushion of one of the twelve chairs from the family's dining room set. After hearing the dying woman's Confession
, the Russian Orthodox priest
Father Fyodor (Dom DeLuise
), who has arrived to give the Last Rites
, decides to abandon the Church and attempt to steal the treasure.
Shortly thereafter, a homeless con-artist, Ostap Bender
(Frank Langella
), meets the dispossessed nobleman and manipulates his way into a partnership in his search for the family riches. Although Ostap is an unwelcome addition at first, it is mostly through his cunning, intellect and charm that the pair manages to get anywhere while keeping ahead of the apostate priest who is now their competition.
The chairs, along with all other private property, had been expropriated by the State after the Russian Revolution
. The two set off together to locate the chairs and recover the fortune, but are stymied by a series of false leads and other trying events.
Early on, they find that the chairs have been split up and sold individually. Therefore, their hunt requires a great deal of travel to track down and open up each piece of the set in order to eliminate it as a possible location of the booty. As they progress, they meet comrades
from every walk of life in Soviet Russian society, transforming the film into a satirical sendup of failing Communism
. Much of the humor in the movie is the result of the two getting into, and then extricating themselves from, outrageous situations in their mission to covertly locate, open up (read: utterly destroy), and thus rule out each chair, in turn.
By posing as the official in charge of the Department of Chairs, Bender tricks Father Fyodor into a wild goose chase after a set of eleven chairs similar to those being sought, these being now in the possession of an engineer named Bruns currently assigned to a remote province in Siberia. Father Fyodor makes the long journey, but is unceremoniously thrown out after unsuccessfully trying to buy the chairs from the engineer and his wife. After the engineer is re-assigned to a post on the Black Sea, Father Fyodor follows them relentlessly and finally manages to obtain the chairs (on the condition that the engineer and his wife never see him again). Unfortunately, he finds that none of the chairs have the jewels. Later, he catches up with Vorobyaninov and Bender after they have retrieved one chair from a circus, and while being chased by them frantically climbs with the chair straight up the side of a mountain. After finding out that this chair doesn't contain the jewels, he finds that he is unable to get down again without help and is left to his fate by the duo.
Eventually, but only after traveling many long weary miles and perpetrating plenty of cons to pay for the lengthy enterprise, the duo make their way back to Moscow where they discover the 12th and last chair that must – through process of elimination – contain the treasure. It is located in a Palace of Culture
, tantalizingly accessible but also, frustratingly inconvenient due to the presence of so many witnesses. After closing, the two return to the building, entering through a window Bender secretly unlocked earlier so they can open up the last chair in peace.
At the moment of discovery, Bender carefully and quietly opens the chair cushion with his knife, but their hopes are dashed as it is found to be, like all eleven before them, completely empty. Vorobyanninov is stunned and angry, while Bender cannot help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
A watchman then comes upon the protagonists, and Vorobyanninov demands to know what happened to the jewels. "Look around you," the watchman answers, explaining to the pair how the jewels were unexpectedly found one day and further, how it was decided that the grand building that they are now sitting in the center of would be built with the fortuitous fortune realized by the sale of the discovered gems.
Hearing this "inspiring" story sends Vorobyaninov over the edge. Driven into a sudden rage, he smashes the chair to pieces and assaults the officer whom the watchman has summoned, knocking him out. After sternly admonishing him for hitting a policeman, Bender leads the way as the two make a hurried escape into the night.
Now at the end of his patience, feeling demoralized, and bankrupted in every sense of the word, Bender proposes that he and Vorobyaninov split up and go their separate ways. This produces an immediate and palpable tension because the two had been so long together. Even though they could not have had more different backgrounds, and even as they regularly antagonized one another, they also had bonded to one another, each in his own fashion. However, Bender is unable to see how a con man could possibly survive long with an emotionally shattered nobleman and so after forcefully saying his peace, he begins to walk off.
Capriciously, in a last ditch effort to keep Bender from leaving, Vorobyaninov flings the remains of the last chair into the air, and collapses to the ground feigning an epileptic seizure as an unspoken invitation for Bender, the inveterate swindler, to rip off the crowd, a reprise of an earlier event in the story. This is a pivotal because previously, as they were trying to decide what to do, the former noble had impetuously and derisively proclaimed to Bender that "there has never been a Vorobyaninov who begs!"
Bender, who had not yet noticed the action of his comrade, as he was about to place a serious distance between himself and his nettlesome friend, is compelled to pause as he hears the people around suddenly gasp and huddle around a "stricken" man who has tumbled to the ground among them. Turning to see the cause of the commotion, and after what feels like a long pause even though it is only a moment, Bender stands, watching the spastic flailing of his longtime partner/nemesis, and he silently considers the scene before him as the crowd murmurs and mulls about, seemingly unsure what to do.
Finally, with a wan grin that only someone who knew the irony would see, he loudly calls out for the attention of those around, asking for all the passers-by to gather around. Bender lapses with ease into a spontaneous but smooth appeal to all to give generously to this sad man who had been stricken down with "the same malady that struck down our own beloved Dostoevsky
!" He works the crowd by silent agreement and with professional skill.
