Freelancer
Columbia used Malone to play Randolph Scott's leading lady in The Man from Nevada (1950). She stayed at that studio for Convicted (1950) and The Killer That Stalked New York (1950). She made Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone (1951) at MGM and played Tim Holt's love interest in RKO's Saddle Legion (1951) and John Ireland's love interest in The Bushwackers (1951). She began acting on television while continuing to appear in films, guest-starring on shows such as The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse ("Education of a Fullback", 1951), and Kraft Theatre ("The Golden Slate", 1951).
She relocated to New York City for several months to study acting until producer Hal B. Wallis called her back to appear in Scared Stiff (1953) starring the comedy duo of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Malone appeared in a war film, Torpedo Alley (1952) for Allied Artists. She was a love interest in Westerns with Ronald Reagan (Law and Order, 1953) and Mark Stevens (Jack Slade, 1953). She was also in the thriller Loophole (1954), billed second. She did episodes of The Doctor ("The Runaways", 1953), Omnibus ("The Horn Blows at Midnight", 1953); Four Star Playhouse ("Moorings", 1953; "A Study in Panic", 1954), Fireside Theatre ("Afraid to Live", 1954; "Our Son", 1954; "Mr Onion" 1955), Lux Video Theatre ("The Hunted", 1955), The Christophers ("The World Starts with Jimmy", 1955), and General Electric Theatre ("The Clown" with Henry Fonda, 1955).
Film roles included The Lone Gun (1954), a Western with George Montgomery; Pushover (1954), a thriller with Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak; and Private Hell 36 (1954) from director Don Siegel. Malone was reunited with Sinatra in Young at Heart (1954), as a co-star. Filmink noted during this period Malone mostly played second female leads, or "the girl" in Westerns.
She again co-starred with Ireland in The Fast and the Furious (1955), directed by Ireland but perhaps best remembered for being the first film produced by Roger Corman, who would later recount that Malone "had left her agent and, having no work, accepted a part for next to nothing." He cast her as the female lead in his directorial debut, Five Guns West (1955). At Warner Bros., Malone made a Western with Randolph Scott, Tall Man Riding (1955), then was cast as Liberace's love interest in the unsuccessful film Sincerely Yours (1955). More successful was the Paramount musical comedy Artists and Models (1955), a reunion with Martin and Lewis, where she played the love interest of Martin's character. She then returned to Westerns: At Gunpoint (1955), with MacMurray; Tension at Table Rock (1956), with Richard Egan; and Pillars of the Sky (1956) with Jeff Chandler.
Malone's career received a boost when she had a leading part in Battle Cry (1955), playing a married woman who has an affair with a young soldier (Tab Hunter) during World War II, a box-office hit. Filmknk argued "the penny dropped in Hollywood how Malone could be used other than as a Girl in Westerns – namely, as a sexually active temptress who was still sympathetic, a sort of minor league Lana Turner."
