The Mighty HDC Battle Royale III

[Straker]

So is each answer being marked by 5 judges then, instead of one? I don't think I was paying enough attention. :rolleyes:

[_____V_____]

Yes it is. You score points out of 50 - out of 10 from each Judge. Each point wins you a HP.

I have received the analysis and verdicts of THREE Judges till now - Doc Faustus, Neverending & Zero.

Judge Return has sent in his analysis and verdict of ONE answer so far.

Waiting for Judges Austin and Return to pass their judgements. As soon as I have all of them in, I will post the answers, their analysis and criticism (if any), and the collective scores.

[_____V_____]

Judge Austin has turned in his verdicts. Only Judge Return remains now, and he will be sending in his verdicts within the next 12-15 hours.

One of the THREE Finalists will be getting shot by the Judges, possibly all of them. Who will it be? Wait and see.

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HDC BATTLE ROYALE III ROUND OF THREE #2 - THE VERDICTS


The first reply, came from Finalist Straker.

"Ed Wood is widely considered to be one of the worst filmmakers to ever walk the Earth, but there is no question that he was also one of the most passionate. He had no resources, less money, few connections and blessed little experience - but against all odds, he still made movies, for no reason other than that it was what he loved to do more than anything in the world.
Which modern filmmaker would you say best encapsulates the spirit of Ed Wood?
To whom, in recent years, would you award the "Edward D. Wood Jr. Memorial Award of Excellence?"

Originally Posted by Straker

In order to truly capture the essence of Ed Wood and find a director worthy of the Edward D. Wood memorial Award I have chosen to look for a director who has shown a life long commitment to the craft and one whom best embodies the passion, flair and dedication of Ed Wood.

The director I have chosen began his journey towards this award back in the early 70’s and has added to his canon of work throughout his lifetime and continues to demonstrate his passion and love for the industry to the present day. In one of his earliest films, the blaxploitation classic, Black Caeser, he showed he had the flair, passion and ingenuity to follow in the footsteps of Ed Wood and hold true to the essence of his appeal.

Throughout his career, the director held true to the ideology and appeal associated with Wood, offering up his own brand of creative filmmaking. Writing, Directing and Producing inventive and entertaining movies such as:

The Stuff (writer/ director)
Maniac Cop (writer)
A Return to Salem’s Lot (writer/ director)
It’s Alive (writer/ producer/ director)
Original Gangstas (Director)
Phone Booth (writer)

Along with many more…

Of course, the award goes to Larry Cohen who’s long career, spanning 4 decades and still going, has personified the passion and flair of Ed Wood. Often working on low budgets Cohen has remained focused and has driven his long career on the desire to create. There is a sense of passion and flair running through his career which embodies the spirit and appeal of Wood, making him a worthy and deserving winner of the award.

This is what the honorable Judges had to say in their verdicts...

Judge RETURN - "5 points on the dot. I've got no issue with his choice, but I would have liked a more in depth response.
No punishment from me, but also no reward."


Judge DOC FAUSTUS - "Compared to Wood's circumstances, the streets have been paved with gold for Larry Cohen. He's had some good successes, worked with excellent, not desperate actors and produced products that are not quite analogous to Wood's, I believe.
7/10."


Judge NEVERENDING - "A lot of filmmakers have flair, passion and ingenuity. What made Ed Wood stand out was his ineptness. That is why people remember him today, and why so many people find an inspiration in his life- the fact that his passion was blind and overcame his lack of talent. Your presentation completely ignores this aspect of Wood.
I give you 5/10. Small punishment."


Judge ZERO - "I really don't see Larry Cohen as an Ed Wood successor. Wood was a bizarre director with strange festishes and an anarchic sense of plotting (virtually absent in most of his films). Cohen is a low budget director and maybe exploitative, but I don't think he's nearly as adventurous (or misguided) enough to wear the Wood mantle.

Also, the answer doesn't really give any reason Cohen is the natural recipient of this award. So I found it lacking in justification.
4 out of 10 points. I'm also going to shoot Straker once (assuming I still have my gun)."


Judge AUSTIN316426808 - "Straker - 6/10."