The camera begins to pull back and shows more people being pulled in by the ruse. As the shot continues to pull out and as the music wells up in the background, the movie ends as the two, using impromptu gestures, and without a word between them, cement their partnership and avert their parting – at least for the day, which, along with every other Soviet citizen, is all they now have.
) for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium.
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
, starring Frank Langella
Frank Langella
-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...
, Dom DeLuise
Dom DeLuise
Dominick "Dom" DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the husband of actress Carol Arthur from 1965 until his death and the father of: actor, director, pianist, and writer Peter DeLuise; actor David DeLuise; and actor Michael DeLuise...
and Ron Moody
Ron Moody
Ron Moody is an English actor.- Personal life :Moody was born in Tottenham, North London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare...
. The screenplay was written by Brooks. The film is loosely based on a Russian 1928 novel The Twelve Chairs
The Twelve Chairs
The Twelve Chairs is a classic satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, released in 1928. Its main character Ostap Bender reappears in the book's sequel The Little Golden Calf.-Plot:...
by Ilf and Petrov
Ilf and Petrov
Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Evgeny or Yevgeni Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Kataev or Katayev were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s...
. The novel had been previously filmed as Keep Your Seats Please by Ealing Studios in 1936 starring George Formby
George Formby
George Formby, OBE , born George Hoy Booth, was a British comedy actor, singer-songwriter, and comedian. He sang light, comical songs, accompanying himself on the banjo ukulele or banjolele...
and It's in the Bag!
It's in the Bag!
It's in the Bag! is a 1945 comedy film featuring Fred Allen in his only starring film role. The film was released by United Artists at a time when Allen was at the peak of his fame as one of the most popular radio comedians.-Characters and story:...
(1945) as a starring vehicle for Fred Allen
Fred Allen
Fred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it...
.
Plot
In the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in 1927, Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov (Ron Moody
Ron Moody
Ron Moody is an English actor.- Personal life :Moody was born in Tottenham, North London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare...
), an impoverished aristocrat
Russian nobility
The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo , derives from the Russian word dvor , meaning the Court of a prince or duke and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin...
from Imperial Russia, is summoned, along with the village priest, to the deathbed of his mother in law. She reveals, before passing, that a fortune in jewels had been hidden from the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s by being sewn into the seat cushion of one of the twelve chairs from the family's dining room set. After hearing the dying woman's Confession
Confession
This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...
, the Russian Orthodox priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
Father Fyodor (Dom DeLuise
Dom DeLuise
Dominick "Dom" DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the husband of actress Carol Arthur from 1965 until his death and the father of: actor, director, pianist, and writer Peter DeLuise; actor David DeLuise; and actor Michael DeLuise...
), who has arrived to give the Last Rites
Last Rites
The Last Rites are the very last prayers and ministrations given to many Christians before death. The last rites go by various names and include different practices in different Christian traditions...
, decides to abandon the Church and attempt to steal the treasure.
Shortly thereafter, a homeless con-artist, Ostap Bender
Ostap Bender
Ostap Bender is a fictional con man and antihero who first appeared in the novel The Twelve Chairs written by Soviet authors Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov and released in January 1928.-Appearances:...
(Frank Langella
Frank Langella
-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...
), meets the dispossessed nobleman and manipulates his way into a partnership in his search for the family riches. Although Ostap is an unwelcome addition at first, it is mostly through his cunning, intellect and charm that the pair manages to get anywhere while keeping ahead of the apostate priest who is now their competition.
The chairs, along with all other private property, had been expropriated by the State after the Russian Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. The two set off together to locate the chairs and recover the fortune, but are stymied by a series of false leads and other trying events.
Early on, they find that the chairs have been split up and sold individually. Therefore, their hunt requires a great deal of travel to track down and open up each piece of the set in order to eliminate it as a possible location of the booty. As they progress, they meet comrades
Comrade
Comrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally". The word comes from French camarade. The term is frequently used by left-wing organizations around the globe. "Comrade" has often become a stock phrase and form of address. This word has its regional equivalents available in many...
from every walk of life in Soviet Russian society, transforming the film into a satirical sendup of failing Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. Much of the humor in the movie is the result of the two getting into, and then extricating themselves from, outrageous situations in their mission to covertly locate, open up (read: utterly destroy), and thus rule out each chair, in turn.
By posing as the official in charge of the Department of Chairs, Bender tricks Father Fyodor into a wild goose chase after a set of eleven chairs similar to those being sought, these being now in the possession of an engineer named Bruns currently assigned to a remote province in Siberia. Father Fyodor makes the long journey, but is unceremoniously thrown out after unsuccessfully trying to buy the chairs from the engineer and his wife. After the engineer is re-assigned to a post on the Black Sea, Father Fyodor follows them relentlessly and finally manages to obtain the chairs (on the condition that the engineer and his wife never see him again). Unfortunately, he finds that none of the chairs have the jewels. Later, he catches up with Vorobyaninov and Bender after they have retrieved one chair from a circus, and while being chased by them frantically climbs with the chair straight up the side of a mountain. After finding out that this chair doesn't contain the jewels, he finds that he is unable to get down again without help and is left to his fate by the duo.
