No Questions Asked

Arlene Dahl is "Ellen" in this flick from the 1950s. The opening scene is our narrator running from the police, but within 10 seconds we flash back to what brought us to that point. In the flashback, she is met at the airport by a lawyer-friend "Steve" (Barry Sullivan). Steve is also on a first name basis with Harry, the taxi driver. Harry takes him around to visit all the thugs in town so he can be the go-between in a shady transaction. All of a sudden, his girl is gone, and Steve is in business getting more and more stolen goods back for clients....for a price. The police are watching him, and he'd better watch his step....Jean Hagen is "Joan", Steve's new girl. ( Hagen had been in Singing in the Rain, and Dead Ringer with Bette Davis.) No real big names in this one, but it's a pretty good story. Directed by Harold Kress, who had won two Oscars for EDITING How the West was Won and Towering Inferno. He was nominated for editing SIX times, and won two of those times. Oddly, this was one of the five films KRESS ever directed. Pretty good movie - i'm surprised that this one isn't on more often, but I guess it's because they used lesser known actors of the time.

No Questions Asked is directed by Harold F. Kress and written by Sidney Sheldon and Berne Giler. It stars Barry Sullivan, Arlene Dahl, Jean Hagen, George Murphy, Richard Anderson and Moroni Olsen. Music is by Leith Stevens and cinematography by Harold Lipstein.

Sullivan plays Steve Keiver, an insurance lawyer unhappy with his rate of company advancement. He hits on the idea of being a middleman in deals to recover stolen property from the Mob, thus earning a nice pay off for himself whilst the insurance company are saved money by not having to pay out. But sure enough his actions attract police attention and before he knows it he is up to his neck in double-crosses, frames and dames!

Tone is set from the off as our protagonist is on the run from the police, it's a dimly lighted moist street and he begins his narration. From there we get the film flashback of how he has come to be a wanted man.

We are in noirville so obviously we have a bona fide femme fatale (Dahl smouldering) who is greedy, immoral, manipulative and thinks nothing of crushing Keiver's dreams. If he's to go to his doom then she really will not give it a second thought - and yet he loves her and would have married her in a heartbeat. He's a classic noir dope, he just can't see the bad in the woman he so covets, which is all the more annoying since the lovely firm secretary Joan Brenson (Hagen excellent) covets him and he can't see the wood for the trees where the two ladies are concerned.

We have a bunch of run of the mill villains, with one who has a kink involving how long he can hold his breath under water for, though we do get a robbery scene that comes to reveal some devilish cheek soon afterwards. The cops you kind of get miffed about since the whole scam that Keiver has set up is implausibly allowed to flourish. Yet when things go bad for Keiver later in the play, we enter a dark world, where even if the finale isn't pure film noir, we get some moody turns of events that softens any feelings of there being a damp squib at film's end. 7/10

"They turn a spotlight on you and then they narrow the search...You wonder how it happened and where it all really began. It started somewhere beyond the searchlights and sirens. You had ideals and you went to a top law school...I think it all started when I received a telegram that Ellen was coming home."-Steve

This wonderful little film noir starts with our unsuspecting Steve picking up Ellen from the airport. These two are practically engaged to be married but Ellen starts working Steve with the idea that she doesn't want to raise her children in poverty like she was raised. Naïve and happy Steve goes right in and asks his boss for a raise...for which his boss gives him the runaround and a resounding no. Steve works for an insurance company who, like all insurance companies, is trying not to pay out claims.

Desperate to save his company money and to try to get a raise, Steve embarks on a dangerous idea to hunt down the mobsters who stole furs from their client. Steve gets roughed up a bit, but his gamble works and one of the mobsters bites...returning the furs for $10,000 no questions asked. Steve earns $2,500, for which he buys a ring and rushes over to Ellen's...only to find out from her landlady that she is married and left for a honeymoon in Europe!

Drowning his sorrows over his lost girl, one of the mobsters makes Steve an offer to make the insurance hustle a regular scheme.

"You know what I like about you?...you never worry about me smearing your lipstick."-Steve.

"Don't talk to any strange girls."-Joni.

"Do we put a tail on him?"-Cop "I don't know, I think he looks pretty cute just the way he is."-Steve.

"You're not talking to the sucker you left. Oh no! I took your advice and went out and got a liberal education. There are a few things they don't teach you in law school...like how to buy a penthouse. Well you were a great teacher and I've graduated. I can afford to send Stevie to Oxford only there isn't any Stevie."-Steve

"See I'm too smart to stick around because I'm still sucker enough to be in love with you."-Steve.

Good story and excellent film noir plot. If you are a film noir fan...this should be on your list to see.

And God spoke: I need two people, of all my creations, who will be perfect for the leads in what I will call Film Noir. That's how Barry Sullivan and Jean Hagen were created. This film is indeed classic, even typical film noir, with the one big difference: It's quite original plot, which twists and turns like a mountain road. Director Harold Kress lays the story out in a crisp and uninsulting manner, expecting us to pick up subtleties and clues without obvious explanations. I suppose if I have to find issue, I'd say the picture seems to be slightly over edited, coming across at times like a long montage. All in all, really good movie, and, if you are a film noir nut, maybe even great. Dahl always gives the added obvious bonus of being stunning.

Barry Sullivan retrieves stolen goods for a fee in "No Questions Asked," a 1951 B noir also starring George Murphy, Arlene Dahl and Jean Hagen. Sullivan is Steve Kiever, an attorney for an insurance company. He's impossibly in love with the beautiful, gold-digging Ellen (Dahl), who dumps him early on by getting married and forgetting to mention it. After recovering stolen furs for the insurance company and making extra money, he goes into business for himself. Soon there's a city-wide crime wave, with the thieves collecting good money on the stolen goods without being caught trying to sell the stuff and with no one learning their names. The police, led by George Murphpy, are furious with him. Kiever becomes wealthy and has gone back to an old girlfriend from his office, Joan (Hagen) when he sees Ellen again. The old hunger returns - though, as Hagen is aware, it had never left.

This is a pretty good film, very noirish with his sleazy locations and nighttime drama. There are some good scenes, though I have to admit that I saw through the gimmick used for the robbery and couldn't figure out why no one else who was robbed did. Two future TV stars, Richard Anderson and William Reynolds, have roles in the film, as well as old-timers like Murphy and Moroni Olsen.

Enjoyable.