The Twelve Chairs - Adaptations

Adaptations

The first cinema adaptation of the novel was the joint Polish-Czech film "Dvanáct křesel" (1933). The original plot was considerably altered yet many following adaptations were primarily based on this film rather than on the novel itself (e.g., the former marshal of nobility from the novel was replaced in the Polish-Czech film by a barber who then appeared in several later adaptations).

In Nazi Germany Dreizehn Stühle (13 Chairs) has been filmed on basis of this novel in 1938, however authors of the novel remained uncredited (probably due to Jewish origin of Ilf).

The book also inspired a 1936 film Keep Your Seats, Please directed by Monty Banks at Ealing Studios and starring George Formby. The action takes place in Britain and involves seven chairs, not twelve. The comedy It's in the Bag! (1945) starring Fred Allen and Jack Benny was very loosely based on the novel, using just five chairs. In 1962 Tomas Gutierrez Alea made a Cuban version titled "Las Doce Sillas" in a tropical context starkly similar to the Soviet one of the novel. Mel Brooks later made a film, more closely based on the novel, titled The Twelve Chairs (1970), but with a sanitized "happier" ending; the story also served as the basis for the film The Thirteen Chairs (1969) starring Sharon Tate. Shortly after that, two adaptations were made in the USSR: a film in 1971 by Leonid Gaidai and a miniseries in 1976 by Mark Zakharov, featuring Andrei Mironov as Bender. In total, the novel inspired as many as twenty adaptations in Russia and abroad. See The Twelve Chairs (film) for more details on adaptations.