Eventually, but only after traveling many long weary miles and perpetrating plenty of cons to pay for the lengthy enterprise, the duo make their way back to Moscow where they discover the 12th and last chair that must – through process of elimination – contain the treasure. It is located in a Palace of Culture
Palace of Culture
Palace of Culture or House of Culture was the name for major club-houses in the former Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern bloc. It was an establishment for all kinds of recreational activities and hobbies: sports, collecting, arts, etc., and the Palace of Culture was designed to have room...
, tantalizingly accessible but also, frustratingly inconvenient due to the presence of so many witnesses. After closing, the two return to the building, entering through a window Bender secretly unlocked earlier so they can open up the last chair in peace.
At the moment of discovery, Bender carefully and quietly opens the chair cushion with his knife, but their hopes are dashed as it is found to be, like all eleven before them, completely empty. Vorobyanninov is stunned and angry, while Bender cannot help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
A watchman then comes upon the protagonists, and Vorobyanninov demands to know what happened to the jewels. "Look around you," the watchman answers, explaining to the pair how the jewels were unexpectedly found one day and further, how it was decided that the grand building that they are now sitting in the center of would be built with the fortuitous fortune realized by the sale of the discovered gems.
Hearing this "inspiring" story sends Vorobyaninov over the edge. Driven into a sudden rage, he smashes the chair to pieces and assaults the officer whom the watchman has summoned, knocking him out. After sternly admonishing him for hitting a policeman, Bender leads the way as the two make a hurried escape into the night.
Now at the end of his patience, feeling demoralized, and bankrupted in every sense of the word, Bender proposes that he and Vorobyaninov split up and go their separate ways. This produces an immediate and palpable tension because the two had been so long together. Even though they could not have had more different backgrounds, and even as they regularly antagonized one another, they also had bonded to one another, each in his own fashion. However, Bender is unable to see how a con man could possibly survive long with an emotionally shattered nobleman and so after forcefully saying his peace, he begins to walk off.
Capriciously, in a last ditch effort to keep Bender from leaving, Vorobyaninov flings the remains of the last chair into the air, and collapses to the ground feigning an epileptic seizure as an unspoken invitation for Bender, the inveterate swindler, to rip off the crowd, a reprise of an earlier event in the story. This is a pivotal because previously, as they were trying to decide what to do, the former noble had impetuously and derisively proclaimed to Bender that "there has never been a Vorobyaninov who begs!"
Bender, who had not yet noticed the action of his comrade, as he was about to place a serious distance between himself and his nettlesome friend, is compelled to pause as he hears the people around suddenly gasp and huddle around a "stricken" man who has tumbled to the ground among them. Turning to see the cause of the commotion, and after what feels like a long pause even though it is only a moment, Bender stands, watching the spastic flailing of his longtime partner/nemesis, and he silently considers the scene before him as the crowd murmurs and mulls about, seemingly unsure what to do.
Finally, with a wan grin that only someone who knew the irony would see, he loudly calls out for the attention of those around, asking for all the passers-by to gather around. Bender lapses with ease into a spontaneous but smooth appeal to all to give generously to this sad man who had been stricken down with "the same malady that struck down our own beloved Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
!" He works the crowd by silent agreement and with professional skill.
The camera begins to pull back and shows more people being pulled in by the ruse. As the shot continues to pull out and as the music wells up in the background, the movie ends as the two, using impromptu gestures, and without a word between them, cement their partnership and avert their parting – at least for the day, which, along with every other Soviet citizen, is all they now have.
Cast
- Ron MoodyRon MoodyRon Moody is an English actor.- Personal life :Moody was born in Tottenham, North London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare...
as Ippolit Vorobyaninov - Frank LangellaFrank Langella-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...
as Ostap Bender - Dom DeLuiseDom DeLuiseDominick "Dom" DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the husband of actress Carol Arthur from 1965 until his death and the father of: actor, director, pianist, and writer Peter DeLuise; actor David DeLuise; and actor Michael DeLuise...
as Father Fyodor - Andreas VoutsinasAndréas VoutsinasAndréas Voutsinas was a Greek actor and theater director. In the English-speaking world, he was best known for his roles in three Mel Brooks films, The Producers , The Twelve Chairs and History of the World, Part I .CareerAndreas Voutsinas was born in Khartoum, Sudan on 22 August 1932 by parents...
as Nikolai Sestrin - Diana CouplandDiana CouplandBetty Diana Coupland was an English actress best remembered for her role as Jean Abbott on Bless This House, which she played from 1971 to 1976.-Early life:...
as Madame Bruns - David LanderDavid LanderDavid L. Lander is an American actor, comedian, composer, musician, and baseball scout. David is also the Goodwill Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.- Biography :...
as Engineer Bruns - Vlada Petric as Sevitsky
- Elaine Garreau as Claudia Ivanovna
- Robert Bernal as Curator
- Will Stampe as Night Watchman
- Mel BrooksMel BrooksMel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
as Tikon
Awards
Frank Langella won the NBR (National Board of Review) award for Best Supporting Actor. Mel Brooks was nominated for the WGA (Writers Guild of AmericaWriters Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
) for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium.