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Storyline
A former aristocrat Ippolit Vorobyaninov leads a miserable life in Soviet Russia. His mother-in-law reveals a secret to him - she hid family diamonds in one of the twelve chairs they once had. Vorobyaninov in cooperation with a young con artist Ostap Bender start a long search for the diamonds.
Written by
Konstantin Dlutskii <kedlutski@mailexcite.com>
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Goofs
When Bender and Vorobyaninov start working on the propaganda poster, the height of the blank poster (based on the surrounding objects) does not exceed four meters. Later when the finished poster is erected on board of the ship its height is not less that ten meters.
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Crazy Credits
17 minutes before the ending there is an intertitle stating: There are 00 hours, 17 minutes and 19 seconds before the end of the film.
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Soundtracks
Gde sredi pampasov begayut bizony...
("Tango pirata")
Written by
Aleksandr Zatsepin and
Leonid Derbenyov
Performed by
Valeriy Zolotukhin See more »
The tag line suggests this movie was made because the Soviet Union "couldn't stand the unauthentic version." They should have quit while they were ahead. The Mel Brooks version is light, funny, upbeat and short--compared to this monstrosity that takes almost 3 hours to view. It is true, Brooks changed the ending while this version is true to the Ilf and Petrov version, but that only improves the story. This is a plodding, un-funny, self-conscious and dreary movie, most of which should have been left on the cutting-room floor--in other words, a typical product of what passed for art in the Soviet Union. Worth seeing only so you can appreciate how much better the American Version is.
Incidentally, there is also a Cuban version of the story, set in post-Castro Cuba, which is also totally unwatchable. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055915/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_4