About the film
Before the revolution, Madame Petukhova sewed her diamonds into one of twelve chairs. Her son-in-law, the faded aristocrat Kisa Vorobyaninov, learns the secret and teams up with the 'great schemer' Ostap Bender to find it, while a greedy priest races them for the same treasure.
Ilf and Petrov's 1928 novel is one of the funniest books in Russian, and Gaidai turns it into a fast, colourful chase through Moscow, the Volga and the Caucasus. Archil Gomiashvili's Bender is a smooth operator with endless tricks; Sergey Filippov's Kisa is pure comic misery.
The film is a good entry point to the satire of the 1920s, when private trade, bureaucracy and the new Soviet order collided.
Did you know?
- Gaidai's version was one of several Soviet adaptations; Mark Zakharov made a four-part TV version in 1976.
- Archil Gomiashvili was dubbed by Yuri Sarantsev because of his Georgian accent.
- Mel Brooks also adapted the novel, in 1970.
