The Twelve Chairs (1976 film)

'' The Twelve Chairs'' (russian: 12 стульев) 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.

It is the second full length adaptation of the novel in the Soviet Union (the first was directed by Leonid GaidaiThe very first partial film adaptation in the USSR was made by Alexander Belinsky who shot the television film "The Twelve Chairs" in 1966; the film was not a full adaptation of the novel, but merely an adaptation of some chapters) and is the sixth one in the world.

Plot

The film takes place in 1927 from April to October in the Soviet cities of Stargorod, Moscow, Vasyuki, Pyatigorsk, Vladikavkaz, Tbilisi, and Yalta.

The quiet life of registrar Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov is rocked by the sudden death of his mother-in-law Claudia Ivanovna, who admits that she sewed her diamonds into the seat of one of the twelve chairs belonging to their former living room set in order to hide it from Soviet forces, who had been confiscating treasures from everyone.

Vorobyaninov decides to track down the treasure. Before he can begin his quest, Ippolit Matveyevich meets a young swindler named Ostap Bender who coerces him into agreeing to help in the search in exchange for a percentage of the profit. Unfortunately, the town priest Father Fyodor also learns of Claudia Ivanovna's secret as part of her confession and decides to find the chair himself. Bender dreams of using the profits to move to Rio de Janeiro, which he believes to be the greatest place in the world.

The companions go on the hunt for the chairs across the whole country, encountering many unique and interesting characters, and competing against each other along the way. In the end, they find eleven out of the twelve chairs and return to Moscow without finding the treasure. Somehow, Bender manages to track down the last missing chair and informs Ippolit Matveyevich, whom he has taken to calling Kisa, about this before he goes to sleep. Because they have inspected all the other chairs and found nothing, both know that the treasure is hidden in this last chair. Kisa decides to seize the treasure for himself and kills the sleeping Ostap by cutting his throat with a straight razor. However, Vorobyaninov fails to retrieve the treasure because the Railroad Club caretaker had accidentally discovered the diamonds in the chair and "Comrade Krasilnikov", the club's manager, has already built a new club with the money.

Cast

* Andrei Mironov as Ostap Bender
* Georgy Vitsin as Bezenchuk
* Anatoli Papanov as Vorobyaninov
*Rolan Bykov as Father Fyodor
* Aleksandr Abdulov as engineer Schukin
* Tatyana Pelttser as Madame Petukhova
* Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina as Madame Gritsatsuyeva
* Lyubov Polishchuk as dancer
* Mark Zakharov
* Vsevolod Larionov

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