Solicidroid
(1987)
John's Thoughts
The tension is high in suburbia as solicitors battle each other to sell their products until one day a 6-foot android girl scout falls off a delivery truck and ends up in the neighborhood. Soon she is made to do the other solicitors' bidding, until they are all mysteriously kidnapped by the evil Tupperware woman and placed in her laboratory to transform them into Tupperware sales people. Ann Droid somehow feels a connection for the real girl scout who she has befriended, and when she discovers that she too has been kidnapped, Ann is angry, making Sigourney Weaver's Ripley look like a wimp. (Actually, Horner's action music from Aliens worked well in the climactic rescue sequence. For the zany opening scene with Solicitors clamoring over each other to make sales, Hermann's Skeleton cue from Jason and the Argonauts worked very well, as did Supergirl's love theme for the theme that binds Ann Droid and the real girl scout's relationship. There was also that shrill synth sound in the Supergirl score that I used to be the sound of Solicidroid's power pack. The music for the steamroller sequence of Supergirl also worked great as Ann Droid made here initial rampage through the neighborhood.)
As the making of this short film progressed at USC, I think everyone in my class thought I had lost my mind. It was a rough shoot with so many characters and wild situations. Also, I had filmed for 2 weeks with a fatter more elderly Stella, until the actress had a real heart attack. I had to re-film all of her scenes with a younger, less plump actress who I knew would live through the shoot.
Click here to watch the Arrival of Ann Droid! 
Click here to watch the Rescue Sequence!
 Me creating hi-tech lighting effect. |
 Waiting for a take: Solicitors being brain-washed to sell Tupperware in Stella The Tupperware Lady's Laboratory. From left to right: Boy Solicitor (wants money to go to camp), Amway Lady, Avon Lady, Girlscout, and Vacuum Cleaner Salesman. Missing are the Krishna and the Mormon who saves the day by whopping Stella on the head with his bible after she trips over Amway soap. |
 Stella, the evil Tupperware lady. |
 "Ann Droid" rehearsal, forcing patron to buy girlscout cookies as the real girlscout looks on. |