THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED AMERICA-1975 TV-Movie (1 Viewer)

I don't think this release has been mentioned here. This was released in October 2014 from CBSTV as a MOD DVD-R.


THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED AMERICA was a dramatization of the famous Halloween Eve Orson Welles Mercury Theater radio broadcast, on October 30, 1938, of WAR OF THE WORLDS by H.G.Wells. The story of a Martian invasion of the Earth, performed as a fake live newscast. It was believed by some listeners and panic ensued!


My favorite part is the recreation of the actual live radio broadcast, with Paul Shenar, terrific, as Orson Welles. The panicking Americans part is a little too serious, but accurate I suppose. It should have been played with more humor. Also in the cast: Vic Morrow, Eileen Brennan, Will Geer, John Ritter as some of the panickers.


This official release looks better than my bootleg, but it is still kind of grainy and dirty looking. I saw the original broadcast, but I don't remember if they purposely made the film aged to look like an old movie.


I remember seeing Orson Welles on a talk show, talking about the movie after it aired and he thought it was terrific and that Welles said he wished he had a voice as good as Shenar's.

I remember this as being a very well done tv movie...it definitely inspired the nostalgia for those times...I loved the studio scenes as reconstructed for the radio broadcast...and the scene of the terrified family stuck in the tunnel as the weird and threatening lights approached, crazily reflected on the tiles...


I'm in for just about anything with Vic Morrow and Will Geer...thanks for reminding us that a very young John Ritter is in it too...I'll have to check out this mod release.


I absolutely loved those last few Orson Welles appearances on the Merv Griffin show...

I read somewhere there's a Water Tower in New Jersey that's riddled with bullet holes from listeners who panicked when they listened to this show (It was presented in a news format) and, thinking it was the real deal they fired their guns at the tower, thinking it was one of the Martian "War Machines".

That is depicted in this telefilm...the whole scenario effectively conveyed with frenzied hysteria, and believable from the perspective of the residents of Grover's Mill...I'd have to revisit the whole back story as reported then and since to see if the incident really happened? Entertaining, nonetheless.

That was very inventive of the Mercury Theater to reimagine the story as a modern news story. The original novel was written and set in 1897,(I have never read it). Of course the fifties movie was set in the fifties. I know there was a newer movie made but don't know anything about it. Was any "War of the Worlds" movie ever set in 1897?

H.G.Wells was about 72 in 1938 and at some point appeared with Orson Welles on a radio interview show and discussed the Mercury Theater show and the panic. I wonder if that interview is online somewhere?

I wonder too how widespread the panic actually was and if anyone was actually hurt or worse during it.

Does anyone remember a documentary about Orson Welles that showed a film clip, of a moderator on a stage performing a magic trick with people live in the theater and with Orson Welles directing the trick in a film projected behind the moderator?

An AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary about the 1938 radio broadcast is on PBS tonight at 8:00 P.M. EST.

Bob Gu said:

That was very inventive of the Mercury Theater to reimagine the story as a modern news story. The original novel was written and set in 1897,(I have never read it). Of course the fifties movie was set in the fifties. I know there was a newer movie made but don't know anything about it. Was any "War of the Worlds" movie ever set in 1897?

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There was, in 2005, but it was pretty awful, with an extremely low buget and laughable production values. I had a copy of it on DVD, don't know if I still have it or not. It was so terrible, I might have pitched it. Read about it here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425638/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5

Thanks, Richard.

The documentary was interesting but, I thought, kind of vague about the question if anyone was actually hurt. The fact that CBS and Welles never lost any cases brought against them makes me think nobody really was hurt.

The documentary technique of having actors perform period letters, written about the panic, in a fake filmed interview is kind of deceptive, although it is mentioned in the end credits, that they are actors.

Bob Gu said:

H.G.Wells was about 72 in 1938 and at some point appeared with Orson Welles on a radio interview show and discussed the Mercury Theater show and the panic. I wonder if that interview is online somewhere?

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I'm listening to that interview right now on Radio Classics SiriusXM. It's from October 28, 1940 on KTSA in San Antonio, Texas.

They should release the tv-movie on Blu-ray with this radio interview as an extra.

Thanks, Rodney.
The radio interview is on youtube, too.

Here is a STUDIO ONE version of the panic, with original commercials from 1957. Scenes from this were used in the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary.

I asked by grandma about that night... they listened to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that night (Grandma could never fully explain why one would listen to a ventriloquist on the radio) ..

There is a superior radio version of WOTW that was done by station WKBW-Buffalo in 1968. Instead of using a prepared script they had their news staff wing it from an outline and presented the story of a Martian invasion of Buffalo with astonishing realism the way a news radio station would do it and it still holds up nearly 50 years later. The station was a Top 40 station so what they did was do their regular top of the hour newscast and after doing all the legit headlines unobtrusively slipped in a "explosions being observed on Mars" at the end, then did their regular DJ playing songs for ten minutes punctuated by a couple other interruptions before switching into full newscast mode. Even though it had been promod for a month before the broadcast they still got many calls wondering if it was real because that's how good it was.

There's a simulation of the beginning of World War III on youtube called "The Last Broadcast" that's similar to The War of the Worlds. It starts itself off as a Canadian radio station broadcast playing oldies. That program then gets interrupted by a news bulletin announcing soviet troops have invaded West Germany from the east (This "Dates" this show, since East and West Germany reunited in 1990, but it's still fun to play). Things escalate from there, I won't spoil it by telling you how it ends.

Jack P said:

There is a superior radio version of WOTW that was done by station WKBW-Buffalo in 1968. Instead of using a prepared script they had their news staff wing it from an outline and presented the story of a Martian invasion of Buffalo with astonishing realism the way a news radio station would do it and it still holds up nearly 50 years later. The station was a Top 40 station so what they did was do their regular top of the hour newscast and after doing all the legit headlines unobtrusively slipped in a "explosions being observed on Mars" at the end, then did their regular DJ playing songs for ten minutes punctuated by a couple other interruptions before switching into full newscast mode. Even though it had been promod for a month before the broadcast they still got many calls wondering if it was real because that's how good it was.

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There's 3 or 4 different versions over the years - all on youtube or internet archive - recommended.

The way to tell the difference is the original 1968 one has Sandy Beech as the DJ, the 1971 replay has an intro and close by program director Jeff Kaye and Jackson Armstrong is the DJ this time. The 75 replay is the least effective because by then some of the original WKBW personnel had left the station and there were sloppy edits to cover up their names from being heard.

I have read that WKBW did a brand new version in 1998 for the 60th anniversary (using some of the same newscasters) but I've never been able to find a recording of it.

BBC/TV has a new WAR OF THE WORLDS coming as a three part miniseries. It is set in 1897, so no newscasters.

B-ROLL said:

I asked by grandma about that night... they listened to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that night (Grandma could never fully explain why one would listen to a ventriloquist on the radio) ..

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I just happened upon some of those radio broadcasts because I've been on a W.C. Fields kick and he was a frequent guest - by coincidence, last night I listened to the Bergen-McCarthy broadcast from this night.

I would have questioned the appeal of that act on radio, until I heard it. Bergen wasn't the greatest technical ventriloquist - you could often see his lips move - but McCarthy was such a fully realized personality that that's where the appeal is. It's a funny comedy routine just with the voices.