So Straker, you have scored an above-par score for your effort. You have also been SHOT TWICE Standard style by the Judges' Hand Cannons, once each by Judges Neverending and Zero.

Your score -

Judge Return - 05/10
Judge Doc Faustus - 07/10
Judge Neverending - 05/10 (Standard shot)
Judge Zero - 04/10 (Standard shot)
Judge Austin - 06/10

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TOTAL - 27/50

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That equates to 27 BONUS Health Packs for you Straker, out of which 10 are used up immediately to heal up the injuries by the Judges' punishment.

You gain 17 HPs, alongwith a .357 Magnum with SIX bullets to use in the subsequent Zone outing. Also, you are given a small, carefully wrapped parcel too, the contents of which we will see after the Verdicts are posted.



Let's move on to Michelle's verdicts...

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HDC BATTLE ROYALE III ROUND OF THREE #2 - THE VERDICTS


The second reply, came from Finalist Michelle.

"Choose any three of the following under-appreciated character actors and recast each of them as the lead in a popular/acclaimed film. Explain why you made your choice.
For example:
"I think Tom Conway would have made a great Willy Wonka because..."

Elisha Cook
Michael Ripper
Mantan Moreland
Skelton Knaggs
Dwight Frye
Ray Sager
Dick Miller"

Originally Posted by ~Michelle~

For the Actors I chose...Mantan Moreland, Skelton Knaggs and Dwight Frye

I think Mantan Moreland would have made a great Wallace 'Wally' Karue in 'See no Evil, Hear No Evil' because..
Mantan was a cocky comedian, who had a cackling laugh and buldging eyes and who could be jittery at the same time. This movie seems fitting as he would have taken on Richard Pryors character of 'Wally' a blind man, along side Gene Wilder's character of 'Dave' a deaf man. Mantan had teamed up with other comedians while still alive to keep his career alive so to speak. Mantan had a great talent for making people laugh, which is why I think he would have done very very well in this roll.


I think Skelton Knaggs would have made a great 'Herbert West' because ....
Skelton was known as the soft spoken creepy guy, he often played sinsiter roles. Skelton was an odd looking fellow, who also just looked like the 'mad scientist' type. This role was chosen more from a 'gut feeling' than for any other reason, the first picture online that I saw of Skelton the character of 'Herbert West' just jumped at me.

I think Dwight Frye would have made a great Castor Troy/ Sean Archer in 'Face Off' because.....
Dwight was an extremely versatile actor even though most of his work was uncredited, he specialized in protraying mentally disturbed characters. With being the type of actor he was, to play a character like Castor Troy/Sean Archer it takes talent as for one half (Castor Troy) is a crazy powerful criminal killer, and the other half (Sean Archer) is a heart broken government agent trying not only to bring this killer to justice but also to avenge the death of his son.

This is what the honorable Judges had to say in their verdicts...

Judge RETURN - "Her choices show a lack of familiarity with the performers and failure to properly research them.
I'll give her 3 points and a very heavy punishment."


Judge DOC FAUSTUS - "The first and third answers were pretty interesting, especially what was done with Dwight Frye, but I felt Re-animator was kind of an easy solution for Skelton Knaggs.
I give Michelle a 7.5."


Judge NEVERENDING - "Good choices. Well thought out. I could see each actor in the parts you cast them in.
8/10. Reward."


Judge ZERO - "I thought the Mantan Moreland part was inspired and liked the idea of Dwight Frye in Face/Off. That said, I thought Skelton was too easy a choice. The great thing about Jeff Combs is he DOESN'T look like stereotypical mad scientist. Skelton does look just like we'd expect which, I think, loses something.
7.5 out of 10. No reward and no punishment."


Judge AUSTIN316426808 - "Michelle - 5/10."


So Michelle, you have scored a decent score for your effort. You have also been SHOT ONCE Spreadshot style by the Judge Return's Hand Cannon, but also AWARDED by Judge Neverending.

Sorry, and congrats.

