A "serious comedy" from Mel Brooks. "The Twelve Chairs" borders on farce but is relatively restrained. This restraint is all the more remarkable in light of Dom DeLuise's manic attempts to take over. Ron Moody (who is best remember as Fagin in 'Oliver' on film and on the West End and Broadway)is superb. Frank Langella is less impressive, but he does bring the necessary character to the role. If you expect and want "Blazing Saddles" this movie is not for you. Nor is it as perfect a picture as "Young Frankenstein". But this Brooksian take on a Russian comedy of errors is well worth your attention. The belly laughs are few and far between, but the tugs on the heartstrings (along with some slapstick) suffice. If I am spare on the details, it is only because I have not seen this motion picture since its theatrical release in 1970; it's definitely one to which I have to renew my acquaintance.
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ralphie124c417 December 2005
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lee_eisenberg8 January 2007Knowing that Mel Brooks usually makes the silliest movies possible, it's a surprise that he directed the lightweight comedy "The Twelve Chairs". It portrays a former Czarist (Ron Moody, happy birthday!) and a young soldier (Frank Langella) looking for some jewels hidden in chairs in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. I will say that not much really happens throughout much of the movie, but it is a famous part of Russian literature. I haven't read the novel, but the movie is worth seeing, if only as a look at Brooks's early career. Also starring Dom DeLuise and Brooks in a small role.
Epilepsy... -
claudio_carvalho21 July 2015The Twelve Chairs Years after the Russian Revolution in 1917, the former aristocrat Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov (Ron Moody) is informed by his terminal mother-in- law that she has hidden her jewels in a the upholstery of chair from a set of twelve chairs. The Orthodox Father Fyodor (Dom DeLuise) also hears and leaves the Church to seek out the treasure. Vorobyaninov travels to his old house and meets his former servant Tikon (Mel Brooks) that adores him. He learns that the chairs had been expropriated by the new government and sent to another place. However the con artist Ostap Bender (Frank Langella) convinces Vorobyaninov to be his partner. They travel to Moscow where Ostap succeeds in luring Father Fyodor, telling that the chairs belong to the Engineer Bruns (David Lander), who has very similar chairs and lives with his wife in Siberia. Will Vorobyaninov and Ostap find the twelve chairs?
"The Twelve Chairs" is a typical Mel Brooks' comedy with the usual type of humor with a satire to the Russian Revolution. This comedy is also the debut of Frank Langella in the cinema. Fans of Mel Brooks will certainly like it, but who is not his fan may not find this comedy entertaining. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Banzé na Rússia" ("Mess in Russia") -
bigbeat_6615 July 2003"Hope for the best, expect the worst", as the title song goes, is exactly how I felt when I picked up my copy. Having read the original Russian novel and being a fan of Mel Brooks, I was curious how the two would come together. I was rather apprehensive, knowing how Russian literature usually suffers in translation, but hopeful that Brooks would somehow make something of it anyway. The film disappoints on both counts - there's precious little of the original in it, and Brooks isn't at his best here either. Moody is actually OK as Vorobyaninov, but the casting of Langella as Bender is just plain wrong, as he cannot possibly convey the depth and subtlety of the original character. Langella alone is enough to kill this film for anyone familiar with the book. None of the uproarious humor of the novel is anywhere to be found, while the few semi-funny visual gags are merely typical Brooks slapstick and have nothing to do with the source material. And even those aren't among Brooks' best. However, having expected the worst, I wasn't exactly disappointed. An OK little comedy, if you don't expect too much. If you want more, read the book.
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homespun137 January 2013I chose this movie because it was set in Russia and was pleasantly surprised, because I felt it presented a reasonably accurate portrait of the post-revolution Soviet Russia - obviously, that's just my opinion, but in this respect the movie delivered what I was hoping to see. I am not familiar with either Mel Brooks or with the original book so I did not know what to expect. The plot was pretty simple to follow, however, I didn't really feel it was enough to carry the whole movie. I think it was supposed to be funny, though I wouldn't call it a comedy. It had moments that elicited a chuckle or two, but that was about it. I would recommend it to get a glimpse of 1928 Russia which I thought was the strongest asset of the movie. If possible rent it rather than buy it, because I don't think this is a movie you would want to watch more than once.
