(But team kpop will likely still happen! I do have details if anyone is interested.)
Our team doesnât have a name yet as weâre still polling suggestions (voting will happen next) but Iâm looking forward to seeing how it goes. đĄ
A 1945 movie from Sigmund Neufeld Productions that was directed by Sam Newfield. Based on Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler's script for Double Indemnity AND the James M. Cain novel of the same name.
Kenny (played by Hugh Beaumont) is a hot shot journalist who tries to land a surprise interview with businessman Harvey (played by Russell Hicks). He's brushed off but, while trying to interview Harvey, Kenny meets Toni (played by Ann Savage), Harvey's wife.
They have a type of ~connection.
Soon enough, they start having an affair. One night, Toni brings up how beneficial it'd be to get rid of her husband . . .
If the story sounds VAGUELY FAMILIAR, it's cuz this is a v. condensed version of Double Indemnity. Only, like, at a lower budget. This movie is abt an hour and 4 mins long.
A generous way to think of this movie is as an hourlong episode of a TV anthology show. Comparing it to the original movie is deeply unfair.
Do I have any criticisms?
Because of its length, it jumps over a lot of the actual!plot. Frex, Kenny and Toni's affair happens super fast. There's no time for anything to develop.
Do I recommend it?
Yeah. It might be a movie that's not amazing, but it's also a blatant rip-off of a much better movie. AFAIK, it's available on Amazon Prime Video, but I'm also sure anyone can find it elsewhere online. I'm giving it a 2.7 out of 5.
Were you an early adopter, or did it take you a while to start posting? Were you writing fanfic elsewhere at the time, or were you not into fic yet? How has your writing changed since the first fic you posted? Do you even use Ao3 now, or do you post somewhere else?
It was fun thinking of a response, especially since I recently did so much spreadsheet work for my own fics. Lots of interesting responses to read!
The regular weekly post for us to talk about any and all of our thoughts about the week's new releases.
(Links to MVs will be added a bit later this week)
NCT Dream - Beat it Up Allday Project - One More Time Handong Nchive - Love in Christmas Paul Kim - Have a Good Time Y:SY - Naked Jang Dongwoo- Sway (zzz) Lee Seunggi - ëě ęłě ë´ę° Kiss of Life - Lucky NiziU Reina Washio - Top Note (feat. Soojin, ex-IDLE) Baby DONT Cry - I DONT CARE Yook Sungjaw - A Single Story Apex - Check Point Kyuhyun 9 and the Numbers - The Definition of Love Burvey - Sugar Riding VVUP Stray Kids - Do It / Divine Cha Eunwoo - Saturday Preacher Shin Soohyun Yein - Landing Big Ocean - Red-dy Set Go
A 1947 movie from Columbia Pictures. Directed by John Cromwell. Script was by Stve Fisher and Oliver H.P. Garret from a story by Gerald Drayson Adams and Sidney Bidell.
Captain Warren "Rip" Murdock (played by Humphrey Bogart) and his bestie Sergeant Johnny Drake (played by William Prince) are enroute to Washington, D.C. from Paris under some mystery orders. Soon enough, though, they find out that Johnny will be awarded the Medal of Honor while Murdock will get the Distinguished Service Cross. Murdock is elated while Johnny is not quite vibing with all of that.
When their train makes a stop, Johnny uses the opportunity to run away. Murdock tells the army that he's gonna go after his BFF and bring him back. He decides to head on over to Gulf City, Johnny's hometown, and ends up getting a message from Johnny that they gotta talk. But Johnny never contacts him again . . .
Released a whole year after the triumph that was The Big Sleep, this is a pretty solid B-movie.
OFC, Bogart is THE star: he brings a realistic combination of world-weariness and hope for a better future that, combined with the superb dialogue, makes the film snap and crackle with energy. Most of the cast is really good as well.
The plot is convoluted enough to make it interesting w/o becoming too labyrinthine.
Do I have any criticisms?
Even though I think she's a good actress in most things, I couldn't quite rally behind Lizabeth Scott as Coral Chandler. Thing is, I'm not sure even Scott knew HOW to play her character. And so she was both femme fatale and heroine without making up her mind. Which makes me think that the role would've been a much better fit for someone else.
Interestingly enough, this seems to be the general sentiment as folks (even going back to 1947) felt, at best, lukewarm with her performance. *Hands*
Do I recommend it?