Your score -

Judge Return - 03/10 (Spreadshot shot)
Judge Doc Faustus - 07.5/10
Judge Neverending - 08/10 (*REWARD*)
Judge Zero - 07.5/10
Judge Austin - 05/10

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TOTAL - 31/50

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That equates to 31 BONUS Health Packs for you Michelle, out of which 10 are used up immediately to heal up the injuries by the Judge Return's punishment.

You gain 21 HPs, and your reward from Judge Neverending is a PLASMA CANNON WITH 10 BOLTS! You also get a SHOTGUN with TEN bullets to use in the subsequent Zone outing.
Also, you are given a small, carefully wrapped parcel too, the contents of which we will see after the Verdicts are posted.



Let's move on to Roshiq's verdicts...

[_____V_____]

HDC BATTLE ROYALE III ROUND OF THREE #2 - THE VERDICTS


The final reply, came from Finalist Roshiq.

"Find a film made by Monogram or Republic between 1932 and 1949. Update it. Change the plot slightly, recast it with contemporary actors and choose a new contemporary director."

Originally Posted by roshiq

In its successive period of more than 20 years Monogram considered a leader among the smaller studios (Poverty Row) that able to established the idea "When the Monogram logo appeared on the screen, everyone knew they were in for action and adventure". It produced and released nearly 1,000 genre films, such as Westerns, serials, comedy shorts, and melodramas, between 1931 and 1953. The studio also produced a number of memorable horror films, ten of them starring Bela Lugosi, including The Ape Man (1943), Invisible Ghost (1941), King of the Zombies (1941), and Voodoo Man (1944). Lugosi�s frequent co-star, Boris Karloff, also appeared in six films for Monogram, including Mr. Wong, Detective (1938) and The Fatal Hour (1940).
Among its variety of films as an ardent fan of classic horror films I picked studio's the 1946 horror film THE FACE OF MARBLE in response to the specified challenge/question.

The New Title: THE VOODOO VENGEANCE

Now it's better to start with a intro of the original film to know more about the story and making the necessary changes for the required update:
Charles Randolph is an aged medical researcher, who has recently moved to an isolated mansion somewhere on the Atlantic coast in search of the privacy he needs to complete his latest project. With the help of a young doctor, one David Cochran; they are working to develop a way to restore life to dead tissue, more precisely to restore the recently dead (as in, a couple of hours or less) to life.
The introduction to Randolph�s work in the film comes late one night when he and Cochran bring into their lab the body of a drowned sailor whose ship seems to have been lost in the storm raging just off the coast. Randolph�s butler, Shadrach sees the two men sneaking the corpse inside the mansion.

