Chasing the Wealth: The Americanization of Il’f and Petrov’s The Twelve Chairs
Chasing the Wealth: The Americanization of Il’f and Petrov’s The Twelve Chairs
This chapter explores Mel Brooks’s transformation of Il’ia Il’f and Evgenii Petrov’s 1928 novel about three men chasing a stash of jewels hidden in a set of dining room chairs into the American “buddy film” genre. Brooks adapts the novel’s satire, grounded in the specific realia of the Soviet New Economic Policy period, into a film that dissolves national and temporal borders by combining US, Russian, Soviet, and Jewish motifs. The director thus reinvents of Russia for American audiences, focusing on the universal theme of friendship and cooperation triumphing over greed.
Keywords: Brooks, buddy film, Il’f, Jewish, New Economic Policy, Petrov, satire, Soviet
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