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Quinoa198415 July 2006The Twelve Chairs is not one of Mel Brooks's funniest comedies, but then again it IS a Russian based comedy, where big laughs are as hard to find as a tropical climate. This film does, however, display the director actually able to really tell a good story, and act as storyteller with characters in a plot to care about. If it is not really as successful as his other films though it is in this- I didn't really have a BIG laugh during the length of the 90 minute running time. I note this not because it is a laugh-less comedy, as I had good chuckles, grins, and smiles at the material presented.
But in most of Brooks's films, even when the structure is held on a thread of sketches and bits, they become the funniest in modern movies. This time there is actually a lot of reverence to the early 20th century Russian times, even as there are some moments when the irreverence Brooks is best at pops up. Perhaps if you're die-hard into Russian history it might serve more for the in-jokes and the well-captured reality of the times.
The acting is good, and the main cast is well placed, even if too not the best work is turned in. Frank Langella is definitely very good as the straight 'handsome desperado' character to Ron Moody's crazy old man, as he is an actor who maybe pulls out one good joke in the film. Moody meanwhile delivers some of the funniest moments just based on the delirious, if repetitive, bits on his face and in his unwavering dedication to the jewels stuck in the chair. It is Dom De Louise, on the other hand, who comparatively to other work he's done (primarily Brooksfilm work where he's genius in bit parts), as he really has to rely mostly on physical gags more than hysterical dialog.
It becomes a running gag as the most desperate quack of the three hunting for the chair, and only intermittently (mostly when he tries to get the chairs from a husband and wife on a wild goose chase) is funny. And possibly some of the most memorable bits come with Brooks himself as the dim, clumsy but well-intentioned servant to Moody. One almost wishes he might pop up unexpectedly later in the film just as a brilliant goof.
This is not to say I wasn't glad to finally see the often under-seen film in Brooks's oeuvre. It's certainly a good notch above the worst the director's done (Life Stinks and Dracula Dead and Loving It), where unlike those unfortunate moments he doesn't shoot for jokes and gags and puns that just don't work. Here they do, and they're juxtaposed with a story that allows for some good tongue-in-cheek moments(including a few smart moments when people chase each other in sped-up silent-film comedy style), while with a dramatic adventure story. There's even one or two moments where Brooks reveals a fine cinematic eye for the real locations on the character's travels.
At the end, I felt I hadn't seen the great sleeper of a career, but a fun enough romp that has good intentions for something different- and what's more 'different' than a comedy set in Russia. -
Indeed, the real mystery about "The Twelve Chairs" is how seldom it is mentioned among Mel Brooks' best. Everyone makes a chronological leap from "The Producers" to "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles", the triumvirate of hilarity that didn't just make it on AFI's Top 100 Funniest Movies but actually in the Top 15; and so "The Twelve Chairs" stayed in the shadow. Why? Well, I have a few theories.
First, this is a case of a good film sandwiched between great ones. Like "The Wrong Man" for Hitchcock or "1941" for Spielberg and one good third of Woody Allen's filmography, some movies have quality of their own but also the misfortune to be made by directors who did far better before and after. Any lesser director would be proud of making something like "The Twelve Chairs" but Mel Brooks isn't any director, is he?
Second theory: the poster. The one I got on my DVD cover shows a grinning Brooks wearing a big brown cloak, suggesting that he's a sorcerer of some sort or that the film is set during the dark ages. From the poster, I wouldn't have never guessed this was a wild madcap goose-chase comedy set in Post-Revolution Russia. I expected caves, dark corridors, magic, curses and that didn't urge me to discover it. In reality, Brooks is barely present in the film though his role as Tikon offers some good jokes but the poster could've been less self-centered.
Third theory: the tone was too different from the other films. I guess audiences expected the zaniness of "The Producers" to reach a new height, the one they could find in the two 1974 box-office hits, they expected Brooks to go on over-the-top and "rise below vulgarity". The problem with "The Twelve Chairs" is that despite the laughs it generate, the hilarious slapstick moments, it is serious about its subject, so much that it's in line with the spirit of the comic novel by Ilf and Petrov, which I haven't read by the way. But I guess a tale about two déclassés: an aristocrat and a noble turned con-man and one fallen priest seeking one chair that contains a precious treasure makes a relevant statement about the alienating power of capitalism's fuel: greed.
