Number Six runs for the office of Number Two.Number Six runs for the office of Number Two.Number Six runs for the office of Number Two.
Fenella Fielding
- Loudspeaker Announcer
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Peter Madden
- Undertaker in opening sequence
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe only appearance of the Village pub which is called, appropriately enough, The Cat and Mouse.
- GoofsWhen the camera tracks across Number 6 as he is offered breakfast by Number 2, the camera shadow falls across him and the wall behind him.
- Quotes
Number 6: You don't approve.
Number Two: Of the Village?
Number 6: Yeah.
Number Two: To Hell with the Village. Cheers.
Number 6: Cheers.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Prisoner: Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (1967)
Featured review
"Obey Me and Be Free!"
In "Free for All," Number Six confronts a twist on an old cliché: If you can join 'em, can you still beat 'em? The Village is facing elections for the chairperson's position, with Number Two (Eric Portman) running unopposed until he invites Number Six to toss his hat into the ring. He does, and he immediately snaps into firebrand mode, excoriating the Villagers who have accepted their imprisonment and have chosen to "die here like rotten cabbages" before vowing to uncover "who are the prisoners and who are the warders" as Number Two eggs him on.
This most overtly political episode of "The Prisoner" was scripted by Patrick McGoohan under the pseudonym "Paddy Fitz," itself a political statement as "Paddy," although a nickname for Patrick, is also an ethnic slur for an Irish person such as he. Filled with pithy quotes ("everybody votes for a dictator") and trenchant observations on the political process in a democracy--put democracy in quotes if you're so inclined--"Free for All" is powerful but disjointed, at times too abstract, perhaps deliberately so to avoid becoming (ahem) a prisoner of its time period.
Moreover, in addition to his writing chores, McGoohan, the series star and its executive producer (what today we call the "showrunner"), also directed "Free for All," an onerous burden for one man, particularly given the spy series' short production schedules, and at times his Number Six doesn't seem to be clear on what he should be conveying. Thus, we're left wondering what to make of the seemingly bizarre behavior he manifests on occasion.
Still, McGoohan's themes of propaganda, brainwashing, and manipulation of the masses echo the Orwellian authoritarianism that lurks within even democratic governance and renders its outcomes "demonstration elections" in which nothing seems to change and opposing policies and ideologies seem interchangeable. "Six of one and half a dozen of the other."
Number Two assigns him an indistinctly Eastern European factotum, Number Fifty-Eight (Rachel Herbert), who chirps excitedly about the campaign even though she doesn't speak a word of English. Suspicious of her, Number Six nevertheless can't shake her, and he soon finds himself interrogated by the Labour Exchange manager (George Benson) who assures him that "he may be a friend."
When Number Six rails against the non-alcoholic drinks at the Village nightclub, cheekily (if too pointedly) named "The Cat and Mouse," Number Fifty-Eight takes him to a secret cave where a mysterious man (John Cazabon) brews up bootleg booze. Lo, also drowning his sorrows is Number Two, and it would be too obvious if the cave was filled with cigar smoke signaling the back-room deal.
Playing the straight man, Portman is fine in his thankless role while Herbert, her Number Fifty-Eight providing delightful, then chilling, misdirection, suggests a vaguely fetish honeytrap, appearing first as a maid, then in a sailor costume like a Japanese schoolgirl before finally slapping sense into Number Six like a cool, cruel dominatrix until he gets on the Village public address system to deliver the ultimate paradox: "Obey me and be free!"
Everyone does vote for a dictator, don't they, Number Six? Dangling power before him in an elaborate ruse to coax his secrets out of him, or at least to assimilate him among the warders, "Free for All" also remains a political Rorschach Test enabling you to see what you think you see in our society. Be seeing you.
This most overtly political episode of "The Prisoner" was scripted by Patrick McGoohan under the pseudonym "Paddy Fitz," itself a political statement as "Paddy," although a nickname for Patrick, is also an ethnic slur for an Irish person such as he. Filled with pithy quotes ("everybody votes for a dictator") and trenchant observations on the political process in a democracy--put democracy in quotes if you're so inclined--"Free for All" is powerful but disjointed, at times too abstract, perhaps deliberately so to avoid becoming (ahem) a prisoner of its time period.
Moreover, in addition to his writing chores, McGoohan, the series star and its executive producer (what today we call the "showrunner"), also directed "Free for All," an onerous burden for one man, particularly given the spy series' short production schedules, and at times his Number Six doesn't seem to be clear on what he should be conveying. Thus, we're left wondering what to make of the seemingly bizarre behavior he manifests on occasion.
Still, McGoohan's themes of propaganda, brainwashing, and manipulation of the masses echo the Orwellian authoritarianism that lurks within even democratic governance and renders its outcomes "demonstration elections" in which nothing seems to change and opposing policies and ideologies seem interchangeable. "Six of one and half a dozen of the other."
Number Two assigns him an indistinctly Eastern European factotum, Number Fifty-Eight (Rachel Herbert), who chirps excitedly about the campaign even though she doesn't speak a word of English. Suspicious of her, Number Six nevertheless can't shake her, and he soon finds himself interrogated by the Labour Exchange manager (George Benson) who assures him that "he may be a friend."
When Number Six rails against the non-alcoholic drinks at the Village nightclub, cheekily (if too pointedly) named "The Cat and Mouse," Number Fifty-Eight takes him to a secret cave where a mysterious man (John Cazabon) brews up bootleg booze. Lo, also drowning his sorrows is Number Two, and it would be too obvious if the cave was filled with cigar smoke signaling the back-room deal.
Playing the straight man, Portman is fine in his thankless role while Herbert, her Number Fifty-Eight providing delightful, then chilling, misdirection, suggests a vaguely fetish honeytrap, appearing first as a maid, then in a sailor costume like a Japanese schoolgirl before finally slapping sense into Number Six like a cool, cruel dominatrix until he gets on the Village public address system to deliver the ultimate paradox: "Obey me and be free!"
Everyone does vote for a dictator, don't they, Number Six? Dangling power before him in an elaborate ruse to coax his secrets out of him, or at least to assimilate him among the warders, "Free for All" also remains a political Rorschach Test enabling you to see what you think you see in our society. Be seeing you.
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- darryl-tahirali
- Apr 8, 2022
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