I do! Again, it's no The Big Sleep and Lizabeth Scott is no Lauren Baccall, but I was entertained. This movie is available for streaming on YouTube for FREE NINETY-NINE for the month of November IF you've got YT Premium, you'll be able to watch it w/o ads. I give it a 3.5 out of 5.
Queerness level:
There's a v. OJO line that Murdock tells another character abt his bond with Johnny that falls along the line of "he's the person I've loved the most."
Now, I wouldn't go as far as to say that the slash vibes are strong, BUT Murdock's devotion (in a manner of speaking) to Johnny does ring a little queer. IDK.
Every year, well over a hundred pinch hitters take on extra assignments. Many of these pinch hitters are signed up to Yuletide, with an assigned writer and recipient from the start. Some are not!
Though these supporting pinch hitters are not guaranteed a gift, we'd like to make it a possibility. On this post, we're collecting prompts from the pinch hitters who are not signed up to Yuletide, so that others may give them treats.
To pinch hitters If you are signed up to Yuletide this year, this post does not apply to you, but we still hope you enjoy your gift(s).
If you are not signed up to Yuletide this year but you have claimed or posted a pinch hit, please comment to this post with your requests! Please limit yourself to Yuletide-eligible fandoms, but you can ask for more than 8 different fandoms.
You can treat your comment as a Dear Writer letter, with likes and prompts, or include a link to a letter. Either way, please include the following information when you comment:
-your AO3 name -your requested fandoms [please format the fandoms exactly as they are in the tag set if possible] -your requested characters
and, optionally, ideas for what you would like to receive, DNWs, and/or (a) link(s) to other places where you have written about what you would like. You're welcome to comment on mini-challenge posts!
Thank you, pinch hitters! And thank you to anyone on the lookout to pick up a pinch hit - we will post them at yuletide_pinch_hits throughout the exchange.
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened. And specifically, if you would like to get a treat, we need your AO3 name so we know whom to give it to!
Sign-ups close December 20th at 11:59 PM UTC. You can either fill in the embedded form further down this page, fill it out at this link, or you can email us your sign-up at voiceteammods@gmail.com.
The first thing you need to decide when signing up is whether you want a higher points cap or a lower points cap. People with a lower points cap will be able to earn a max of 100 points per pair of challenges (and anything beyond that doesnât count for extra points), and people with a higher points cap will be able to earn a max of 200 points per pair of challenges. No matter what points cap you sign up for, you can decide to take a points break for any pair of challenges that you want if youâre finding the idea of earning points for that pair of challenges more stressful than fun!
Team Sign-Ups: Teams can be as small as 5 players or as big as 15 players. All you need to do is find some people to make a team with and then make sure everyone writes your teamâs name in their sign-up. Gather up your friends and take an adventure together!
Individual Sign-Ups For individual sign-ups weâll be matching you to a team of up to twelve people, so we need a little more info from you about your fandoms, interests, and preferences. This will help us do our best to match you up well with other players!
For individual sign-ups you can choose one sign-up buddy and weâll put you both on the same team. Please note that to keep matching from becoming overly complicated, sign-up buddies must be reciprocal, so if person A requests person B, person B must request person A (and not person C)!
If youâre curious who else has signed up for this adventure, you can check out this list of fannish names and AO3 accounts for other players! (All other information from sign-ups is only viewable by the mod team. If youâd prefer your fannish name and AO3 account to be only viewable to the mod team as well, thereâs a checkbox on the sign-up form that will do that.)
Audio of Mystery Box 2025 Info Post (read by Robin_Fai):
Voiceteam Mystery Box is a two-week mini spinoff of Voiceteam to wrap up the holiday season and start the new year! Starting on 12:01 AM UTC December 27th (7:01 PM EST on December 26th), we will announce two new point-earning challenges per day for five days. All ten challenges will remain open until 11:59 PM UTC January 8th (6:59 PM EST on January 8th). Once all the challenges have closed, the team with the highest score wins!
Voiceteam runs on UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). The closing of sign-ups, the closing of challenges, and the results and celebration happen at 11:59 PM UTC on the dates listed. All other scheduled events happen at 12:01 AM UTC on the dates listed. To get a sense of what that is where you live, you can do a Google search for âmidnight UTC in my time zone" or enter your location on this time conversion website. Your modsâeafay70, forzandopod, klb, novalinium, robin_fai, shash, and twtdâare in GMT (UTC-0), EST (UTC-5), MST (UTC-7), and PST (UTC-8), but we have players from across the world. Anyone from any time zone is welcome and able to participate!
