The Twelve Chairs (1970 film)

Last updated

The Twelve Chairs
TwelveChairsVHS.png
VHS cover
Directed by Mel Brooks
Screenplay by
  • Mel Brooks
Based on The Twelve Chairs
by Ilf and Petrov
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDjordje Nikolic
Edited by Alan Heim
Music by John Morris
Distributed byUMC (Universal Marion Corporation) Pictures
Release date
  • October 28, 1970 (1970-10-28)
Running time
93 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.5 million [2]

The Twelve Chairs is a 1970 American comedy film directed and written by Mel Brooks, and starring Frank Langella, Ron Moody and Dom DeLuise. The film is one of at least eighteen film adaptations of the Soviet 1928 novel The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov.

Contents

Plot

In the Soviet Union in 1927, Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, an impoverished aristocrat from Imperial Russia now working as a local village bureaucrat, is summoned to the deathbed of his mother-in-law. She reveals before dying that a fortune in jewels had been hidden from the Bolsheviks 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, who had arrived to administer the last rites, decides to abandon the Church and attempt to steal the treasure for himself. Shortly afterwards in the town of Stargorod, where Vorobyaninov's former mansion is located, a homeless con-artist, Ostap Bender, meets the dispossessed nobleman and manipulates his way into a partnership in his search for the family riches.

The chairs, along with all other private property, had been appropriated by the State after the Russian Revolution. Vorobyaninov and Bender set off together to locate the chairs and recover the fortune, but are stymied by a series of false leads and other trying events. 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.

Posing as the official in charge of the Department of Chairs, Bender tricks Father Fyodor into a wild goose chase to recover a similar set of eleven chairs in the possession of an engineer in Siberia. Father Fyodor makes the long journey only to be thrown out of the engineer's house. When the engineer is reassigned to a post on the Black Sea, Fyodor follows him and buys the counterfeit chairs (on the condition that the engineer and his wife never see him again). He finds that none of the chairs has the jewels, and tries to kill himself. Later, he runs across 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 the chair never contains the jewels, he finds that he is unable to get down again without help. Vorobyaninov and Bender leave him to his fate.

Vorobyaninov and Bender return to Moscow where they discover the last chair, which is located in a recreational centre for railway workers, which is inconvenient due to the presence of so many witnesses. Vorobyaninov and Bender return after closing time, entering through a window Bender secretly had unlocked earlier. Bender carefully and quietly opens the chair cushion, only to be found empty. A watchman finds them and Vorobyaninov demands to know what happened to the jewels. The watchman explains that the jewels they accidentally found was used to finance construction of the recreation centre. Driven into a sudden rage, Vorobyaninov smashes the chair to pieces and assaults the officer whom the watchman has summoned. After admonishing him for hitting a policeman, Bender leads the way and they escape into the night.

The next day, Bender proposes that he and Vorobyaninov go their separate ways, since they are already targeted by the authorities. In a desperate attempt 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, a con they used during their travels. Attracted by the crowd and understanding what Vorobyaninov is doing, Bender calls for the crowd's attention and begs the passers-by to give generously. Using simple gestures, the two men cement their partnership in crime.

Cast

Production

Development

Director Mel Brooks met with a gourmet society consisting of Mario Puzo, Joseph Heller, Speed Vogel, and Julius Green every Tuesday night in Chinatown, Manhattan throughout the 1950s and 1960s. During a club meeting, Green gave Brooks his copy of the Russian novel The Twelve Chairs , the first of three books written by Ilf and Petrov, and told Brooks that it could possibly work as a movie. Brooks was sceptical but changed his mind after reading it. [3]

Brooks decided the movie needed a title song and considered hiring a songwriter to write the lyrics. His wife, Anne Bancroft, successfully convinced Brooks to write it himself, reminding him that he wrote The Producers and its songs. He got the idea for the song's title, "Hope for the Best, Expect for the Worst", from the movie's Russian setting, and based the song's melody on a Johannes Brahms composition, Hungarian Dances Number 4 in B Minor, which was in turn based on the csárdás "Bártfai emlék", composed by Béla Kéler. [4] According to Brooks, the song's first eight bars are taken directly from the composition, but the interlude and the release are original. [3]

