The Twelve Chairs

Žižkov barber Ferdinand Šuplátko is surprised by news of an inheritance that he has been left by his aunt in Warsaw. He leaves for Warsaw but is extremely disappointed. All that is left in her empty flat are twelve antique armchairs and a painting of the dead aunt. A Warsaw antiques dealer is willing to buy them from him. Šuplátko takes them all away at once, piled up into a pyramid. He does not notice that one of them has got caught on the gates of an orphanage and remains hanging there. After he returns home he finds a letter behind the painting in which his aunt informs him that one hundred thousand dollars have been sewn into the upholstery of one of the chairs. Šuplátko rushes back to the antique shop but the chairs have already been sold. Šuplátko arranges with the antiques dealer that they will look for the chairs and then split the profits. After various adventures they eventually find the armchairs but not the money. The disappointed men walk past the orphanage which is celebrating Orphan Day. Both men listen dumbfounded to a speech given by the director: she thanks the anonymous donor for giving these abandoned children one hundred thousand dollars which had been found hidden in the lining of the upholstery. (official distributor synopsis)