THE QUACK [1937]
year:
- 1937
release date:
- 16 IX 1937
runtime:
- 100 min
directed by:
- Michał Waszyński
written by:
- Anatol Stern [based on the novel by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz]
director of photography:
- Albert Wywerka
cast:
- Kazimierz Junosza-Stępowski [professor Wilczur], Elżbieta Barszczewska [Wilczur’s wife Beata and daughter Marysia], Witold Zacharewicz [Leszek Czyński], Wojciech Brydziński [Leszek’s father], Wanda Jarszewska [Leszek’s mother], Józef Węgrzyn [Dr. Dobraniecki], Mieczysława Ćwiklińska [Szkopkowa], Romuald Gierasieński [ticket inspector Franuś], Jacek Woszczerowicz [Jemioł], Stanisław Grolicki [miller Prokop]
music by:
- Henryk Wars
production design:
- Jacek Rotmil, Stefan Norris
produced by:
- Warszawskie Biuro Kinematograficzne
awards:
- Nagroda Izby Przemysłowo-Handlowej dla Michała Waszyńskiego na Festiwalu Filmowym we Lwowie w 1938 r.
About the film
A model example of an inter-war drama. A clear plot, good winning out in the end, and excellent performances made it a blockbuster in Polish cinemas.
The wife of Rafał Wilczur, a surgeon, leaves him. She takes their daughter with her. Wilczur wanders around Warsaw. Together with a casual acquaintance, Jemioł, he gets drunk. He is robbed and beaten. He loses his memory. The wife is left alone; her lover dies by being crushed by a tree. She works as a seamstress, then as a pianist in the cinema. Wilczur, repeatedly detained for vagrancy, takes the name of the deceased Kosiba. Staying with the miller, he heals his crippled son and begins to heal the local peasants. After her mother's death, Marysia becomes a pianist in the cinema. She has two suitors: Leszek Czyński and Wojdyłło. The jealous Wojdyłło causes an accident in which both she and Leszek are injured. The quack, in order to operate on her, steals instruments from the town doctor. Before the court, he is acquitted and recognised by a rival − Dr. Dobraniecki. Leszek and Marysia want to get married. At the grave of his wife, the quack recovers his memory and returns to his hospital. At the last moment he comes for his daughter's wedding.
Grzegorz Pieńkowski, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996