For one thing, it's interesting that Brooks based his second comedy on a Russian, no a Soviet novel and although he shot the film in Yugoslavia, early century Russia is well-rendered with the colorful exoticness we'd later find "Fiddler in the Roff" or "Yentl". The main theme "Hope for the best, expect the worst" based on Brahms gives the film that Eastern-European vibes and get as catchy and memorable as "Lara's theme". Mel Brooks was certainly paying a tribute to his Russian roots and Jewish humor whose essence is self-derision and caricature, using the kind of archetypes that can serve malevolent purposes. Mel Brooks' gags are sharp and witty, but never mean-spirited.
But I enjoyed the film for many reasons: Ron Moody is the perfect actor for Vorbyaninov, the ex-aristocrat turned into a meek civil servant. He was Fagin two years before in "Oliver!" and there's something about this man playing greedy characters, inspiring pity and occasionally, sympathy but never contempt. When we first see him he looks like a harmless bureaucrat, a mini-Trotsky, but once his mother-in-law reveals tells him that a fortune in jewels were hidden in the cushion of one of their twelve chairs from their previous dining room, something snaps. He shouts at the dying woman and in his eyes, a fire is ignited that will spread all throughout the film.
Same fire had already infected the priest who heard her confession. When Father Fyodor, played by Dom De Luise, cuts his beard, the gleam in that look he gave to God reminded me of one of these jokes I simply can't tell (you know, a guy asks for one million etc.)
And in that crazy journey, Moody's character (too complicated to write his name) meets Ostap Bender, played by a dashing Frank Langella. Ostap has a way to get the information and he's the voice of reason, for as long as can keep track on the chairs. The three go through the Soviet landscapes, from Moscow to Siberia, from theaters to private homes, any corner money can drive you to. I knew the odds would beat them before they do, and it was a foregone conclusion that the last chair would be the right one. It's the journey that counted and Brooks' depiction of insanity is so expressive the film could have been silent and be equally funny. Brooks uses a good deal of high-speed chase à la Benny Hill but his talent for slapstick culminates (pun intended) when a man finds the strength to climb a whole mountain with one chair at hands but realizes he can't get down.
Such moments are funny but carried a strange depth, becoming almost tragicomic. When Fyodor destroys four chairs and none is right one, he says "I don't want to live", and there's a truth to life to such a cry, when you can come so close to something big and miss it, your faith in life shrinks considerably. When you miss something, it's comic, when you question God for that, it's borderline tragic. And Moody is the most tragic of all, it was a smart motve to keep his character serious and have violins strings illustrating his descent into insanity. I could feel the pain, the desperation of this man who could have accepted the fatality of the Revolution but not the absurdity of the chairs' situation.
And deeply moved I was by the ending, a silly punchline I know but powerful after that detour in tragedy. And think about it, it's easy to make anyone laugh at a guy punchling a horse, but how many directors can make you laugh at a man losing his mind and his fortune at once? That says something about Mel Brooks. -
ma-cortes29 April 2023Hilarious Mel Brooks comedy filled with funny satire , amusing events , nice settings and lots of laughters . The cast is pretty good with nice actors as Ron Moody , Frank Langella, Dom DeLuise, Andréas Voutsinas , among others . This enjoyable film obeys no rules except those governing the lost art of pure comedy and with a cast of superlative clowns , led by Ron Moody , the memorable Fagin of Oliver . Set in 1920s Soviet Russia, a fallen aristocrat (Ron Moody) , a priest (Dom DeLuise) and a con artist (Frank Langella) search for a treasure of jewels hidden inside one of twelve dining chairs, lost during the revolution .Both Moody and the local priest find that the family jewels were hidden in a chair, one of a set of twelve. They return separately to Moscow to find the hidden fortune . The man who made 'Blazing Saddles' and 'Young Frankenstein' brings you his funniest comedy ever... ! A complete joy ! Mel Brooks is a major delight in a totally hilarious character ! . A comedy to warm the heart and leave the ribs aching ! .