The novel has Vorobyaninov murdering Bender upon discovering the final chair. Brooks was firm on changing this, stating in an interview with the online magazine Consequence that he did not want the movie to end in a depressing manner, and thought the ending worked better for him. [3]

Casting

Brooks wanted Alastair Sim as Vorobyaninov, Albert Finney as Ostap Bender and Peter Sellers as Father Fyodor, but they were all unavailable. [5] Brooks asked Gene Wilder to play Vorobyaninov, but Wilder disagreed and thought he was too young for the part, telling Brooks that the role of Vorobyaninov should be played by a man who looks aged. [3] Looking for a replacement for Fyodor, Bancroft saw Dom DeLuise on television and recommended him to Brooks. The two's first meeting lasted four and a half hours. Recalling the event, DeLuise said of it: "Mr. Brooks said that Peter Sellers was supposed to play this part, but even if he did, we would be friends forever." Bancroft introduced Brooks to Frank Langella, who worked with her on the stage drama A Cry with Players and an experimental stage adaptation of The Skin of Our Teeth . Langella assisted Brooks with the casting of Ostap by helping him name actors to potentially play the part. Brooks eventually gave up and told Langella: "Oh, the hell with it. You do it." Langella took Brooks to a showing of Oliver! , which starred Ron Moody as Fagin. Langella told Brooks "There’s your Vorobyaninov." [6] [5]

Filming

Principal photography for the film took place in Yugoslavia, primarily in the Belgrade region, including the present-day Croatian city, Dubrovnik, from 25 August to mid November 1969. [7] [2] [3] [8] Production began at Kosutnjak Studios in Belgrade, where Brooks was given a crew of either eighty or one thousand people after negotiating with the Yugoslav government. [9] [10] The crew could not understand what Brooks would say on set because he only knew English. [11] During filming in Dubrovnik of a scene where DeLuise destroys some of the chairs, Brooks, frustrated by a difficult shot, threw his director's chair into the Adriatic Sea. This infuriated the film crew, who stopped working and threatened to strike. Confused, Brooks asked the cinematographer, Djordje Nikolic, why this was happening, to which Nikolic responded in a whisper: "You’ve just thrown the people’s chair into the Adriatic. This is a communist country. Everything belongs to the people. The cameras, the celluloid. You’re making a people’s picture." Brooks replied: "Tell them I profoundly apologize for hurling the people’s chair into the Adriatic. I’ll never do that again. And I’d like to extend my profound regrets." After reconciling with the crew, they all toasted to Vinjak and got drunk, spending the rest of the day carousing and kissing each other. [9] Brooks said he "learned to respect the people's chair." [3] [10]

Brooks had an energetic directing style. A tree obstructed the view of a shot, so he tried to pull it out of the ground. In a scene where Langella was instructed to row a boat across the moonlight, he went so far out into the ocean that, at three in the morning, Brooks had to enter the ocean himself and swim to find him. [10] Being of Russian Jew descent, Brooks relished his time in Yugoslavia and felt like he had come home, [6] and called the filming of the movie a "great, great adventure." [9]

Langella fell while picking up Moody in the filming of a scene, cutting his buttocks. While recovering in bed, DeLuise entered his room dressed as a nurse, and said to him: "How do you do? I'm Nurse DeLuise. I'm here to tend your wounds." [11] Langella was paid a very low amount of money, humorously stating he was paid "about 45 cents to do the movie." [10]

