Keep Your Seats, Please! is a 1936 British comedy from Ealing Studios, starring George Formby, Florence Desmond, and Alastair Sim. It's loosely based on the 1928 Russian novel The Twelve Chairs.
The extremely wealthy Georgina Withers has just died and left all her money to charity... or so her will claims. A letter to her nephew George reveals she actually left him £90,000, hidden in a dining room chair. All he has to do is buy the chairs, cut them open, and he'll be rich. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Contains examples of:
- Amoral Attorney: Mr. Drayton, Aunt Georgina's solicitor, is determined to steal the treasure before George finds it.
- A Simple Plan: George has to buy his aunt's chairs. Unfortunately he doesn't have any money, and other people buy the chairs instead. Things go downhill for him from there.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The drunken sailor George and Florrie keep running into turns out to have bought the seventh chair and sold it to the pawn shop.
- Con Man: Max offers to "help" George find the chairs in return for fifteen percent of the treasure. Then twenty percent, then thirty, then thirty-five.
- Extreme Omni-Goat: George and Florrie mistakenly think a goat has eaten the treasure.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Max abandons George and Florrie and jumps onto a boat heading for South America because he thinks the chair with the treasure is on board. It isn't, and Max doesn't get any of the treasure at all.
- Nephewism: Binkie is Florrie's orphaned niece. This causes trouble with the child welfare officials, who want to put Binkie in an orphanage because they think Florrie can't care for her.
- Not What It Looks Like:
- George climbs in his room's window, undresses, and goes to sleep. The next morning he wakes up to find his landlady has let the room to Florrie and Binkie, who are asleep in the other bed. Then the child welfare officials barge in, find George and Florrie in the same room, and get the wrong impression.
- Madame Louise's husband comes home to find her lying on the bed beside Mr. Drayton. It's actually because they were both knocked out in the fight with Max and George. The husband jumps to the most obvious conclusion, throws Drayton out, then finds George hiding under the bed. So he throws George out and goes to pack his bags. Then he finds Max hiding in the wardrobe, so he throws him out.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: George attempts to pass a goat off as a dog by making the goat wear a mask shaped like a dog's face.
- Pun-Based Title: The plot revolves around a set of six ( actually seven) seats.
- Running Gag: The drunken sailor who promises to bring back a parrot for various people.
