The Twelve Chairs was announced in a 14 May 1968 LAT news item, which listed Sydney Glazier as producer and noted that writer-director Mel Brooks was at work on the screenplay, an adaptation of the 1928 novel Dvenadtsat stulyev by Ilya Arnoldovich Ilf and Yevgeniy Petrov. In an interview published in the 1 Nov 1970 LAT, Brooks claimed that he had first read the Soviet novel when he was fifteen, and had instantly envisioned it as a movie.
       On 13 Aug 1969, Var reported that Ron Moody had been cast, and that twelve weeks of shooting would begin later that month, on 25 Aug 1969. Brooks discovered Moody’s co-star, Frank Langella, when the stage actor starred in a play opposite Brooks’s wife, Anne Bancroft. The 1 Nov 1970 LAT stated that Brooks had similarly discovered Gene Wilder, who had appeared in his previous film, The Producers (1967, see entry), when Wilder co-starred with Bancroft onstage. The Twelve Chairs marked the first theatrical motion picture Langella ever filmed, but Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970, see entry) was the first to be released.
       An item in the 27 Aug 1969 Var and a 12 Sep 1969 DV production chart confirmed that principal photography began on 25 Aug 1969 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The production budget, cited as between $1.5 and $1.75 million, was financed entirely by U-M Productions. Brooks claimed in the 1 Nov 1970 LAT that filming in the U.S. would have cost $8-$10 million. In Yugoslavia, the film was “serviced” by Filmske Novosti, according to the 13 Aug 1969 Var. The picture “came in on time and below budget,” as indicated in the 24 Dec 1969 Var. Post-production was scheduled to take place in New York City and London, England.
       A five-city world premiere was initially planned for the Christmas season, a 10 Sep 1970 DV brief noted. However, a later item in the 21 Oct 1970 Var reported that a dual premiere would occur on 28 Oct 1970 at New York City’s Loew’s Tower East and Los Angeles, CA’s Beverly Theatre. Prior to release, the picture was rated “GP” (parental guidance suggested) by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). However, filmmakers appealed and received a “G” (for general audiences) rating, according to a 17 Dec 1970 DV brief.
       Although critical reception was mixed, Frank Langella won the National Board of Review’s Best Supporting Actor Award, and Brooks’s script was nominated for a Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Best American Comedies Adapted for Another Medium, as stated in items in the 4 Jan 1971 NYT and 15 Feb 1971 LAT.
       A box-office chart in the 24 Feb 1971 Var listed The Twelve Chairs’ cumulative gross in select U.S. markets as $1,848,172, to date.