Changes:
[1] The Butler character will appear with the name 'Russo' and Belga Lugosi will be in charge of that role. Russo, the butler will be the lone provider of the necessary corpses for Randolph's experiment. In this version of the movie Randolph & Cochran will not be engaged in that sort of activity (bringing corpses inside the mansion). Russo is a very devoted & royal servant of Dr. Randolph who think himself as a master in the voodoo business for his some earlier experience & knowledge in that particular trade (where in the original film the maid Maria got that attribute; her character will be very less significant in this version & will be appear in very few scene).
[2] More importantly one of the major changes will be the experiment or the research that Dr. Randolph & Cochran are conducting will be shown less significantly means...without a significant or any success or you can say with a practical point of view...more precisely, there will be no kind of 'resurrection happening' (like shown in the Face of Marble) in this version; the one or few attempt(s) of resurrection will outcome failure but Randolph will be hopeful & madly determined about the project. Though their whole research thing would be appear kinda meaningless but instead of leaving Randolph, Cochran is still working with him just to stay close to his old town/high school crush Elaine...Dr. Randolph's wife! That means there will be no character of Cochran's girlfriend Linda Sinclair in this film which was in the original.
[3] In this updated/changes version the character of Elaine will come with some negative attributes or evil intentions. As she married to old aged/quite elder Dr. Randolph just cause of his wealth/money. But like in the original film here we can also see her fall for Cochran as she thinks who really does seem to be a more logical match for her than the older, more driven Dr. Randolph.
[4] So it'll be no late when both Elaine & Cochran know each others feelings & intentions and the twists of the story will mainly starts at that point. But the more crucial point here is butler Russo will also come to know about their secret meeting(s) as he heard their conversations one night. He get stunned by hearing the idea from Elaine about even somehow killing the Doctor, inherent his properties & then runaway with Cochran. Although Cochran highly objects that idea of conspiracy & killing but Russo in the meantime already determined that he can't let any of those happen as long as he's alive & serving for his master Dr. Randolph. Then we also came to know from Russo (as he's like talking to himself) that he's already extremely devoted to his master, and never hesitates to practice his strange island magic like he believes that last time he wished & spelled his master to get married with an young & beautiful lady which he at least thinks results Randolph's marriage with Elaine.
[5] Like in the original film the character of a police detective called Inspector Peter Norton will be quite same & also appear in this version in the same way...as Russo is collecting corpses from graveyards or other unknown sources, Inspector one day stops by to talk to Randolph when he wasn't at the mansion. Although he may tell Russo & Elaine that it’s just a social call (he and her husband are old friends), and indeed, when he gets in touch with Randolph later, it turns out that Norton has found himself in the difficult position of having to investigate his old pal for murder & stealing dead bodies.
[6] Here I like to also clarify that there will be no character of or place for the Dead/resurrected dog Brutus in this version (the dog ridiculously came back to life with the ability to pass through any solid matter in the original film!).
[7] Now let's go back to the action/main storyline where Russo is now about to take advance revenge for his master as he knows Cochran & Elaine are betraying him. So one late midnight Russo whips up some kind of voodoo nerve gas potion into the lab where he thought Cochran is working. But he has miscalculated (You can see here some similarities with the original film where the scheming maid plans to get rid of the girlfriend of Cochran when she came for a visit in the mansion). Though normally Cochran works or runs some tests alone for Dr. Randolph in late at night but Russo didn't know or noticed instead of Cochran, Dr. Randolph was working late in the lab that night. Thus it is Randolph who is working in the lab when Russo’s lethally effective gas-bomb goes off and the doctor dies. His dead body then discovered by Cochran just after the incident as he comes to the lab to tell Randolph he's no more willing to work in his project. But as he find his bead body he screamed & start calling everyone. Then after few moments Russo comes to the lab & he get totally shocked & mad as he sees that his plan went totally wrong. The devastated Russo then revealed his actual intentions & plan (as he starts to tell) to Cochran. After hearing that Cochran get worried for Elaine & asks Russo whether he has done anything to her. Russo then tells him (with having kinda evil/mad smile in his face) she is already at the top of cliff just next to their mansion as he has already hypnotized her to get jump from the cliff.
Cochran then run for her to save her from the accident while treating (& give a little punch on his face) Russo that he'll be apprehended soon by the police. Cochran able to save Elaine through some moment of tensed "cliff-hanging" situation.

At the very beginning of the film it'll start with a monologue of butler Russo about how he's so much grateful to his master and at the end we'll see that he's actually telling this whole story at the police station to the Inspector Peter Norton which means at the end he really get apprehended by the police.

Production info:
The title: The Voodoo Vengeance

Director: Edgar Georg Ulmer (The Black Cat-1934)

Cast:
George Zucco as Dr. Charles Randolph
Kent Smith as Dr. David Cochran
Anna Lee as Elaine Randolph
Tom Conway as Inspector Peter Norton
Bela Lugosi as Russo
(At the beginning, I thought Karloff & later Claude Rains for the role of Dr. Randolph but as the character provide nothing significant in the climax rather than die...which I think wouldn't be appropriate for actors with such great reputations like Karloff & Rains had at that time.)

Producer: Sam Katzman
Story editor & on a special panel of advisers: Val Lewton & Jacques Tourneur.

-->THE END<--

Special Note regarding the involvement of Val Lewton & Jacques Tourneur into the film as advisers on a special panel: Though as far I know both Lewton & Tourneur were actually worked for RKO films but in this case for the very first time they could make a difference under special consideration/request for/from the studio; which they can use in their promotional/advertising campaign/Trailers of the film before the release.
Or the entire involvement issue may be remain unknown to the public/press at the time of its release but several years later from an interview of one of the crew members of this film it'd get revealed.

