Review #1435: The Twelve Chairs.Cast:
Ron Moody (Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov), Frank Langella (Ostap Bender), Dom DeLuise (Father Fyodor), Andreas Voutsinas (Nikolai Sestrin), Diana Coupland (Madame Bruns), David Lander (Engineer Bruns), Vlada Petric (Sevitsky), Elaine Garreau (Claudia Ivanovna), Robert Bernal (Curator), Will Stampe (Night watchman), and Mel Brooks (Tikon) Directed by Mel Brooks (#061 - Blazing Saddles, #198 - Spaceballs, #248 - Robin Hood: Men in Tights, #361 - The Producers, #364 - High Anxiety, #623 - Silent Movie, and #655 - Young Frankenstein, and #1120 - History of the World, Part I)
Review:
“Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.”
Mel Brooks was inspired to become an entertainer after seeing a Broadway show at the age of 9. He worked as a drummer and pianist for years (with World War II service in the middle of said career) before soon moving his way to stand-up and comedy writing. He was one of the writers hired to work on Sid Caesar's revolutionary variety series Your Show of Shows in 1950 (which ran for four years), and he would continue working for Caesar on his successor show Caesar's Hour (1954-57). When it came to successful comedy directors in the 1970s, one particular name that is high on the list to mention first is Mel Brooks, fresh off a decade in which he helped to develop the hit TV series Get Smart, a comedy routine (The 2000 Year-Old Man) and a modest hit with The Producers (1968). One can go on about classic moments of farce and parody in his movies for the 1970s such as Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Of the five films he directed in the decade, those are his best ones, but the other three are just as entertaining and amusing in their own right, although this was the only one to not be commercially successful. This was his second directorial effort, which was adapted from the 1928 novel of the same name by Soviet prose authors Ilf and Petrov. There have been numerous adaptations of the novel (before and after this film), with the previous American adaptation (more so inspired by rather than adapting) being It's in the Bag (1945), who reduced the chair count to five. The ending for the film was considerably lightened up from the book (which had killed one of the main characters off and then had them return for a follow-up book years later).
For the main trio, Brooks had intended to cast Alistair Sim, Peter Sellers, and Albert Finney, though this did not come to pass. 1970 was the debut year for Langella in film (with the other film appearance being in Diary of a Mad Housewife), and he had found himself cast through a recommendation by Anne Bancroft (Brooks' wife and an acclaimed actress in her own right), who had worked with Langella on the stage (where he had worked since 1963). It was he who had suggested to cast Moody, who was fresh off a run on London with the novel-turned-musical-turned-film Oliver! (1960 for stage; 1968 for film). Bancroft also recommended DeLuise, who had been featured in a few comedic stage and film roles that would make his first of ultimately five appearances in a Brooks film. Each rein in fairly interesting performances for a film that while not as broadly funny as other films in Brooks' career (past and future) is a worthwhile film to still check out. It is a movie of greed within a Russian fable (filmed in Yugoslavia) that makes its humor with a mix of subtlety and zaniness that makes for a useful 93 minute tale, right down to the opening song "Hope For The Best (Expect the Worst)", a cheeky little song (along with my favorite slogan). Moody does a fine job with timing that has his character go madder by the second, such as when he walks the tightrope for a chair. Langella makes a fair straight man with his own degree of greed that accompanies Moody with calm for a film all about tearing up chairs for money through the eyes of 1920s in the Soviet Union. DeLuise is the most evident in generating amusement with his big expressions and wild spirit that makes the most frenzy for a calmly amusing experience. In the end, this is a fine piece about greed and the people that try to make a living on obtaining a slice of something better than what they have, or just living on what they don't have. There are quite a bit of sight gags and subtlety to be had here that makes for a fair piece in the famed career of Mel Brooks and the stars that are featured in this comedy of chairs.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