Riotous spoof by Mel Brooks with raunchy and amusing gags . This wacky parody is packed with lots of silly laughter and great entertainment and fun . Most of the laughs and sight gags galore work acceptably and the jokes come machine-gun rapidly , dealing with the treasure hunt and an aging ex-nobleman of the Czarist regime who has finally adjusted to life under the commisars in Russia . This likable silly farce with numberless comedy set pieces , being an entertaining and very amusing tale with the Farceur Mel Brooks-his second hit film- as director and secondary acting . This bemusing movie is packed with tongue-in-check , slapdash and slapstick , a steady stream of gags, lively situations abound, sheer belly laughs, crazy humor and too much fun . It contains simple and diverting humor and lots of entertainment and fun , providing a sprinkling of self-parodic stars . The spoof is surrealist , extreme and gross-out with the ordinary bunch of loonies and loopies , but is also bold and intelligent with a myriad of imaginative sketches with no sense, some of them unabashedly tasteless . Gambolling about Russia Revolution , it is the theme of Brooks' second feature with comic Moody and personable Langella chasing the one chair out of a set which is stuffed with pre-Russian revolutionary booty . They run into Dom DeLuise, playing a Zero Mostel-in-The Producers role and Brooks himself as a looney lackey . The picture contains an unstopped string of gags each thirty seconds and silly jokes from the start to the ending with some lively touches . It is very fairytale , delightful to watch , and certainly not as self-indulgent as the major Brooks works it slips in between (The Producers , Blazing Saddles) . The comedy and humor are interminable , that's why the viewers will laugh uncontrollably with the habitual quirky and lunatic characters . What's more pleasant about it is the direction , both of the performers and of the action within scenes :the magnificent timing can now be seen as preparation for the sort of classical control that made a lot of Young Frankenstein so good . The screenplay and novel is credited to five writers : Ilya Ilf , Yevgeni Petrov, Elizabeth Hill, Doris Mudie and ,of course, Mel Brooks and it shows in the confused melange of styles . Lively musical score by John Morris with catching songs .
Evocative cinematography by cameraman Dorde Nikolic, shot on location and it is set in Moscow but filmed in Subotica, Yugoslavia, the scenes in Yalta on the Black Sea were filmed in Croatia , which has an Adriatic coastline. Along with a lively musical score by John Morris , Mel's regular , adding catching songs. The motion picture was well directed by Mel Brooks (Blazing saddles , High anxiety , Twelve chairs , The producers , Spaceballs , History of the world). This raucous spoof is a Ron Moody-Dom DeLuise vehicle , if you like his crazy, maniac performances , you'll enjoy this one . The film will appeal to absurd , unruly , wacky comedy fans . -
It is the forgotten Brooks movie. Probably because it has the most controlled script story, and had the least wild, satyric inventiveness of any of his films.
After he wrote and directed the original THE PRODUCERS, Brooks did not do another film for a few years. The second one was this one set in the post-Russian Revolution period in the Soviet Union. Ron Moody (Fagin in the musical OLIVER) is a minor Tsarist nobleman who discovers, when attending his mother-in-law on her death bed, that she hid her fortune in jewelry in one of the dining room chairs. There were a set of twelve chairs, and they were appropriated by the government to be given to deserving members of the proletariat. Moody discovers that his mother-in-law did confess this to one person besides him: the local Russian Orthodox Priest (Dom DeLuise). Moody finds the latter a difficult opponent to beat to the fortune first. By chance he falls in with a young swindler (Frank Langella) and he and Langella pursue the chairs, and also send DeLuise on a wild goose chase following a second set of similar chairs.
What we get is a view of the Soviet Union in 1928, as the Civil Wars died out and the regime consolidated power. Trotsky's name is now dismissed (as a street shows). The stage is dominated by the state oriented drama that is anti-capitalist. Witness the performance of Andreas Voutsinas - the original "Carmen Ghia" in the first PRODUCERS, as the government backed manager of the theater group that Moody and Langella join. There is a life and death threat behind comments he gives to one of the stage crew he controls. We also see how the common people try to cope with the changes - being sent across country on government sponsored jobs - to houses that the government may furnish.
Brooks has his first role in his own films in this one - as Tikhon, the drunken, ex-servant of Moody. He receives a slap from the latter, and considers it exactly like a hug.