(Contd.)

[_____V_____]

(Contd.)


This is what the honorable Judges had to say in their verdicts...

Judge RETURN - "I'm torn - wonderfully detailed, engrossing response...but not what the question was asking for (if I've interpreted it correctly).
I'll be lenient as it was obvious that he put a foolish amount of work into his response.
6 points, small reward."


Judge DOC FAUSTUS - "I'm going to take some points away because you did not read the question correctly: I said contemporary. While your treatment makes use of their contemporaries and Monogram actors, it does not use our contemporaries, which was the point of the question. Perhaps I phrased it wrong. I think either way this is an okay treatment, but changing a Monogram film into a Lewton film is a sort of condescending approach to the material.
4/10. No penalty for misinterpreting the question, but...bang.
(Firing the smallest gun)"


Judge NEVERENDING - "While you provided a typically well thought out and creative answer, it was an answer to the wrong question.
Much as it pains me, I have to give you a 5/10. Small punishment."


Judge ZERO - "I would have given 10 out of 10 since this was a very well thought out answer. But, Roshiq clearly misread the question by thinking 'contemporary' meant contemporary to then and not contemporary to now. Normally I'd just call this semantics and go with it but the question did clearly say 'update' which suggests a future-oriented timeline and, thereby, Roshiq gets docked points.
I'll also shoot him once just for wasting such a good answer on the wrong question.
6 out of 10."


Judge AUSTIN316426808 - "Roshiq - 6.5/10."

So Roshiq, you have scored a just about average score for your effort. You have also been SHOT THREE TIMES Standard style by the Judges' Hand Cannons, once each by Judges Doc Faustus, Neverending and Zero. But you have also received a small reward from Judge Return for your efforts.

Sorry, and congrats.


Your score -

Judge Return - 06/10 (*SMALL REWARD*)
Judge Doc Faustus - 04/10 (Standard shot)
Judge Neverending - 05/10 (Standard shot)
Judge Zero - 06/10 (Standard shot)
Judge Austin - 06.5/10

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TOTAL - 27.5/50

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That equates to 27 BONUS Health Packs for you too Roshiq, out of which 15 are used up immediately to heal up the multiple injuries by the Judges' punishment.

You gain 12 HPs, and your reward from Judge Return is a SHOTGUN with FOUR Shells! You also win a .357 Magnum with SIX bullets to use in the subsequent Zone outing.

Also, you are given a small, carefully wrapped parcel too, the contents of which we will see in a bit...

[roshiq]

At a first glance I actually got it right but then I thought then the question should be simple..."Remake a film made by Monogram or Republic between 1932 and 1949." Now I guess that was the tricky part for me. :(

But I completely agree with the verdict and it was clearly a terribly stupid mistake by me, I should have asked for the clarification. My bad...very bad(...at the moment I'm in extreme urge to shoot myself with my new .357 Magnum. :mad:).

Anyway, thanks a lot to the judges, that's really very kind of them for still giving me very decent amount of scores overall for my very flawed effort.

Darn! I did exactly like Russo (as he got completely wrong about who's in the lab that night)!:eek:

[_____V_____]

CONTENTS OF THE PARCEL


All 3 Finalists have won a small wrapped parcel each. The contents of it will remain undisclosed till NOON EST tomorrow.

They can be opened, but ONLY IN A CONTAINED ENVIRONMENT!

You have 3 chambers open in front of you. All 3 Chambers are empty and dry, but will fill up with something once you place your winning parcels inside them. Whether the contents of your winning parcel will be able to survive inside the Chamber when they unlock remains to be seen.

The Chambers have been marked as - A, F and W.

Simply select a Chamber to place your parcel in and send it in a PM to me before NOON EST tomorrow. Your PM should read - "I would like to place my parcel inside Chamber (A, F or W, as per your choice)."

Then we will unwrap them and proceed to the Hunting Zone outing immediately afterwards.

Good luck, Finalists. I hope each one of you makes the right choice.

[_____V_____]

Sorry for being a bit late. Broadband started working only a little while back.

The choices have been made. Let's see if they were the correct ones...