MAJOR CHANGES FROM LAST YEAR
We have reformatted this intro post to separate procedures (how Voiceteam works) from rules (what is and is not allowed), which we hope will make the information easier to process.
We have added the following new content moderation rule: "No works that dox, harass, or personally attack other members of the fannish community."
The first paragraph of the Playerâs Code of Conduct has been updated to include the bolded sentence: "This is a community space, and players are expected to act in ways that take the needs and feelings of other community members, including players and mods, into account. For example, players should not publicly complain about their team, give unsolicited critique of another playerâs fanwork, or pressure or exclude team members. This list is not comprehensive, and mods will address any behavior that we believe violates community norms."
This year, we are offering the option for pairs of teams to form an alliance. This would mean that there would be a shared space on the Mystery Box Discord that only those two teams (and the mods) could access. Teams can use this shared space to strategize together, discuss cross-team collaborations, cheer each other on, etc. Alliances will not impact scoring in any way, and not every team will choose to have one, but they are available for teams who are interested in having a social space that is larger than their single team but smaller than the entire Mystery Box server.
We are continuing the system from May Voiceteam of offering to pair new players (at their request) with experienced players to guide them through their first Voiceteam.
We are also continuing the system from May Voiceteam of having 2-3 mini orientation challenges for new players to try out before Mystery Box officially begins. To allow more time for orientation challenges, the Discord will open a day earlier this year than it did in past years.
We have changed the opt-in window for points break. Any player will be able to opt into or out of points break at any time until 24 hours after the final set of challenges drops. At that point, all decisions about points break will be locked in and players may no longer change them except in cases of an unexpected life emergency.
PROCEDURES
Mystery Box offers team sign-ups and individual sign-ups:
Team sign-ups: You create your own team before signing up. Teams can have a minimum of 5 players and a maximum of 15 players.
Individual sign-ups: You sign up without a team, and mods sort you onto a team with other people who used this sign-up option. If you want, you can choose one âsign-up buddy" who is guaranteed to be sorted onto the same team as you. To keep sorting from getting too complicated, sign-up buddies must be reciprocalâif person A chooses person B, person B must also choose person A (and not person C)!
There will be two new challenges announced each day of the challenge posting period. You do not have to complete both challenges, but you can if you want to. Unless the challenge text specifies otherwise, you can complete any challenge as many times as youâd like and you will earn points each time.
Each player will have a point cap, which is the maximum number of points they can earn from each set of challenges. You can choose a lower point cap (100 points max) or a higher point cap (200 points max).
Challenges will sometimes leave room for interpretation. If you are not sure whether something counts, check with the mods. We support creativity and will often be generous with what we allow!
When you create something that fills a challenge, you will submit it to the mods using an Airtable form. A mod will look over and verify your submission and will reach out to you if we disagree about the point value or need more information from you. You aren't required to share your creations with anyone but the mods, but if you are comfortable doing so we invite you to also share them in the Voiceteam Discord and/or add them to our AO3 collection!
Since team sizes and point caps will vary, each teamâs final score will be scaled. Points will be determined by dividing the number of points each player earned by their total maximum (based on their choice of point cap), averaging this number for all the players in the team, and then multiplying this number by the average team size.
You may take a points break for any set of challengesâjust let the mod team know by the end of the opt-in window. If you are on points break for a set of challenges, your points for those challenges do not affect your team's scaled score. Players who find points more stressful than fun are welcome to take points break for all 5 challenge sets!
The mods are committed to supporting a positive experience for our players! Please feel free to contact the mods about any Voiceteam-related problems you have, including but not limited to: feelings of exclusion, conflict with a team member, and concerns about the rules or structure of Voiceteam. If you suspect a problem might be brewing but aren't sure if itâs worth bringing to the mods, please give us a heads up about it! We won't share your concerns with any other players without your permission, and we can help you think up solutions or make mod-level changes as needed to address the problem. For more serious problems, see our anti-harassment policy.
RULES
Each team member has the final decision about their own creations (including their part in collaborative creations, if they choose to participate in any). There are no minimum requirements for the quality or size of your creations.
Players can only get points for a single creation once. For example, you cannot submit one podfic for two challenges and get points from both challenges.
For multichapter works, every chapter can be submitted for points separately. Each chapter will be treated as a separate creation, so you can submit any chapter for any challenge, independent of what challenge(s) other chapters of that work were submitted for.
If a good-faith plan is made for multiple people to collaborate on a work and some members arenât able to meet the deadline, the partial project can be submitted for points by the members who did finish in time.