Like IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, THE TWELVE CHAIRS looks at the antics people will go through for hidden wealth. Langella, who is a street criminal anyway, is the only sane member of the three treasure seekers. He is a realist (the first really serious one in Brooks' films), and has adapted to the new conditions fairly easily by living on his considerably keen wits. He realizes that he is hampered as well as helped by his alliance with Moody, but manages to figure out how to live with Moody as best as possible. Moody has become a bureaucrat to survive in the new regime (he's suspect as an aristocrat), but he still has his pretenses. It takes the events he shares with Langella for him to finally give up his pretenses. Together both men find out what is really worthwhile about living. DeLuise is less lucky. He just discovers the perils of being a loner. -
beachola25 November 1999This movie is by Mel Brooks and so of course it has very some funny moments. Each of the main characters has some great bits. (This movie came out about the time Woody Allen started making films and some of the off-the-wall stuff reminded of his early films.)
If you are looking for a family movie, I would recommend this because it was clever enough for me and my wife to enjoy and silly enough for our kids. -
As Mel Brooks films go, I rate it second only to Young Frankenstein. The action takes place in Russia 10 years after the Revolution. Ron Moody is marvelous as a low IQ and totally inept former nobleman, now hiding out as a clerk in a government office, who learns that the family jewels had been sewn into one of the 12 dining room chairs. He returns to his former residence, now an old folks home, and learns from former servant, now janitor, Mel Brooks that the chairs are gone, confiscated by the government. Con man Frank Langella threatens to turn Moody in if he does not allow him in on the quest. Of course, the chairs have been widely distributed. A major fly in the ointment is Dom Deluise, the village priest, who has also learned the secret. He relinquishes all for greed ("O, Thou who knowest all---you know.") and competes in the search. Not a perfect movie, but loaded with laughs. May be Dom's funniest role. I give it an 8 out of 10.
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cessnaace25 November 2005I have seen this film several times, having owned a VHS copy for years. It has it's funny moments, but Brooks spends a fair amount of time actually trying to remain faithful to the original 1928 Russian novel, which is to his credit.
I just recently watched "12+1," aka "The Thirteen Chairs," which was a 1970 French/Italian co-production. It's most famous for it's cast than for anything else. Top-billed was the late Sharon Tate, who was murdered by the Manson cult shortly after this film was completed. The cast also includes Orson Welles, Lionel Jeffries, and Terry-Thomas.
I mention the above version for a reason. It strays radically from the original novel. Brooks' version is more faithful. It's interesting that both "12+1" and "The Twelve Chairs" were released in the same year (1970). They couldn't be more different. "12+1" takes place in Italy, England (mostly) and the United States. Other film versions have been made in Cuba, Germany, and Argentina.
Brooks' version does have it's humorous moments, mostly when Dom DeLuise or Mel Brooks are on screen. Otherwise it's mostly a serious film. Both DeLuise (looking quite thin for him) and Brooks are scene stealers. One wonders what the film would have been like without them. Not as good, in my opinion.
Mel Brooks proves yet again that he can be quite a good filmmaker when he chooses to be. I'm a great fan of his, but this film is different from anything else that he has done. Just bare that it mind before sitting down to watch it. -
smtm25 November 2010It was hard to expect too much out of this apparently low-budget production filmed in 1970 Yugoslavia. The script is loosely based on a novel in Russian which originally did not center on treasure hunt but rather on the picturesque characters surrounding the three losers who could not fit in the new life.
I decided to watch this as the only Mel Brooks film never seen before. Unfortunately I had nearly memorized the novel... and in my eyes the movie only reflected about 2% of the potential laughs, while I believe about 40% could be funny if it could make it in the script. The original material was not without flaws but it was mostly satire and drama, which was totally left out of this film.
Seeing Dom DeLuise and Frank Langella 40 years younger was a surprise! They actually account for 50% of the fun, while the remaining half belongs to the brilliant acting by Andréas Voutsinas in the two minutes of screen time! Mel Brooks wrote the title song for the film, and the score is OK, but the scenery is out of place and dress designer had no clue about any Russian clothes.
So, it's far from an average Mel Brooks film. Overall, I would still give it 5 out of 10, mostly for Andréas Voutsinas. -
CHARLIE-897 November 1999THE TWELVE CHAIRS is a different kind of Mel Brooks comedy. Its story, from a Russian novel by Ilf and Petrov, will seem very tasteful and human to those who are acquainted with Brooks' usual raunchiness. This movie is a nice change. Ron Moody and Frank Langella star, with Dom DeLuise and a special appearance by Mel Brooks as Tikon.
