The Twelve Chairs (1976 film)
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The Twelve Chairs (Russian: 12 стульев) is 1976 four episode musical television film directed by Mark Zakharov based on the 1928 novel of the same name by Ilf and Petrov.
Contents
It is the second full length adaptation of the novel in the Soviet Union (the first was directed by Leonid Gaidai) and is the sixth one in the world.
Plot
The film takes place in 1927 from April to October in the cities Stargorod, Moscow, Vasyuki, Pyatigorsk, Vladikavkaz, Tbilisi, Yalta.
The quiet life of registrar Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov is violated less by the sudden death of his mother-in-law Claudia Ivanovna but more by her admission that she sewed her diamonds in the seat of one of the chairs belonging to their former living room set built by the master Gambs.
Vorobyaninov decides to track down the treasure. Unfortunately the priest Father Fyodor who learned Claudia Ivanovna's secret in confession is also busy with the same mission. But then Ippolit Matveyevich meets a young swindler Ostap Bender who agrees to help the former nobleman in the search in exchange for a percentage of the profit.
The companions go on the hunt for the chairs across the whole country. And in the end they find eleven chairs out of the twelve and return to Moscow without finding the treasure. Somehow Ostap manages to track down the last missing chair and informs Ippolit Matveyevich about this before he goes to sleep. Both know that the treasure is hidden in this last chair. Kisa decides to seize the treasure for himself and kills sleeping Ostap by cutting his throat with a straight razor. However Vorobyaninov fails to retrieve the treasure. The Railroad Club caretaker accidentally discovers them in a chair and "Comrade Krasilnikov", the club's manager, builds a new club with the money.