Free for All (film)

A young man invents a pill that can turn water into gasoline. While staying in Washington 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.

• Robert Cummings as Christopher Parker
• Ann Blyth as Alva Abbott
• Percy Kilbride as Henry J. Abbott
• Ray Collins as A.B. Blair
• Donald Woods as Roger Abernathy
• Mikhail Rasumny as Dr. Axel Torgelson
• Percy Helton as Joe Hershey
• Harry Antrim as Mr. Whiting
• Wallis Clark as Mr. Van Alstyne
• Frank Ferguson as Hap Ross
• Dooley Wilson as Aristotle
• Russell Simpson as Farmer
• Lester Matthews as Mr. Aberson
• Murray Alper as McGuinness
• Bill Walker as Herbert
• Kenneth Tobey as Pilot
• Harris Brown as Colonel
• Willard Waterman as Commander H.C. Christie

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]

• Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.

• Free for All at IMDb
• Free for All at TCMDB