Quack from 1937 differs from Hoffman’s film. An important change in the plot of Wilczur’s wife

Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz was the most widely read Polish writer of the interwar period, and he gained significant popularity thanks to his second novel entitled “Career of Nikodem Dyzma”. Mostowicz also quickly realized how important cinema would be. The first film based on his novel was shot in 1933 – it was the production of Prokurator Alicja with Jadwiga Smosarska in the lead role. The writer himself also created film scripts, but these were not popular. Paradoxically, this was to happen with “em”, which was originally conceived by the author as a film. Since the filmmakers rejected this text as well, Dołęga-Mostowicz turned it into a novel, which went on sale in 1937.

“The Quack” was supposed to be a movie from the beginning. The author’s script was rejected

Mostowicz found the idea for “Znachor” in a newspaper. In 1935, the “ABC” journals described the story of Dr. Ferdynand Dolani. He studied medicine in Brussels and, surprisingly, was arrested in the village of Borek for practicing quackery. The medic decided to hide the fact that he had a medical diploma, because in his opinion quacks were better off than doctors. The next piece of the puzzle came during the summer of 1936. At that time, Mostowicz spent time at the Piwnicki estate in Sikorz.

At that time, he also visited the nearby village of Radotki with his hosts, where there was a mill. In it, one of the workers of the mill, who was also a local herbalist and medicine man, really saw patients. His last name was Różycki and he took care of those patients who preferred his services to expensive visits to the doctor. The plot of professor Wilczur’s beating is attributed to an episode in the life of the writer himself, who was attacked in 1927 by unknown perpetrators. The attack was linked to the fact that the writer criticized the ruling camp at the time. The motif of beating also appeared in “Career of Nikodem Dyzma”.

Dołęga’s script may not have worked out, but the book “Quick” turned out to be a hit. Its quick success was supposed to encourage film producers to immediately film it. Nevertheless, Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz’s script was not used for this purpose. An excellent poet, Anatol Stern, was asked to write the film adaptation of “The Quack”, and he fulfilled the task perfectly.

Article about Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz Written by Marian Dąbrowski (editor) – ‘Światowid’ no. 1 from 1939 / Public domain,

In Lexicon of Polish feature films, Grzegorz Pieńkowski even writes that “Znachor” from 1937 is “an exemplary example of interwar film drama. The transparent action, faith in the victory of good and excellent acting made it a box office hit on Polish screens”. The main role – Professor Rafał Wilczur, who after losing his memory assumes the identity of Antoni Kosiba – was played by the eminent dramatic actor Kazimierz Junosza-Stępowski. The double role of Professor Wilczur’s wife, and then his daughter Marysia, was played by Elżbieta Barszczewska.

The film was so popular that a sequel was made in 1938. “Professor Wilczur” (the screenplay was again written by Stern, based on Dołęga-Mostowicz’s next novel of the same title), and then, already in 1939, “The Testament of Professor Wilczur” was released in cinemas.

In the first “Znachorze” the plot of the wife looked different

The first adaptation of “The Quack” handled the plot of Professor Wilczur’s marriage differently than he approached it in the 1980s. In his film, the wife leaves the main character weighed down by the weight of his fame and because she feels unworthy to continue living at the side of such an outstanding doctor.

Originally, however, the intrigue was that the famous surgeon’s wife cheats on him, runs away with her lover and takes their daughter, Marysia, with her. A heartbroken Alsatian wanders around the city and ends up in a cheap pub where he gets drunk. There he is robbed and severely beaten. As a result of the attack, he loses his memory, and after waking up, he begins the life of a vagabond. Tired of frequent arrests, he assumes the identity of the deceased Kosiba. Years later, he finds himself working in a mill, where he begins to heal people – there is also the well-known story of healing the miller’s crippled son.

Meanwhile, viewers learn that the unfaithful wife of the professor was punished by fate, because her lover died crushed by a tree. This forces her to take a job as a seamstress, and then at the cinema. She dies alone, and after her death Marysia starts working as a tapestry in the cinema. She is a beautiful girl and has two suitors: Count Leszek and Wojdyłła. The latter out of jealousy leads to an accident in which Marysia and Leszek are injured.

They end up in the care of Kosiba, who steals the town’s doctor’s tools to perform a life-saving operation. However, he ends up in court for quackery – during the trial there is a breakthrough, he is recognized by his former rival, Doctor Dobraniecki. The Alsatian is acquitted and then goes to his wife’s grave. There he regains his memory: first he goes to his hospital, and literally at the last moment he manages to find Marysia and Leszek’s wedding.

The film was produced by the Warsaw Cinematographic Office Feniks, and at the Film Festival in Lviv in 1938, director Michał Waszyński received the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Award. It was only Jerzy Hoffman who decided to film “The Quack” again, with Jerzy Bińczycki, Anna Dymna and Tomasz Stockinger in the main roles. The film entered Polish cinemas on April 12, 1982 and became one of the most iconic Polish films. In 2023, a new adaptation is to be shown, in which Leszek Lichota will play Professor Wilczur.