The Quack (1982) User Reviews

Good story and a solid movie.

[karl-gutowski · 8/10 · 7 October 2009]

This film follows the life of a renowned physician who ends up a homeless vagrant with amnesia after losing his family and getting beaten up in an alley, all within a short span of time.

There isn't anything weak about this movie. The story feels very real and has touching moments without being superficial or cheesy. The story moves between an early 20th century Polish city and village life of the same era. The main character is easy to like and to relate to as he goes through his woes and tries to put his memories and life back together.

I recommend this film if you would like to watch a good, humane drama that doesn't disturb you in its darkest moment, builds an air of hope as it develops, and ends with a very satisfying sweet touch.

A wonderful story about a surgeon suffering amnesia

[sorinaoprean · 9/10 · 1 February 2005]

I loved this film. I saw it years ago while living in Romania. Here, in Spain, nobody has ever heard of it unfortunately. Afterwards I read the book, it's absolutely fantastic (there are two novels about this character - Znachor and Profesor Wilczur) and of course searched the web in order to find a way of purchasing the DVD with English or french subtitles as I don't understand at all polish... but by now there is no such edition. It's a pity, this movie is great. After so many years lots of details are almost gone from my memory, but I remember it as a beautiful film, great actors, great music... I'd like to highly recommend it to everybody, but as I already said, there's the problem of the language.

A re-make of 1938 romance/drama; a famous surgeon stricken by amnesia

[andrew-133 · 9/10 · 6 January 2000]

An excellent story about a talented surgeon who is abandoned by his wife with a young daughter. Stricken with grief he gets drunk, is robbed and badly beaten. As a result he suffers from amnesia and for years wonders from settlement to settlement working as a laborer. Finally he gets a job in a mill and driven by an impulse helps mill-owner's son to walk again after an accident. Gradually people start crowding to see the famous 'quack'. In the meantime, in the neighboring town a young lady who works as a shop assistant is courted by a son of local count, who opposes his son's choice. The lady and the young count get badly hurt in a motorcycle accident and the quack saves their lives. Arrested for practicing medicine without qualifications he gets rescued by the grateful patients. During the court hearings he regains his memory and realizes that the young lady he saved is his daughter. Well acted, good script - well worth watching. One can only hope that one day it will released on a DVD with English subtitles.

A doctor gets robbed and forgets who he is. He is accepted at a nearby village but soon his medical knowledge resurfaces.

[marta5 · 10/10 · 30 March 2006]

This film is excellent for its plot and message but an even better version of it is a black and white oldie made before the WWII!! This version follows the original plot which is what is so good about the movie and it keeps the viewer interested in how the story will unfold and who will win in the end; however, the black and white version is better because it is far more dramatic. Besides the timing, of filming the movie, being closer to a time when such a story could have taken place, the very format of old film-making gives it this strange old feel that this could have really happened. The black and white colors suits this story very well and the acting is excellent. I saw this film first when I was 10, then 12 and now at 27 I still love it.

A deeply touching drama

[denis888 · 10/10 · 1 August 2006]

I never saw this film when it was in the Soviet Union in the 1983-84. Only this year could I get a DVD and watch it. What a pleasure! What a serious, deep, moving and touching work of ever excellent Jerzy Hoffman! The story is quite thrilling - a famous surgeon is beaten by drunken bullies, loses his memory and cannot recollect who he was before. he gets to a village, lives in a not so well to do family and becomes the Quack - he slowly regains his talent for medicine and saves the lives of several village patients. The film is warm, sweet and rich in details, the colors are impeccable and the play of the main actor just excellent. He looks so frail, although he is very strong both physically and mentally. He behaves so modestly but then he is the victor both over death and the fate. This is a bit slow, but very serious film, very thoughtful and very romantic - tears are on eyes not once or twice during the watching. Very good work - highly recommended!

beautiful

[Kirpianuscus · 4 April 2017]

it is simple to define it as one of the most important films of my youth. the performance - memorable Jerzy Binczycki-, the story, the moral lesson, the film as way to the book, all preserves the images of an admirable work. a doctor, his amnesia, his sufferance and the ways to be useful to a small community. the meet. and the truth , after decades, as price of long pain years. nothing surprising for the Polish cinema. but splendid for the small detail to be a fresh story today and demonstration of beautiful art. short, a film who must see it.

Znachor

[Cristi_Ciopron · 8/10 · 2 April 2010]

'Professor Wilczur', the adaptation by Jerzy Hoffman of a beloved literary best—seller, is a clever Polish melodrama about a hugely talented surgeon who becomes an amnesiac and, under the name Antoni Kosiba, wanders through rural Poland in search of jobs. At last he settles with an Orthodox family and cures the son of the host by performing an orthopedic intervention. Then Antoni passes from orthopedics to neurosurgery.

The script is, like the novel, replete with the devices of a melodrama. The cinematography is delicious; the cast seems mostly average, except for the hot blonde widow who tempts, unsuccessfully, poor Antoni.

Better watch the original from 1937

[Filip-Kolakowski · 4/10 · 11 November 2019]

There are only two ways in which this movie is more than the original - 1 it is in color, 2 it has more unnecessary dialogue. However, good camerawork is better than colour. And the dialogues leave no space for actors to shine (they just don't stop). The sound design in the original was also better. Go watch the original because it deserves more credit than this imposture.