The Twelve Chairs (1970) on Netflix
Soviet Russia, 1927: Vorobyaninov, a fallen aristocrat, learns his jewels are sewn into one of twelve dining chairs. Con artist Ostap Bender joins the hunt, and Father Fyodor wants them too.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.4/107,942 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes87%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1927, Vorobyaninov, a nobleman left with nothing after the revolution, works as a village bureaucrat. At his mother-in-law's deathbed he learns that she sewed the family jewels into the cushion of one of the twelve chairs of the dining room set, to keep them from the Bolsheviks. Father Fyodor, the priest who came to administer the last rites, hears the confession and resolves to leave the Church and take the treasure for himself. In Stargorod, the con artist Ostap Bender talks his way into a partnership with him. Vorobyaninov's former servant Tikon explains that the state seized eleven of the chairs along with the family's estate.
Cast
- Vlada Petricas Sevitsky
- Elaine Garreauas Claudia Ivanovna
- Will Stampeas Night Watchman
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Twelve Chairs (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
The novel has Vorobyaninov murdering Bender upon discovering the final chair, but Brooks was firm on changing this, saying he was always going to have Ostap see the light and come to the aid and rescue of poor Vorobyaninov instead.- Frustrated by a difficult shot, Brooks threw his director's chair into the Adriatic Sea; the crew stopped working and threatened to strike, and cinematographer Djordje Nikolic whispered that he had just thrown the people's chair into the Adriatic, in a communist country where everything belonged to the people.
- Brooks wanted Alastair Sim as Vorobyaninov, Albert Finney as Ostap Bender and Peter Sellers as Father Fyodor, but all three were unavailable; he then asked Gene Wilder to play Vorobyaninov, and Wilder thought himself too young for the part.
- Langella took Brooks to a showing of Oliver!, which starred Ron Moody as Fagin, and told Brooks: "There's your Vorobyaninov."
- Brooks based the melody of the song "Hope for the Best, Expect for the Worst" on Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances Number 4 in B Minor, which was in turn based on the csárdás "Bártfai emlék" composed by Béla Kéler.
- Langella fell while picking up Moody during the filming of a scene, cutting his buttocks, and he later joked that he was paid "about 45 cents to do the movie".
