Twelve Plus One [12 + 1] [The Thirteen Chairs] ** (1969, Sharon Tate, Vittorio Gassman, Orson Welles, Terry-Thomas, Lionel Jeffries, Tim Brooke-Taylor, William Rushton, Mylène Demongeot) – Classic Movie Review 8847

Co-writer/ director Nicholas Gessner’s 1969 Italian comedy Twelve Plus One [12 + 1] [The Thirteen Chairs] is an interesting but oddly unpersuasive piece, with a hesitant tone, but it is notable for the last screen appearance of Sharon Tate before her murder and for the massive presence of Orson Welles, who lends a touch of style to the sometimes unspeakable dialogue.

An esoteric but appealing international cast – Vittorio Gassman and Ottavia Piccolo (Italy), Orson Welles and Sharon Tate (America), Terry-Thomas, Lionel Jeffries, Tim Brooke-Taylor, William Rushton and Fiona Lewis (Britain) and Mylène Demongeot and Claude Berthy (France), Grégoire Aslan (Ottoman Empire) – in a version of the Russian novel The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov, curiously made in the same year as Mel Brooks’s version of The Twelve Chairs.

Gassman plays Mario Beretti, the philandering heir who finds that one of the 13 ratty antique chairs, which he has been bequeathed and has given away, contains a fortune, so he sets out on a quest to get it back, helped and hindered by various comic eccentrics.

Twelve Plus One [12 + 1] [Una su Tredici] [The Thirteen Chairs] is directed by Nicholas Gessner, runs 95 minutes, is made by Compagnia Generale Finanziaria Cinematografica, Comptoir Français de Productions Cinématographiques (CFPC), Girouxfilms, CEF and COFCI, is released by United Artists and Embassy Pictures (1970) (US), is written by Marc Behm, Denis Norden and Nicholas Gessner, is shot in Technicolor by Giuseppe Ruzzolini, is produced by Claude Giroux and Edward J Pope, is scored by Carlo Rustichelli and David Whitaker (composer of additional music, English language version) and is designed by Piero Poletto.

The two versions of the film (12 + 1 and The 13 Chairs) have different opening and ending title sequences.

Sharon Tate was three months pregnant when she arrived in Rome for filming at the end of March 1969. Director Gessner arranged to film her several semi-nude scenes first, later hiding stomach with large purses and scarves. She spoke fluent Italian. She returned to LA in July 1969.

Terry-Thomas recalled: ‘Sharon turned out to share a distinction with Lena Horne. They were the only two performers I ever knew who were entirely natural before the camera. We were like a double act. She was nice, intelligent and pretty.’

Canadian producer Claude Giroux recalled: ‘It’s a comedy, and, let’s face it, no one wants to watch a comedy when the star has been wiped out in a real-life drama.’

The movie, originally titled Thirteen was renamed 12 + 1 for superstitious reasons. Claude Giroux recalled: ‘Miss Tate said that her very first movie Eye of the Devil (1967) had been originally called Thirteen and she had hoped this was not going to be her first and last film. We laughed and assured her otherwise, but I changed it to 12 + 1.’

Actress Roberta Haynes was working at Cinecittà film studios in Rome, on this production as dialogue coach.

Tim Brooke-Taylor.

RIP much loved funny man Tim Brooke-Taylor, best known as one of the anarchic TV trio The Goodies and as a 48-year veteran of radio’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, who died on 12 April 2020, aged 79, with coronavirus.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8847

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