If an unexpected emergency arises in a Voiceteam player's life (for example, if they or one of their loved ones is unexpectedly hospitalized) they are allowed to opt into points break for that round even if the opt-in window has passed.
If a challenge leaves room for interpretation, you must abide by any decisions the mods make regarding the interpretation of that challenge. If you want to be sure that a creative interpretation will count, please ask before going ahead with it!
This is a community space, and players are expected to act in ways that take the needs and feelings of other community members, including players and mods, into account. For example, players should not publicly complain about their team, give unsolicited critique of another playerâs fanwork, or pressure or exclude team members. This list is not comprehensive, and mods will address any behavior that we believe violates community norms.
Pressuring team members includes, but is not limited to, repeatedly suggesting ways for the team member to earn more points, or repeatedly checking in on a team member's progress, without that team member having agreed to that type of interaction first.
Players should also honor mod decisions about Voiceteam rules and refrain from lashing out at, attacking, or personally insulting mods when sharing feedback or concerns.
Any player who breaks this code of conduct will be contacted by the mods and asked to stop. If this type of behavior happens repeatedly, they may be asked to leave Voiceteam or asked not to return in future years.
The above code of conduct is not intended to silence calling out or calling in of racism, transphobia, or other behavior harmful to historically marginalized communities. This community will always make space for that kind of feedback, and the mods will always work to support players who speak up about this type of behavior. This includes calling out/calling in of the mods.
Code of Conduct for Mods
Mods will not delete any words by players from our Discord unless those words violate our anti-harassment policy and their deletion is requested by the affected community members. In case of deletion, we will keep screencaps of the unedited conversation for accountability reasons.
Mods will listen to player feedback about Voiceteam structures and mod decisions thoughtfully, and we will work together as a team to make sure that any concerns or issues brought to us are addressed with respect and care.
If necessary, we encourage participants to hold us accountable for our own actions. We aim to mod this event from within the community, not above it. We will always be open to suggestions and feedback from members of our community for how to improve in our anti-oppression work and our work on making Voiceteam a fun and healthy community.
FAQ
I havenât played Voiceteam Mystery Box before. Can you give me a clearer understanding of what it is and how it works? We recommend you check out our New Player Q&A, which is made of questions new players asked in the Mystery Box 2023 Discord and the answers they were given by returning players.
If you want more information on the origin and general vibe of Voiceteam, in awesome audio documentary form, you can check out An Abridged History of Voiceteam, created by TheLordOfLaMancha during Voiceteam Mystery Box 2023.
What support do you have in place for first-time players? New players will have a box to check at sign-up to request being paired with a more experienced guide. Those who choose this option will be matched with a returning player who has signed up for the role of guide. New players can reach out to their guide whenever theyâd like for extra help, support, and collaboration, knowing that the guide volunteered for the role and will be happy to help!
Also, in the days between when the Discord opens and when the first challenges drop, there will be a couple of short orientation challenges that new players can complete for fake points. Players can use these practice challenges to familiarize themselves with how challenges look, what contributions count for points, how collaborations are scored, how to submit to Airtable, how to check their point totals, etc. Experienced players are welcome to complete the orientation challenges as well, for a refresher on how Voiceteam works, a way to warm up and bond with their team, and of course for fun!
Do I have to be an experienced podficcer to join? No! You just have to love podfic. There are non-voice ways to participate in audio fanworks for points, like contributing writing, beta, editing, directing, or graphics. There will also be some challenges that can be fulfilled without audio fanworks. No one has to do every single challenge.
How big of a commitment is this going to be? No bigger than you want it to be! The point of this event is to have fun and make friends, and if you end up getting inspired to create a bunch of stuff, cool. If not, thatâs also cool.
What is Discord?/Tell me more about how the Discord server is going to work. Discord is a text-based chat platform. Every server (like the Voiceteam server) can host multiple text and voice chat channels. Some of the channels will be open to the entire Voiceteam community and some will be visible only to members of your team.
Voiceteam players will be emailed an invitation to the Voiceteam Discord server on December 22nd. You can spend the first days saying hi and getting to know your teamâweâll provide some optional icebreaker questions you can answer for each otherâand then the first list of challenges will be posted at 12:01 AM UTC on December 27th.
What if I have one or more people Iâd like to privately request to NOT be on a team with? If you sign up without a pre-arranged team, there will be a field in the sign-up form where you can tell us who, if anyone, you would like to request to NOT be on a team with. Nobody except the mods will see what you type here.
What if my team is not a good fit for me? Team switches are an expected and healthy part of the process! Please reach out to us if you would like to discuss a team change and we will let you know about other teams you could switch to.