Release

Reception

The Twelve Chairs received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 87% approval score based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. [12]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote: "For some reason, this sort of comedy of physical insult seemed much funnier to me in the Broadway world of The Producers , which is really aggressive and nasty and cheap, than in a Russia that is not too far removed from the world of Sholem Aleichem." [13] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four and wrote that, while "you do laugh a lot ... It's not going for the laughs alone. It has something to say about honor among thieves, and by the end of the film we can sense a bond between the two main characters that is even, amazingly, human." [14] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also gave the film four stars out of four, finding that it was not only funny but remarkable for "the quality of [Brooks's] direction, not even considering that The Twelve Chairs is only his second film. Brooks is in complete control of the many film techniques—visual and dramatic—he employs: slow motion, speed-ups and sight gags clearly borrowed from the silent era." [15] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "despite some nicely farcical and stylized moments—many of them provided by Brooks himself in a cameo role as a drunken servant—the movie's first half isn't strong enough to override a thin and disappointing second half." [16] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post found the film "much more consistent and fluid than Brooks' first film, The Producers. You don't gyrate as wildly between inspired and mediocre bits, but the 'wild' bits, the idees fixes,are still there, performed brilliantly by Moody and DeLuise and Brooks himself." [17] Richard Combs of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that Dom DeLuise "simpers and slavers to great effect as the piously greedy Father Fyodor ... DeLuise, in fact, considerably outshines the two leads." [18] John Simon said The Twelve Chairs "is a model of how not to make a comedy." [19]

Brooks has considered The Twelve Chairs to be an exceptional work of his, ranking it with The Producers and Life Stinks as the movies he is most proud of having made, [5] and one that more people should watch. [20]

Box office

The film opened at the Tower East in New York and the Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, grossing $40,000 in its first week. [21] [22]

Awards

Langella won the National Board of Review award for Best Supporting Actor. Brooks was nominated by the Writers Guild of America for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium.

Related Research Articles

<i>Blazing Saddles</i> 1974 Western comedy film by Mel Brooks

Blazing Saddles is a 1974 American satirical postmodernist Western black comedy film directed by Mel Brooks, who co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg and Alan Uger, based on a story treatment by Bergman. The film stars Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. Brooks appears in two supporting roles: Governor William J. Le Petomane, and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief; he also dubs lines for one of Lili Von Shtupp's backing troupe and a cranky moviegoer. The supporting cast includes Slim Pickens, Alex Karras and David Huddleston, as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman. Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself, appearing with his orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mel Brooks</span> American actor, comedian and filmmaker (born 1926)

Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, songwriter, and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 21 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2024.

<i>Spaceballs</i> 1987 film by Mel Brooks

Spaceballs is a 1987 American space opera parody film co-written, produced and directed by Mel Brooks. It is primarily a parody of the original Star Wars trilogy, but also parodies other sci-fi films and popular franchises including Star Trek, Alien, The Wizard of Oz, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, and Transformers. The film stars Bill Pullman, John Candy, and Rick Moranis, with the supporting cast including Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, George Wyner, Lorene Yarnell, and the voice of Joan Rivers. In addition to Brooks playing a dual role, the film also features Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise and Rudy De Luca in cameo appearances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Moody</span> English actor, composer, singer and writer (1924–2015)

Ron Moody was an English actor, composer, singer and writer. He was best known for his portrayal of Fagin in Oliver! (1968) and its 1983 Broadway revival. Moody earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for the film, as well as a Tony Award nomination for the stage production. Other notable projects include The Mouse on the Moon (1963), Mel Brooks' The Twelve Chairs (1970) and Flight of the Doves (1971), in which Moody shared the screen with Oliver! co-star Jack Wild.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ostap Bender</span> Fictional con man from Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrovs novels

Ostap Bender is a fictional con man and the central antiheroic protagonist in the novels The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Little Golden Calf (1931) written by Soviet authors Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov. The novels belong to the picaresque novel genre, which was previously rare in Russian literature. In The Twelve Chairs he called himself Ostap-Suleyman-Berta-Maria-Bender-Bey, in The Little Golden Calf he called himself Bender-Zadunaysky, and he was called Ostap Ibragimovich by one of his companions.

<i>Silent Movie</i> 1976 American satirical comedy film by Mel Brooks

Silent Movie is a 1976 American satirical silent comedy film co-written, directed by and starring Mel Brooks, released by 20th Century Fox in summer 1976. The ensemble cast includes Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters. and Sid Caesar, with cameos by Anne Bancroft, Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Marcel Marceau, and Paul Newman as themselves, and character cameos by Harry Ritz of the Ritz Brothers, Charlie Callas, and Henny Youngman. The film was produced in the manner of an early-20th-century silent film, with intertitles instead of spoken dialogue; the soundtrack consists almost entirely of orchestral accompaniment and sound effects. It is an affectionate parody of slapstick comedies, including those of Charlie Chaplin, Mack Sennett, and Buster Keaton. The film satirizes the film industry, presenting the story of a film producer trying to obtain studio support to make a silent film in the 1970s.

