The Twelve Chairs

By Tom Keogh

Mel Brooks's 1970 comedy (his second work as a film director) is based on an old Russian folktale, and was first filmed in Yugoslavia in 1927. The story concerns an old woman who reveals on her deathbed that she has hidden jewels inside one of 12 chairs that were formerly in her home but are now scattered. Ron Moody plays the poor Russian nobleman seeking them, and Dom DeLuise is his rival. After Brooks's wild and even controversial first film, The Producers, The Twelve Chairs seems relatively tame; but it is still a funny and slightly exotic work owing to its director's longtime interest in classic cinema.

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