While we are welcome to reach out at any time, we will also have a more structured (optional) check-in via Airtable around the time the third set of challenges is revealed, which you can use to share any concerns you have about team fit.
Can I change my sign-up after Iâve submitted it? You can! After you submit your sign-up, we will email you a copy of your answers. If youâd like to make any changes, you can reply to that email and weâll edit your sign-up for you.
What if I donât like some of the challenges? Thatâs okay! The challenges are spread out to interest a wide range of different players, and not every challenge will work for everyone. In some cases, you might have feedback about how to tweak the challenge to make it more fun for you, which we invite you to share in the #feedback-about-voiceteam channel or by DMing a mod.
In other cases, you might find over time that seeing what other people create inspires you and changes your mind about some of the challenges. Sometimes players even find that the challenge that seemed least appealing to them at first ends up being their favorite! We encourage you to keep an open mind, and to reach out to teammates for ideas about how to make a tricky challenge fit with your interests, or for cheerleading and support in trying something new.
We do ask, though, that you keep any negativity about challenges that don't work as well for you to appropriate areas, such as #feedback-about-voiceteam or conversations with mods. In team spaces, please focus on the challenges you are interested in and/or constructive problem-solving about those that you are having trouble with. This will help keep team spaces positive, encouraging, and fun!
How do I keep track of when drops and deadlines will happen each day? We use dynamic timestamps in Discord to help players keep track of when the next drop or deadline is coming up. When we put a time in a message using a dynamic timestamp, it will automatically convert to whatever that time is in your local time zone.
We're also maintaining a Google Calendar with these dates and deadlines that you can subscribe to. (If you just view it, it will show up in GMT (UTC+0), but if you add it to your own Google Calendar, which you can do by clicking "Add to Google Calendar" on the bottom left, it will convert to your local timezone.)
What if 12:01 AM UTC is very late at night in my time zone? Those in time zones where 12:01 AM UTC is too late at night to comfortably stay awake for challenge drops can sign up to have the challenges revealed to them 4 hours in advance, so that their sleep schedules are not too disrupted by Voiceteam. However, anyone who participates in this early challenge drop must NOT discuss or react to the challenges in any way outside this channel until the challenges have been officially announced in the Voiceteam Mystery Box Discord.
I observe Shabbat in a way that makes me not able to participate (or have a similar religious or cultural reason that Iâd need to take certain days off from playing), but I still want to compete for points! Is there a way for me to do that? Absolutely! If you will need to take off specific days for religious or cultural reasons but still want to play for points, let us know at sign-up, and we will send you the challenges earlier to make up for the missed time.
Are there limits or requirements for crossposting creations I make for Voiceteam? Nope! You may crosspost any works made for Voiceteam whenever and wherever you want. You can also choose to not crosspost at all and only share with the mods, or only share within the Voiceteam Discord. One reminder, though, is that since many Voiceteam works are collaborations, all collaborators should discuss and be on the same page about when/where a work will be crossposted.
What if I was already working on something before Voiceteam started? Is there a way to get points for it? Any creation can earn points for a Voiceteam challenge as long as it is completed during the time that challenge is active. This includes WIPs you were already working on that happen to align with one of the challenges.
Do you recommend teams create their own separate Discords or group DMs to coordinate projects on Voiceteam challenges? We hope this event can be an opportunity for participants to get to know each other better and form lasting connections! However, in the interests of facilitating moderation we'd encourage you to keep to the Voiceteam Mystery Box Discord for coordinating Voiceteam projects with your team, rather than creating a separate team Discord for yourselves. If you do decide to create a separate Discord for your team, we highly recommend you add one or more of the Voiceteam mods so it's easier for us to get caught up in the case of issues - you can always remove us after all of the challenges have closed.
Regarding DMs, all players will have the opportunity to assign themselves the roles âDMs Open,â âAsk to DM,â or âDMs Closed.â Please respect the DM preferences that players show through these roles.
Are minors allowed to participate? Yes, minors (and over-18 folk who prefer to avoid mature content) are welcome to participate in Voiceteam! To accommodate these participants, NSFW content in the Discord server is kept in separate age-restricted channels. The only time NSFW content would be mixed in with SFW content would be in team-specific channels, and only in cases where every team member is over 18 and has expressed comfort with doing so.