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fkoretz4 November 2001This is actually a serious movie with Brooks wackiness as a "topping." Because the plot is kind of wild it almost serves as a Mel Brooks type of story. It is a typically Russian story, heavily laden with irony and pathos. Actually pretty well done in my opinion, but kind of choppy. As in some other movies, Brooks has a very good song in this one. "Hope for the best, expect the worst." That pretty much sums up the movie, which will disappoint his fans who like "Blazing Saddles" and so forth. But I recommend it to them anyway, if only for the sake of completeness. Note: Fans of the British comedy "Are You Being Served?" can see Nicholas Smith (Mr Rumbold) in a small role here, two lines I think.
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SeanGThomson31 March 2019This movie has a lot of comedy, but it actually has a lot of humanity in it as well.
There are many moments throughout that give real insight into the characters, and ourselves. If you watch carefully, you will find that many scenes are bitter sweet and perhaps hit too close to home.
Within Brooks classic framework of his films, this one has the most true drama. And it's full of cheeky humor. -
SnoopyStyle26 December 2014It's 1927 Soviet Union. Ippolit Vorobyaninov (Ron Moody) is a poor Russian aristocrat who is told by his dying mother-in-law that she hid her jewels in one of her twelve chairs which are now gone. Ostap Bender (Frank Langella) is a con-man from the streets. He befriends Tikon (Mel Brooks) and then bullies his master Ippolit into joining him in his search. The priest Father Fyodor (Dom DeLuise) brought in to give the Last Rites also tries to find the chairs.
It's a satire based on Ilf and Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs". The film has a bit of slapstick and a bit of stinging rebuke of the communist system. It's not as vulgar as his later works. That's probably due to the need to follow the source material. It does lack a good rooting interest. Frank Langella is not a fun con-man. His intensity doesn't allow the comedy to flow easily. He's a serious actor and not really a comedian. This is interesting with a few good chuckles. -
thinker16917 July 2007In his lifetime Mel Brooks has created many motion pictures which have established him as an artistic genius. "The Twelve Chairs" is another milestone for him. From the very beginning of this film, to its ending, there is a sense of serious, but humanistic brilliance. The era is the aftermath of the Russian Revolution and a dying woman wants to clear her conscience and reveal her greatest sin. As thousands of the nobility are fleeing for their lives, she decides to hide her family's fortune inside the lining of a set of handcrafted chairs. That secret is her dying revelation and is said unfortunately into more than one set of ears. This initiates a mad dash for the lost treasure. Seeking the cache of jewels are three intrepid, but greedy set of characters. The first is incredibly talented Ron Moody who adroitly and brilliantly plays the legitimate, greedy and opportunistic son, Ippolit Vorobyaninov. Once a Marshall of the nobility, he is now reduced to a minor banking clerk and opportunistic son-in-law. Frank Langella is superior as Ostap Bender, a handsome, street-wise, traveling Gypsy, who also wants in on the treasure hunt. Finally there is Dom DeLuise who plays Father Fyodor, an Orthodox but impoverished monk who believes, God will help him find the elusive chair first. What the trio soon discover is that the chair is one of Twelve which have been scattered across the vast twelve thousand miles of Russia. If Mel Brooks sought to create an amusing memorable movie, he succeeded. By the time one reaches the end of this film, we realize . . . . a Classic has been born. ****
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I purchased a boxed set of Mel Brooks' biggest hits because I'd somehow gone more than thirty years without watching BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, and among the titles I was unfamiliar with I found THE TWELVE CHAIRS. This movie stands out from the rest because it wasn't the sort of Brooks film I'd come to expect. Brooks is obviously known for his screwball comedies and parodies, but THE TWELVE CHAIRS doesn't fit the bill for either. It's still a comedy but it's not the usual slapstick, meta-humor. It's a very straightforward comedy narrative based on a piece of Russian literature. It tells the tale of a former Russian aristocrat named Ippolit Vorobyaninov (Ron Moody) whose family lost everything with the rise of the Soviet Union. When his mother-in-law dies, she reveals that she'd hid her stash of valuable jewels in the upholstery of one of their twelve dining chairs for safekeeping. Unfortunately those chairs have long since lost to the Soviet government, but that isn't enough to dissuade Vorobyaninov and he returns to their former home to track them down. He's forced to team with a wandering conman named Ostap Bender (a young Frank Langella in his first big screen role) and the two of them race to find the chair before a corrupt priest (Dom DeLuise), who learned of the jewels from the dying mother during her final confession, can find them for his own selfish gains. It's a buddy comedy/road movie through the poverty-stricken post-revolutionary Soviet Union.