<i>History of the World, Part I</i> 1981 film by Mel Brooks

History of the World, Part I is a 1981 American comedy film written, produced, and directed by Mel Brooks. Brooks also stars in the film, playing five roles: Moses, Comicus the stand-up philosopher, Tomás de Torquemada, King Louis XVI, and Jacques, le garçon de pisse. The large ensemble cast also features Sid Caesar, Shecky Greene, Gregory Hines, Charlie Callas; and Brooks regulars Ron Carey, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Andreas Voutsinas, and Spike Milligan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dom DeLuise</span> American actor (1933–2009)

Dominick DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, director, chef, and author. Known primarily for comedy roles, he rose to fame in the 1970s as a frequent guest on television variety shows. He is widely recognized for his performances in the films of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, as well as a series of collaborations and a double act with Burt Reynolds. Beginning in the 1980s, his popularity expanded to younger audiences from voicing characters in several major animated productions, particularly those of Don Bluth.

<i>Robin Hood: Men in Tights</i> 1993 film by Mel Brooks

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a 1993 adventure comedy film and a parody of the Robin Hood story. The film was produced and directed by Mel Brooks, co-written by Brooks, Evan Chandler, and J. David Shapiro based on a story by Chandler and Shapiro, and stars Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, and Dave Chappelle in his film debut. It includes frequent comedic references to previous Robin Hood films, particularly Prince of Thieves, and the 1938 Errol Flynn adaptation The Adventures of Robin Hood. Brooks himself had previously created the short-lived sitcom When Things Were Rotten in the mid-1970s, which also spoofed the Robin Hood legend.

<i>The Twelve Chairs</i> Novel by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov

The Twelve Chairs is a classic satirical picaresque novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, published in 1928. Its plot follows characters attempting to obtain jewelry hidden in a chair. A sequel was published in 1931. The novel has been adapted to other media, primarily film.

<i>The Little Golden Calf</i> 1931 novel by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov

The Little Golden Calf is a satirical picaresque novel by Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, published in 1931. Its main character, Ostap Bender, also appears in a previous novel by the authors called The Twelve Chairs. The title alludes to the "golden calf" of the Bible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Langella</span> American actor (born 1938)

Frank A. Langella Jr. is an American actor known for his roles on stage and screen. He eschewed the career of a traditional film star by making the stage the focal point of his career, appearing frequently on Broadway. He has received numerous accolades including four Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, an Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.

The Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms (WoO 1), are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on Hungarian themes, completed in 1879. They vary from about a minute to five minutes in length. They are among Brahms's most popular works and were the most profitable for him. Each dance has been arranged for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles. Brahms originally wrote the version for piano four hands and later arranged the first ten dances for solo piano.

<i>The End</i> (1978 film) 1978 black comedy-buddy film directed by Burt Reynolds

The End is a 1978 American black comedy film directed by and starring Burt Reynolds, written by Jerry Belson, and with music composed by Paul Williams. The film also stars Dom DeLuise along with Sally Field, Strother Martin, David Steinberg, Joanne Woodward, Norman Fell, Myrna Loy, Kristy McNichol, Pat O'Brien, Robby Benson and Carl Reiner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrei Mironov (actor)</span> Soviet-Russian actor (1941–1987)

Andrei Aleksandrovich Mironov was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor who played lead roles in some of the most popular Soviet films, such as The Diamond Arm, Beware of the Car and Twelve Chairs. Mironov was also a popular singer.

<i>Fatso</i> (1980 film) 1980 film by Anne Bancroft

Fatso is a 1980 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Anne Bancroft, her only such credit, and starring Dom DeLuise, Ron Carey and Candice Azzara. It was the first film produced by Mel Brooks's Brooksfilms company. The film examines the subject matter of obesity, addiction, family, self-acceptance and singlehood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ezio Greggio</span> Italian comedian, actor, writer and film director

Ezio Greggio is an Italian comedian, actor, writer and film director.