I am a past player who is unable to play this year, but Iâd like to still be involved in some way. Is there a way to do that? Players who have participated in past Mystery Box rounds but are not participating in this round can sign up for a focus group discussion in our planning server. In this focus group, after sign-ups close (December 21stâ22nd), volunteers will read throughthe planned challenges in advance, give feedback, and ask questions so that we can revise them and make them as good as possible before theyâre officially revealed!
Past players who are unable to play this year but still want to stay involved also have the option of participation as Discord âghosts,â which is a tradition started by flamingwell in Mystery Box 2023. Discord ghosts will not be part of a team or able to submit any creations on Airtable, but they will have access to All-Team Channels in the Discord and can help cheer on and support all of the players from there!
Where can I find your content moderation rules, and how do they work? We have put in place three content moderation rules. If someone finds a fanwork that they think may violate one of the rules, they can report it privately (and anonymously if they want) to the mod team.
We have designed our response plan to prevent this system from being used to harass fanwork creators. We will never publicly share information about any reports, and we will only contact the creator about a report if we are sure the fanwork really is against one of these rules. If itâs unclear to us whether the fanwork violates the rule, the mod team will privately consult with one or more members of the group impacted, or as close as possible to that group, to assess if harm is being caused to the impacted community by the fanwork. If harm is being caused, we will move forward in private conversation with the creator of the fanwork to discuss the situation together and figure out possible next steps.
If the work is in violation of one of the rules and the fanworkâs creator cannot or does not wish to alter it, any points previously earned by the work will be removed and the work will be removed from our Voiceteam AO3 collection.
What plans does Voiceteam have in place to address racism within fandom and our community? At the start of Voiceteam, players will have the option to opt into a section of channels intended to be a safe space for creators of color. This space is run by a mod of color, and none of the white mods will have access, nor will any white player in Voiceteam. Most importantly, we ask that everyone - whether you're a person of color or not - respect that space.
We also have a universal bonus of +10 points for any Voiceteam fanwork that centers one or more characters of color. This includes racebent characters.
We are continuing to reflect as a mod team about our anti-racism practices within fandom, which we recognize to be a space deeply shaped by racism. We remain open to suggestions and feedback from members of our community for how to improve in this area.
Will there be a safe space set aside for trans players as well? Yes! We will also have a set of channels designated only for trans players, run by a trans mod.
17hols 2026 will begin on Saturday 27 December 2025. We are on for the fifth year!
While you're here, check out the links below. You can browse the bait list or read previous fills on our Notion database. If you're new, check out our [About] page for all the details.
A 1947 movie from J.E.M. Productions directed by Robert Rossen.
Johnny O'Clock (played by Dick Powell) co-runs a casino alongside Guido Marchettis (S.Thomas Gomez). He's a guy who knows all the angles, moves, scams, and whatnot. Harriet (played by Nina Foch), a hat-check girl, is someone Johnny's friendly with. She happens to be in a volatile relationship with crooked cop!Chuck Blayden (played by Jim Bannon).
Things get v. complicated when Blayden disappears and Harriet is found dead.
AND THEN, Nancy (played by Evelyn Keyes), Harriet's sister, shows up wanting answers. Not to mention the dangerous mess that is Nell (played by Ellen Drew), Guido's wife, who won't let Johnny go.
ON TOP OF ALL THAT, there's a cop named Koch (played by Lee J. Cobb) who keeps clashing with Johnny. (Personally, I got the feeling he was envious or jealous of him? #Unsure)
This is a CHAOTIC story, hahah. Everyone's acting is on deck. Dick Powell is someone who I first met in musicals, so it wasn't until much later that I discovered his noir movies. In this case, he plays the part really well. The film has extremely snappy dialogue, the kind that calls attention to itself. The artificiality of it all actually works; EVERYONE has at least two lines that are ridic witty.
It's a v. interesting noir.
Do I have any criticisms?
The story's kinda convoluted. There's the mystery of Harriet's death, the disappearance of the crooked cop, the mobster's wife who is obsessed with Johnny, and the viewer is never quite sure WHAT KIND OF CHARACTER Johnny actually is. OTOH, he's not a villain, but he's not an anti-hero either.
There's a scene where another character calls him out for being the type of person who not only will never pick a side, but who is also deeply selfish. And Johnny shrugs that character off. I do agree with that character's assessment of Johnny cuz, FWIW, you're never quite sure of his motivations. Even after finding out abt his background and how he ended up as a casino co-owner.
Finally, Powell has some chemistry with Evelyn Kayes (who I know as the wife in The Seven Year Itch movie with Marilyn Monroe.) But it's not strong enough.
Do I recommend it?
