1999 A.D.

In the year 1999, we are told, Wink Martindale will be a scientist who goes into the lab two or three times a week. Meanwhile, his wife will throw pots when she's not making meals by using her automatic system and the computer, and their son will be taking quizzes on his computer. And the family vehicle looks to be a Gremlin.

Actually, it's a model of a Ford concept car of the middle 1960s, when this movie was made. Once upon a time, we looked forward to the future, a brighter tomorrow made possible by advances in science, technology, and good will. Something went wrong, not in what we would have -- we already had microwave ovens, if not in every home, and the Internet is shown here, with shopping, communication, and banking -- but in how we anticipate those changes.

Perhaps it takes a longer life than many young people have these days, to find out that things get better over time. I hope they have the opportunity to find that out for themselves.

World's Fairs are famous for projecting what life on Earth will be like in the future, and this 1967 industrial short subject from Philco (then owned by Ford) weights the prognostications heavily in self-serving promotion of consumerism.

This fairly amusing (not on purpose) short benefits from top-notch staffing: Michel Legrand's original musical score and the great Vilmos Zsigmond handling the camera/lighting. Big surprise for me was director credit to Lee Madden, a helmer whose exploitation films for drive-ins I had found wanting back in the day.

With lovely vistas of sand and surf in various set-up shots, Zsigmond gives us a rosy colored glasses look at our future, though now viewed from a 21st Century vantage point. The nuclear family presented leads an easy life, everything centered in their modular home (with extra modules posited as easily added for expansion of the family) that provides many a creature comfort. Computerization is the key here: not the pc's or smart phones we take for granted but which were not yet counted on in 1967, but rather something more similar to the Google and Amazon smart home of today.

Instead of fitbit or watches to monitor health, the tiny home gym area features a smart couch for daddy Wink Martindale (fun to see acting rather than running a TV Game Show) to lie down on for monitoring key stats of weight, body hot spots, etc.

Wife Marj Dusay, providing a lovely Lee Meredith-style classic beauty, has time for her pottery, as the house and presumably Philco built-in appliances do all her housework for her. I especially liked the closets that use sonics and sprays to automatically clean the dirt from all the hanging clothing, but the forecast of meals made simple by storage of everything frozen for automatic microwaving was a bit depressing.

Transportation is not emphasized, despite the Ford funding of the show, but it is clear that this average family of the future has been elevated to jet-set status, when Wink discusses via 1967's idea of Google Hangout or Skype with his buddy whether they should play golf at Pebble Beach or perhaps an instant jaunt to Mexico tomorrow.

Black talent is easily integrated into a cocktail party in which the costuming is more in line with the look and color of a Mad Men episode featuring Jessica Pare singing Zou Bisou Bisou.

Overall, rather off the mark, but like those many industrial shorts preserved by Something Weird Video, an entertaining bit of camp. Oddly enough, this was shown not by some Johnny Legend or nostalgia freak but on C-Span as part of its "Reel America" history on film series.