<i>The Twelve Chairs</i> (1976 film) Soviet Union TV series or program

The Twelve Chairs is a 1976 four-episode musical television film directed by Mark Zakharov based on the 1928 novel of the same name by Ilf and Petrov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergey Filippov</span> Soviet actor

Sergey Nikolayevich Filippov was a Soviet and Russian film and stage actor and comedian, best known for his parts in films Adventures of Korzinkina (1941), The Night Patrol (1957) and the adaptation of Ilf and Petrov's classic The Twelve Chairs (1971), which granted him the People's Artist of the RSFSR title in 1974.

<i>The Twelve Chairs</i> (1971 film) 1971 Soviet Union film

The Twelve Chairs is a 1971 Soviet comedy film directed by Leonid Gaidai. It is an adaptation of Ilf and Petrov's 1928 novel The Twelve Chairs.

References

  1. ↑ "THE TWELVE CHAIRS (U)". British Board of Film Classification . September 29, 1970. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Wakeman, John (1988). World Film Directors, 1945–1985. Vol. 2. The H.W. Wilson Company. pp. 162–7. ISBN   978-0-824-20763-2.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Comedy Legend Mel Brooks Revisits His Underrated Masterpiece the Twelve Chairs". October 28, 2020.
  4. ↑ Walker, Alan (1987). Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 1811–1847. Cornell University Press. p. 341. ISBN   9780801494215. Brahms was accused by the Hungarian bandmaster Béla Kéler of having published under his own name two Hungarian Dances composed by Kéler himself—nos. 5 and 6. In fact, Brahms's Fifth Hungarian Dance is based on Kéler's csárdás Bártfai emlék.
  5. 1 2 3 "Finding Long-Lost Treasure Among 'The Twelve Chairs'". Los Angeles Times . July 6, 1997.
  6. 1 2 It's Good to be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks. John Wiley & Sons. February 26, 2008. ISBN   9780470225264.
  7. ↑ "Mel Brooks discusses his new movie 'The Twelve Chairs'". Studs Terkel Radio Archive . Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  8. ↑ It's Good to be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks. John Wiley & Sons. February 26, 2008. ISBN   9780470225264.
  9. 1 2 3 "Quiet on the Set! - Mel Brooks".
  10. 1 2 3 4 It's Good to be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks. John Wiley & Sons. February 26, 2008. ISBN   9780470225264.
  11. 1 2 "Frank Langella Breaks Down His Career, from 'Dracula' to 'The Americans' | Vanity Fair". YouTube . October 16, 2020.
  12. ↑ "The Twelve Chairs (1970)". Rotten Tomatoes . Flixster . Retrieved July 25, 2024.
  13. ↑ Canby, Vincent (October 29, 1970). "Screen: Mel Brooks on Prowlin Soviet". The New York Times . 58.
  14. ↑ Ebert, Roger (December 22, 1970). "The Twelve Chairs". RogerEbert.com . Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  15. ↑ Siskel, Gene (December 21, 1970). "Twelve Chairs..." Chicago Tribune . Section 2, p. 9.
  16. ↑ Champlin, Charles (October 29, 1970). "'Twelve Chairs' Opens Run". Los Angeles Times . Part IV, p. 12.
  17. ↑ Arnold, Gary (November 12, 1970). "Twelve Chairs". The Washington Post . C10.
  18. ↑ Combs, Richard (October 1975). "The Twelve Chairs". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 42 (501): 227.
  19. ↑ Simon, John (1982). Reverse Angle: A Decade of American Film. Crown Publishers Inc. p. 145.
  20. ↑ "Mel Brooks talks Dating Tips, New Hulu Series, and Career Advice with Granddaughter Samantha". YouTube . November 28, 2022.
  21. ↑ "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety . November 11, 1970. p. 11.
  22. ↑ "Picture Grosses". Variety . November 11, 1970. p. 9.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.