Twelve Chairs (1971)

Two gentlemen of fortune from the times of Imperial Russia are looking for an uncountable treasure at the dawn of the Soviet Union age.

Director:

Leonid Gaidai

Writers:

Ilya Ilf (novel), Yevgeni Petrov (novel)

Stars:

Archil Gomiashvili, Sergey Filippov, Mikhail Pugovkin

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Archil Gomiashvili	...	Ostap Bender
Sergey Filippov	...	Kisa Vorobyaninov
Mikhail Pugovkin	...	Father Fyodor
Natalya Krachkovskaya	...	M-me Gritsatsuyeva
Natalya Vorobyova	...	Ellochka Schukina
Glikeriya Bogdanova-Chesnokova	...	Yelena Stanislavovna Bowr
Nina Grebeshkova	...	Musik / Tsaritza Tamara
Yuriy Nikulin	...	Dvornik Tikhon
Natalya Varley	...	Liza
Klara Rumyanova	...	Katerina Alexandrovna, Father Fyodor's wife
Leonid Gaidai	...	Varfolomey Korobeynikov
Igor Yasulovich	...	Engineer Schukin
Georgiy Vitsin	...	Stage worker Mechnikov
Saveliy Kramarov	...	Chess club chairman
Viktor Pavlov	...	Kolya

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.

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Plot Keywords:

crook | russia | aristocrat | mother in law | con artist | 

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Taglines:

Amerika Be Seated!

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime

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Certificate:

PG-13

Did You Know?

Trivia

The play Ostap and Ippolit are watching in the theater is an adaptation of Nikolay Gogol's "Revisor". Later Leonid Gaidai, who directed this movie, went on to make his own adaptation of the play which became Inkognito iz Peterburga (1978).

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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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Connections

Referenced in Komediya davno minuvshikh dney (1980)

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Soundtracks

Gde sredi pampasov begayut bizony...
("Tango pirata")
Written by Aleksandr Zatsepin and Leonid Derbenyov
Performed by Valeriy Zolotukhin

User Reviews

Not nearly as good as the Mel Brooks version

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

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian Lithuanian German Georgian French

Release Date:

2 November 1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

Twelve Chairs

Filming Locations:

Mosfilm Studios, Moscow, Russia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mosfilm, Eksperimentalnoe Tvorcheskoe Obedinenie

Technical Specs

Runtime:

159 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1