The Night That Panicked America (1975) (TV)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Joseph Sargent

Writers:

Howard Koch (play)
Nicholas Meyer (screenplay)

Release Date:

31 October 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

True story: Orson Welles puts on a radio version of an H.G. Wells novel, and people who miss the beginning think Martians are invading the Earth.

Plot Keywords:

Radio | Radio Show | 1930s | Mass Hysteria | Radio Broadcasting

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 3 nominations

Cast

Vic Morrow	...	Hank Muldoon
Cliff De Young	...	Stefan Grubowski
Michael Constantine	...	Jess Wingate
Walter McGinn	...	Paul Stewart
Eileen Brennan	...	Ann Muldoon
Meredith Baxter	...	Linda Davis
Tom Bosley	...	Norman Smith
Will Geer	...	Reverend Davis
Paul Shenar	...	Orson Welles
John Ritter	...	Walter Wingate
Granville Van Dusen	...	Carl Phillips
Burton Gilliam	...	Tex
Joshua Bryant	...	Howard Koch
Liam Dunn	...	Charlie
Shelley Morrison	...	Toni

Runtime:

92 min | USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

2nd Street Tunnel, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Television

Trivia:

The film is set on Sunday 30th October 1938, airdate of "The Mercury Theatre on the Air"'s famous Halloween broadcast of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds on CBS from New York.

Quotes:

Ora Nichols: [to her assistant, assessing the Mercury Theater's show] Looks like another big night for Charlie Mc Carthy.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

A cautionary tale about the power media

As the line between entertainment and news becomes increasingly blurred, this important film cautions us about the media's power over our lives. I was lucky enough to get a copy of this recently and am using it in a Western Studies class to teach my high school students about the role of radio in the Modern Age. Both FDR and Hitler understood very well how to use the radio, and this concept is even more relevant today in our age of sound bites and podcasts. More than ever, we need to teach our children how to wade through the information tidal wave that swamps them daily. This film serves as a powerful reminder that we must be far more discerning about what we read and hear, regardless of the source.