Sure. I had a good time watching it despite the jumbled plot and my ??? abt Johnny and Koch's motivations. I think you can watch it on Tubi (plus additional copies floating on YouTube.) Gonna give it a 2.9 out of 5
Some days I learn that there are people my age, people I know, who donât know what an epub file is.
(Yes I know that not knowing what an epub file is isnât some standardized measure of anything but I feel like that average familiarity xkcd comic right now đ)
Christine (played by Lynn Bari) is a rich widow who believes that someone from the great beyond is trying to contact her. Janet, her sister (played by Cathy O'Donnell) repeatedly tells Christine that she's imagining things. They live in a big house by a cliff and the combination of the waves from the sea below and the wind results in strange noises.
However, Christine is not convinced. One night, she's walking down the beach, on her way to her boyfriend Martin's house (played by Richard Carlson) for dinner. She begins to hear the voices again. It puts her in a weird emotional moment. Just as she's starting to get a hold of herself, she runs into a guy named Alexis (played by Turhan Bey). This dude tells her that his powers led him to her and that he wants to help. He drops a few details abt her and her husband that he shouldn't know cuz he and Christine had never met before.
Afterwards, she asks Martin for a raincheck. After she calms down, he proposes to her. Once Martin leaves for his home, she begins to see and hear more stuff. She sits down with Janet and they agree to visit Alexis to see what he can do to help them.
A seance occursâŚ
This is an interesting movie in that it's half gothic horror and half film noir. There's the supernatural aspect including ghosts, seances, the idea of a love that goes beyond life and death, etc. Meanwhile, for the film noir, the main themes are obsession and fate. The cinematography (by John Alton) is moody AF.
All of the actors were fine (tho no one stood out for me.)
Do I have any criticisms?
Yeppers. I do feel that the story has uneven pacing after Christine and Alexis meet. Sometimes things take forever to happen, others things seem to speed up.
Even though this is mostly built as a film noir, IMO, it's more a gothic suspense movie. So I'm v. ??? as to why ppl keep bringing this movie up whenever someone asks for film noir recs. YMMV.
SPOILERS FOR THE ENDINGPerhaps I'm overthinking this, but I was disappointed by some aspects of the ending.
So the first half of the movie is abt Christine. But then, the plot jumps lanes and the focus shifts to another character all the way to the end. Which is odd. I wish the movie had been abt the other character to begin with.
Especially cuz I wanted some more info on Christine as the movie came into a close. She's been put thru the wringer psychologically speaking AND survives a truly dark moment. It's also hinted at (some 15-20 mins before the movie ends) that she's having suicidal ideations too. The rest of the characters don't seem concerned abt that? Given everything that happens to her, I don't see Christine having a happy ending.
IDK. It was unnerving cuz there's no closure to her character one way or another.
Do I recommend it?
#Unsure. It's not a bad movie, but I can't rec it as a full noir. So, I'm giving it a 2.1 out of 5.
A fond and fruitful yearly tradition, participants are invited to examine themselves and create a 'bait list' of the concepts they are interested in creating. It is a cheat sheet to a creator's Achilles' heel, the window to their soul.
If you're thinking about prompting, take a peak here for some inspiration. Craft a prompt to be a bait and it increases the the prompt to be filled.
Need ideas?
Genres and AUs - Formula 1 brainrot or a Pacific Rim devout? Perhaps 2026 is the year of gothic revivals and YA dragon riding military school love trianbles.
Tropes and Dynamics- enemies to lovers or enemies AND lovers, coffee shop meet cute or yet another customer service cursed interaction?
Media - just give it to us straight. Are you weak for an Ada LimĂłn or Louise GlĂźck quote? Is Frankenstein and Mickey 17 living in you head rent-free. Maybe it's the Pitt or Wicked or Epic the Musical.
A 1946 movie from Nero Films and directed by Arthur Ripley. It's based on the novel The Black Path of Fear by Cornell Woolrich.
The movie is abt Chuck Scott (played by Robert Cummings), a down on his luck WW2 veteran who, thru an act of kindness, ends up as the chauffeur for a Miami gangster called Eddie Roman (played by Steve Cochran). Now with a steady job and a place to live, Chuck is doing okay! That is, until he forms a bond with Lorna (played by Michèle Morgan)--who just happens to be Eddie's wifeâŚ
Actingwise, things are solid. Cummings and Peter Lorre (as Eddie's right hand man Gino) are good. Cochran plays his gangster role with this suave vibe who will turn violent in an instant. I like how he plays Eddie in a way that will unsettle viewers; he also has a v. magnetic persona.
