On March 21, 1951, Darnell signed a new contract with 20th Century Fox that allowed her to become a freelance actress. Her first film outside 20th Century-Fox was "The Lady Pays Off" for Universal-International (1951) after Douglas Sirk requested her for the lead role. She was responsible for putting the film behind schedule because on the fifth day of shooting she learned that Ivan Kahn, the man responsible for her breakthrough, had died. After "The Lady Pays Off", Darnell headed the cast of "Saturday Island" (1952), which was filmed on location in Jamaica in late 1951. There, Darnell fell ill and had to be quarantined for several weeks. Because her contract required her to make one film a year for the studio, she reported to the 20th Century-Fox lot in March 1952 and was cast in the film noir "Night Without Sleep" (1952). It was the only time that she had to live up to this part of her contract, although she was released from it in September 1952.