Free for All | |
---|---|
Directed by | Charles Barton |
Screenplay by | Robert Buckner |
Story by | Herbert Clyde Lewis |
Produced by | Robert Buckner |
Starring | Robert Cummings Ann Blyth Percy Kilbride |
Cinematography | George Robinson |
Edited by | Ralph Dawson |
Music by | Frank Skinner |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 83 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Free for All is a 1949 American comedy film directed by Charles Barton and starring Robert Cummings, Ann Blyth and Percy Kilbride. [1] [2]
A young man invents a pill that can turn water into gasoline. While staying in Washington DC to register his patent, he falls in love with his host's daughter. However, she works for a major oil company and after she lets slip to her employers about the magical new formula, they desperately try to get their hands on it.
The film was based on a story by Herbert Clyde Lewis called Patent Applied For. In August 1947 Universal announced they had purchased the story and it would be the first film made by producer-writer Robert Buckner under Buckner's new contract with the studio. [3]
In May 1949 the studio announced the film would be called Hot Water and would star Ann Blyth, who had recently been put on suspension by the studio; her casting meant the suspension was lifted. The project meant Buckner's proposed film Paradise Lost, 1949 was pushed back on Universal's schedule. [4]
In May 1949 Robert Cummings was cast in the male lead and Charles Barton was appointed director. [5] [6] In June the title was changed to Free for All. [7]
Filming started in Washington in June 1949. [8] The Daughters of the American Revolution opposed filming comedy scenes at Mount Vernon. A compromise was reached where the scenes were shot at the grounds but not inside the shrine. There were twenty days filming at the studio. [9]
Filmink called it "a weak comedy, not helped by the fact that his [Cummings'] co-star was Ann Blyth – Cummings couldn’t carry a film on his own shoulders if the material was weak, he needed someone strong to bounce off." [10]
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and Princess O'Rourke (1943), and in dramatic films, especially two of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, Saboteur (1942) and Dial M for Murder (1954). He received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Single Performance in 1955. On February 8, 1960, he received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture and television industries, at 6816 Hollywood Boulevard and 1718 Vine Street. He used the stage name Robert Cummings from mid-1935 until the end of 1954 and was credited as Bob Cummings from 1955 until his death.
Ann Marie Blyth is an American retired actress and singer. She began her acting career on Broadway in Watch on the Rhine (1941–42), and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Veda in the 1945 Michael Curtiz film Mildred Pierce. Her other notable film roles include Brute Force (1947), Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948), Once More, My Darling (1949), The World in His Arms (1952), All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953), Rose Marie (1954), The Student Prince (1954), Kismet (1955), and The Helen Morgan Story (1957).
Moon Over Miami is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Walter Lang with Betty Grable and Don Ameche in leading roles and co-starring Robert Cummings, Carole Landis, Jack Haley and Charlotte Greenwood. It was adapted from the play by Stephen Powys. This was previously adapted into a 1938 film titled Three Blind Mice directed by William A. Seiter and starring Loretta Young, Joel McCrea and David Niven.
Charles Barton was an American film and vaudeville actor and film director. He won an Oscar for best assistant director in 1933. His first film as a director was the Zane Grey feature Wagon Wheels, starring Randolph Scott, in 1934.
Souls at Sea is a 1937 American historical adventure film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Gary Cooper and George Raft. Based on a story by Ted Lesser, the film is about a first mate on a slave ship who frees the slaves on the ship after a mutiny overthrows the ship's captain. The title of this film was spoofed in the Laurel and Hardy comedy film Saps at Sea (1940). The supporting cast features Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Joseph Schildkraut, Robert Cummings, George Zucco, Tully Marshall, Monte Blue, and an uncredited Alan Ladd and Edward Van Sloan.
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Princess O'Rourke is a 1943 American romantic comedy film directed and written by Norman Krasna, and starring Olivia de Havilland, Robert Cummings and Charles Coburn. Krasna won the 1944 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
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Ma and Pa Kettle is a 1949 American comedy film directed by Charles Lamont. It is the sequel to the 1947 film version of Betty MacDonald's semi-fictional memoir The Egg and I and the first official installment of Universal-International's Ma and Pa Kettle series starring Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride.
Into the Blue is a 1950 British comedy film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Michael Wilding, Odile Versois and Jack Hulbert. It is also known as Man in the Dinghy. In the film, a couple hire a yacht for what they hope will be a relaxing cruise to Norway, but instead become involved with smugglers and end up going up the River Seine to Paris.
The Barefoot Mailman is a 1951 American historical comedy adventure film directed by Earl McEvoy and starring Robert Cummings, Terry Moore and Jerome Courtland. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film was based on the 1943 novel The Barefoot Mailman by Theodore Pratt. Filmed in Super Cinecolor on location in Florida where the events take place, it features many elements of the Western.
Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' is a 1948 American musical comedy film directed by George Sherman and starring Donald O'Connor. Also featured are Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride ,
with Penny Edwards as the perky love interest. It was produced and distributed by Universal Studios. One scene features a dance routine in a barn, choreographed to the Al Jolson song "Me and My Shadow".
Free and Easy is a 1941 American comedy film directed by George Sidney and starring Robert Cummings, Ruth Hussey, Judith Anderson and Nigel Bruce. Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film is a remake of But the Flesh Is Weak (1932) in which Robert Montgomery and C. Aubrey Smith had appeared as the son-and-father team. Both films are based on the 1928 play The Truth Game by Ivor Novello.
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Let's Live a Little is a 1948 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Wallace and starring Hedy Lamarr, Robert Cummings and Anna Sten. Written by Howard Irving Young, Edmund L. Hartmann, Albert J. Cohen, and Jack Harvey, the film is about an overworked advertising executive who is being pursued romantically by his former fiancée, a successful perfume magnate, who is also the ad agency's largest client. While visiting a new client—a psychiatrist and author—to discuss a proposed ad campaign, his life becomes further complicated when the new client turns out to be a beautiful woman, who decides to treat his nervous condition.