| The Thirteen Chairs | |
| Cinematography: | Giuseppe Ruzzolini |
| Editing: | Giancarlo Cappelli |
| Distributor: | NPF Planfilm |
| Runtime: | 94 minutes |
| Language: | English, italian |
The Thirteen Chairs (French: 12 + 1; Italian: Una su 13) is a 1969 comedy film directed by Nicolas Gessner and Luciano Lucignani and starring Sharon Tate, Vittorio Gassman and Orson Welles, and featuring Vittorio De Sica, Terry-Thomas, Mylène Demongeot, Grégoire Aslan, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Lionel Jeffries. It is based on the 1928 satirical novel The Twelve Chairs by Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, which has been adapted many times (including a 1970 version directed by Mel Brooks).
It was Tate's last film before she, along with three friends, were murdered by followers of Charles Manson. She was eight months pregnant with her son by her husband Roman Polanski. The film was released posthumously.
Mario Beretti is a young Italian-American barber who runs a barber shop in New York City located near a construction site that boasts few customers. His life reaches a turning point when he is notified of the death of his aunt in Lavenham, England, who named him her sole heir.
Mario rushes to England and learns that his inheritance consists of not much; only thirteen antique chairs that have a certain value. He sells them to cover his transportation costs, but soon learns from his Aunt Laura's last message that inside one of the chairs is a fortune in jewels. He tries to buy back the chairs, but is unsuccessful. With the help of lovely American antiques dealer Pat, who works in the antiques shop in front of Aunt Laura's house, where he sold the chairs, he launches a bizarre quest to track down the chairs that takes the duo from London to Paris, then to Rome. Along the way they meet a bunch of equally bizarre characters, including Albert, the driver of a furniture-moving van; a prostitute named Judy; Maurice, the leader of a traveling theater company that stages a poor version of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; and Italian entrepreneur Carlo Di Seta and his vivacious daughter Stefanella.
The bizarre chase ends in Rome, where the chair containing the jewels finds its way into a truck and is collected by nuns who auction it off for charity. With nothing left to do as a result of the failure of his quest, Mario travels back to New York City by ship. Pat sees him off and waves goodbye to him.
The film ends with Mario returning to New York City and his barber shop. His friends at the other (and more lavish) shop join him, as do two construction workers and his last customer, Randomhouse. It is there that Mario makes a strange discovery: shortly before his departure for Europe, he invented a way to make hair regrow miraculously. He laughs ecstatically, even maniacally, over his discovery.
The Thirteen Chairs was filmed from February to May 1969. Orson Welles and Tim Brooke-Taylor had their scenes filmed during a break from shooting Welles' comedic film One Man Band. Brooke-Taylor recalled:
Because the script for Sharon Tate's scenes called for several semi-nude scenes, the director arranged to film those scenes first. As filming, and her pregnancy, progressed, the director obscured Tate's stomach with large purses and scarves. This is most apparent in the scene following her ride in the furniture mover's van.
The Thirteen Chairs was Tate's final film prior to her August 9, 1969 murder at the hands of Charles Manson's followers; many people said that she had a knack for comedy and they were excited for her next film contract (equal to over $1,000,000 in today's money).
The film was released through rental only by Force Video in 1986 under the Thirteen Chairs title, and again a year later by Continental Video, under the original 12 + 1 title. On 12 March 2008, the film was released on DVD in Italy by 01 Distribution. This version is in Italian, lacks English subtitles, and does not include an English audio track.