Honestly, there's nothing truly amazing to make THE TWELVE CHAIRS stand out but it's still a well-constructed, funny movie and perfect viewing for a quiet afternoon when you aren't looking for anything too heavy. It's funny enough to keep the movie solidly entertaining for its breezy ninety minute running time but there aren't really any particular characters or moments that are all that endearing or memorable. Vorobyaninov is our main character and he's somewhat sympathetic as a man trying to regain his former glory but he's also vehemently selfish and borders on psychotic at times. All in good fun, of course. It was never his money to begin with and his former rich life was the result of his wife's family fortune, but he goes full blithering lunatic when the prospect of someone else finding that fortune is threatened. He only accepts the companionship of Ostap, the most identifiable of the characters from the audience perspective, because Ostap threatens to turn the information on the jewels into the government if he's left out. Ostap is certainly looking out for number one but he's also honest (as much as necessary) and trustworthy; he just wants the chance to escape his own meager existence of scrounging to survive. If he has to extort that chance out of Vorobyaninov to do so, he'll do it but he'll also be true to his word. Langella makes Ostap a charming rogue; he's got the air of a swashbuckler and the swagger of James Bond a strong start for Langella's career.
The plot is pretty simple. We travel with Vorobyaninov and Ostap as they track down each of the twelve chairs in search for the one holding the jewels, cheating, stealing, and bribing their way. Hot on their trails is Dom DeLuise as Father Fyodor, who is the more traditionally cartoonish character we expect from a Brooks film. He's never really a threat to their success (since he gets sidetracked on a wild goose chase from nearly the beginning) but he's got some of the funniest scenes. Mel Brooks also pops into the film for a quick in-and-out cameo as Vorobyaninov's drunken, sycophantic former servant Tikon, giving him the chance to steal the spotlight for a moment with his larger-than-life style. I really don't know what else to promote for THE TWELVE CHAIRS because, as I mentioned, it's a pretty straightforward affair carried by fun performances from the three main leads. I suppose people with interest in Russian literature will get that extra kick of seeing the story from Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov brought to the screen again. I'm not one of them. I'm not familiar with the authors and my knowledge of life in Soviet Russia is pretty limited, but some of the movie's themes (the "joys" of life in the rise of communism, embracing one's station in life and rising to challenges) shine through regardless. I might've preferred my new boxed set include THE PRODUCERS but THE TWELVE CHAIRS was certainly a pleasant surprise as a Brooks fan. -
artasscorp19844 September 2007This movie is not even close to the REAL classic 12 Chairs 1971 movie by Leonid Gaiday. The problem is not in the director or actors. Brooks may be a good director, whatever, the facts are that American nation will never understand the classic Russian humor the way it's meant to be.
The Russian 1971 version of 12 chairs together with "adventures of Shurik" is widely considered to be simply the best Russian comedy of all time. Watching American 12 chairs version would be the same as forcing Pierre Richard to play a Schwarz's roles. Ridicioulus...
I can't believe that people like this movie and have read the novel at the same time, this is hard to understand...
Don't watch this movie! Watch classic 1971 and 1976 Russian movies instead! -
Mister-614 September 1999A long time ago, Mel Brooks had a subtle side.
Hard to believe, isn't it? The man responsible for such guffaw-fests as "Blazing Saddles", "Silent Movie", "High Anxiety" and such.... SUBTLE?
In "The Twelve Chairs", he does get laughs out of the story of a Russian nobleman searching for jewels sewn into one of twelve of his family's chairs that have been sold with the rest of his family's possessions. But not the way we're use to seeing Mel earn them.
This, time, he gets them through character study, human nature, individuals' reactions to certain embarrassing situations and, of course, good old-fashioned greed. And the laughs are there, to be sure.
I'm actually surprised that I liked this as much as I did. I'm used to Mel up there with the lampshade on his head, yucking it up with wild abandon. This film, subtle as it is, makes me laugh.
Of course, for purists, there's always good old DeLuise as another conniver searching for the same jewels. He makes with the wildness and insanity that makes a Mel Brooks film a Mel Brooks film, and he's a joy to see.
