No Questions Asked (1951)

(SLWB - August 29, 2014)

Director: Harold F. Kress, Writers: Sidney Sheldon (screenplay), Berne Giler (story), Stars: Barry Sullivan, Arlene Dahl, Jean Hagen, George Murphy. Steve Keiver (Sullivan) needs money to marry Dahl. He can't get a raise from the insurance company he works for but he hears his boss remark that he'd pay a large sum "no questions asked" for return of stolen property to avoid paying a much larger payout so he becomes the go between the criminal element and the insurance company trying to stave off paying on loss claims and reaping a percentage for his troubles, it has a nice twist, an entertaining enough noir, caught it on TCM I've always been a Barry Sullivan fan and Jean Hagen and Arlene Dahl are nice eye candy.  7/10


Hagen, Sullivan, Dahl

from IMDb
Noirish look at insurance scams marred by indifferent acting

14 February 2001 | by bmacv (Western New York)

No Questions Asked takes us down the primrose path followed by ambitious insurance agent Barry Sullivan (but all quality comparisons to Double Indemnity end there). He links up with mobsters who guarantee the return of stolen goods in exchange for a payoff consisting of a percent of their insured value -- and the insurance company acquiesces in this bottom-line trimming. (Sullivan's fiancee, Arlene Dahl, aspires to a higher standard of living.) Soon he's raking in big bucks, to the chagrin of his former co-worker Jean Hagen, who carries a torch for him. There are some good scenes (including a heist in a theater's ladies' lounge by two torpedoes in drag as society dames) and plot twists; some of the cinematography is not bad, either, though it's pretty cliched noir. The worst part of this movie, however, is the generic acting from all involved, except for that of Jean Hagen -- Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain -- and a couple of the bit players. Still, it's worth a first look, if not a second viewing.