Be Sick... It's Free (1968)
"Il medico della mutua" (original title)

Director:

Luigi Zampa

Writers:

Sergio Amidei, Giuseppe D'Agata (novel),

Stars:

Alberto Sordi, Sara Franchetti, Ida Galli

3 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alberto Sordi	...	Il Dottore Guido Tersilli
Sara Franchetti	...	Teresa
Ida Galli	...	Anna Maria (as Evelyn Stewart)
Nanda Primavera	...	La madre di Guido
Bice Valori	...	Amelia - la vedova
Leopoldo Trieste	...	Pietro
Franco Scandurra	...	Il Dottore Bui
Claudio Gora	...	Il primario
Pupella Maggio	...	Signora Parise
Cesare Gelli	...	Uno dei colleghi di Tersilli
Tano Cimarosa	...	Salvatore Laganà
Sandro Merli	...	Il Dottore Drufo
Marisa Traversi	...	La prostituta
Sandro Dori	...	Il Dottore. Zucconi
Marco Tulli	...	Il portiere

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

envy | nurse | map | unfaithful wife | practice | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

24 October 1968 (Italy)

Also Known As:

The Family Doctor

Company Credits

Production Co:

Euro Film, Explorer Film '58

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Producer 'Dino de Laurentiis (I)' refused join the production because according to him any Italian would go to a theater to see a movie about doctors and diseases. The movie had the record at the Italian box office in 1968 beating Kubrik's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.

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Connections

Followed by Il prof. Dott. Guido Tersilli, primario della clinica Villa Celeste convenzionata con le mutue (1969)

User Reviews

Comedy on the disasterous Italian national health/medical system !

Story of an ambitious young medical school graduate who through not always ethical means makes a rapid career. Even though its not the best of Alberto Sordi's tragicomical films, this film tells the public about all the inefficiencies and absurdies of the national sanitary system, almost to become a documentary ,but retaining always that 'commedia all'Italiana' satire on Italian society ! The film was so pungent in its critism of the amorality of the Italian medical category, that the Italian Medical Association condemned the film , even though many doctors in private admitted to Alberto Sordi that his film basically depicted well the situation. Now the system of 'mutue' has been abolished in Italy, so the film is only relevant as social criticism for Italy of the early 1970's, but always interesting to watch, and additionally you can have a few laugh's.A 7 vote.