Do I have any criticisms?
The plot feels like two movies in one (and not in a good way). With the first half being verrrrrry noirish as the suspense keeps building up. Then something happens that has the story change lanes in a way that made me MUPPET FACE at the screen.
Lorna as a character was uninteresting. I'm not sure if it was the direction or Morgan's own acting limits or what. She had a couple of good scenes with Cochran and then I'd be like "whatever, girl."
Do I recommend it?
I do as long as you accept that the movie will take a sharp turn. It's also only an hour and 30. I"m giving it a 2.1 out of 5. I didn't feel like I wasted my time watching it, but it's not one I'll rewatch any time soon or, like, ever.
Queerness level:
An argument can be made for Gino's closeness and protectiveness toward Eddie. At least, the way Lorre plays him. YMMV.
Another month! Posting a bit early this time as mods will be busy next week.
The poll for July is still open. You can make your case for your faves in the comments and if we missed something, you can do a write-in vote in the comments.
A 1975 adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel by the same name.
Just like with The Big Sleep, I read that novel some 20 yrs ago. I've watched (and own in physical format) the 1944 movie that was originally titled Murder, My Sweet. That movie starred Dick Powell and Claire Trevor.
Out of the two versions, the 1944 adaptation is the more faithful one to the novel. So, when compared to the 1975 film, there are some differences, but the overall storyline remained mostly the same. Acting and plot are good in both.
In this movie, Philip Marlowe (played by Robert Mitchum here and Dick Powell in the 1944 movie) is a private detective in 1941. He's not doing great, but he's deffo busy. The bulk of his cases tend to be abt cheating spouses or (like it happens at the start of the movie) finding missing people.
As soon as he returns a teenage runaway girl to her parents, he gets 'hired' by Moose Malloy (a thug who has just been released from prison for robbing $80k from a bank 7 yrs prior.) Malloy orders Marlowe to find his sweetheart, a woman named Velma, who was a dancer at a seedy bar. So Marlowe starts snooping around. The more he works the case, the wilder the search becomes until he senses that there's a bigger thing happening he hasn't quite connected the dots yet.
This is a REALLY GOOD movie. Extremely classic noir featuring Mitchum's Marlowe who has a frenemies situation with the police chief and Charlotte Rampling--who, at that time, was 29 y.o.--as Helen. She's a v. sensual, rich, and bored housewife. It's interesting that everything from her styling to her affectation and her voice is v., reminiscent of 1940s Lauren Baccall. Rampling does a good job as the femme fatale. (For context, the fabulous Claire Trevor, who played the same role in the 1944 movie, was slightly better, but I digress.) Rampling and Mitchum have a slow-burning intensity that works well considering Rampling's doing the most she can to embody the 1940s vamp and Mitchum (who was in his late 50s) starred in a lot of those 1940s noirs. I liked their interactions. Even though Helen was a little too much at times. Girl was horny, lordy lorde. XD
There are 2 differences between the 1944 and 1975 versions.
1. Because this movie was filmed after the Code was struck down, ppl curse, there are plenty of boobs (such as a scene in which Marlowe opens doors while searching for someone and finds different groups of ppl in which all of the women are topless), and the violence is more graphic (again, bullet wounds, blood, ppl getting punched and slapped.).
2. Also certain details: a character got genderswapped, two characters never show up (they were main characters), and two new characters were created for the movie. It was a bit confusing, but it worked for me. Oh, and out of nowhere, a v., v. young Sylvester Stallone shows up as a secondary character that's a thug dude. It was hilarious to see baby!Stallone, IDK.
It's not a perfect movie. There was one character that had a connection to the Big Bad, but I didn't quite understand how this partnership worked.
Do I recommend it? YES! If you're a fan of film noir or crime movies in general, this one will be a treat for sure. Content Warning for a lot of racial slurs in some scenes, on-screen violence against women, and some graphic stuff. I'm giving it a 4.5 out of 5.
Queerness level
There's a female character who is v. explicitly a lesbian. However, she's also an abuser and overall terrible person.
P.S.: One funny thing abt this movie being filmed in 1975 but depicting 1941 is that it'd be as if a movie coming out in 2025 that was set in 1990. I was a teenager in 1991! WHAT IS TIME?! O__o
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bluedreaming) wrote2025-11-18 11:51 am
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voiceteam Mystery Box 2025 sign ups opened this weekend, and this is the first year I wonât be joining team kpop. 