The others, Moody and Langella in particular, play regular human beings who see a situation, assess it and act as (nearly) anyone else would. More humorously, of course.
Seek out "The Twelve Chairs". Rare as it is, a rose by any other name....
And you know the rest.
Eight stars. Hey! Hey, hey, hey! -
Bunuel197624 December 2008I had first watched this as a kid on Italian TV and it must have seemed very different to me than the typical Mel Brooks film (after all, THE TWELVE CHAIRS was only his second outing) but, back then, I wasn't familiar with THE PRODUCERS (1968) either; it was with his next effort, BLAZING SADDLES (1974), that Brooks really found a congenial formula, i.e. parody, which would occupy most of his subsequent career.
This was adapted from a popular Russian source much filmed over the years all over the world: in Britain as KEEP YOUR SEATS, PLEASE (1937), with George Formby (which I have just acquired but, alas, don't have time to watch at present), in the Hollywood as IT'S IN THE BAG (1945), co-starring Jack Benny, the international production 12+1 (1969) featuring the last appearance of the ill-fated Sharon Tate and a starry cast (Vittorio Gassman, Orson Welles, Terry-Thomas, etc.) and there's even a Cuban version from 1962 by Tomas Gutierrez Alea (which has recently been released on R2 DVD but which I have yet to acquire).
Brooks' version, then, is the only one I know of to utilize the original Russian setting which, in spite of generally amusing (if overly familiar) situations, rather makes for a dreary-looking film. For the most part, too, the show's more glum than fun with pratfalls uncomfortably rubbing shoulders with (misplaced) social conscience! In any case, Ron Moody (fresh from the success of OLIVER! [1968]) is ideally cast as an impoverished aristocrat in search of the family fortune sown into one of twelve chairs which have been sold to various parties following the 1917 uprisings. His co-stars are a dashing Frank Langella (who, incidentally, I watched performing on a London stage in January 2007 and might well be up for an Academy Award next February in Ron Howard's film adaptation of that very play I saw him in, i.e. FROST/NIXON) as a wily schemer, who plays it straight but is equally effective, and Dom DeLuise as the greedy priest to whom Moody's relative has confessed before expiring; I suppose that his hysterical shtick and zany antics seemed funny at the time but it's rather overbearing to watch nowadays. Last but not least, Brooks himself cameos (he'd appear in all of his own films from then on) as Moody's loyal but befuddled servant. -
I saw this years ago and it was painfully unfunny. I showed it to some friends because Brooks is usually funny and I wound up being embarrassed. I barely remember what it was about, but what stuck in my mind was that it was laugh free. It has something to do with three losers during the 1920's in Russia looking for some jewels that are hidden in the chairs of a deceased aristocrat They go through various ordeals and at times bored me to tears. Brooks here shows none of the talent he would later display in films like "Blazing Saddles" or "Young Frankenstein." I really hated this film and can't imagine what parts anyone laughed at.
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jimwhite9914 August 2001I rented this film because it was the only Mel Brooks movie I hadn't seen. I had enjoyed all of his other movies and thought,"Why not see 'em all?" I thought since I hadn't heard of it it would be stupid. And, Man, was I wrong. This movie could be described as hilarious. I loved it. And it's not exactly like all other Mel Brooks movies. If you like Mel Brooks I recommend this film to you. Dom DeLuise is hilarious in this. Now go watch it with your family.
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Twelve Chairs is the lesser-known movie from Mel Brooks, that ostentatiously critical eye on communism perpetrated in Russia, mocking of these newest comrades that reach in the power, showing the worst side of revolution, the story is about an old former Aristocrat Vorobyaninov (Ron Moody) heard by his dying mother-in-law that hidden a valuable diamonds and jewelry in one of twelve chairs during the revolution, also she confess to a Orthodox Priest Father Fyodor (Dom DeLouise), Vorobyaninov running to finds these chair, in the way he stumbles with a smart crook Ostape Bender (Frank Langella) who live from small misdemeanours, all them pursuit those chairs, one by one, wherever it was, always gets the empty chair, Mel Brooks is well-known as the man against the status quo, starting this point he criticizes the establishment, this turn he exposes on purpose all damages of the revolution that became Russia in a state arbitrary and tightly controlled by communist party and their leaders through a heavy paperwork, funny and enjoyable!!!
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First watch: 1990 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7