The Night That Panicked America (1975)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Admirable film.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The Night That Panicked America (1975)*** (out of 4) Orson Welles and his fellow actors arrive at the radio station on October 30, 1938 to begin their performance of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Around the country various people turn the radio on and hear the broadcast but don't understand that it's fake.This dramatization of the events of that day have been told countless times in both books, television shows and movies but this here is one of the better examples even though it too is far from perfect. THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED America has some terrific stuff in it that makes it worth viewing but at the same time the subject is so great that you can't help but wish one day someone really nails the material. With that said, there are some fun performances throughout and there's no doubt that it remains fun.The best thing going for this film is the actual re-enactment of the radio station. I thought director Joseph Sargent did a terrific job at showing us what it was like in a radio station back in these days and seeing the re-enactment of the broadcast was a lot of fun. A lot of screen time is devoted to this so that means that very few of the surrounding stories are built up. The character development is pretty much missing and I think one flaw with the picture is that there are so many characters that we just don't really get to know any of them.The film offers up a rather nice cast including Vic Morrow, Eileen Brenan, Tom Bosley, Will Geer, a young John Ritter and Paul Shenar as Welles. The supporting stories range from mildly interesting to some pretty bland stuff including a man trying to get a woman to marry him before the invasion. Still, THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED America is worth watching and especially if you're familiar with the true story.

In October of 1938, the world was on the brink of war and in the midst of a depression. People were frightened about the present an frightened about the future. One part of this movie, at least, is about fear - the fear felt by people facing tough situations and how easy it is to tap into that fear."The Night That Panicked America" is the story (accurately told for the most part) of the night of October 30, 1938. The CBS Radio Network and Orson Welles broadcast their version of H.G. Wells' "The War Of The Worlds." Largely taking the form of news broadcasts, and with people tuning in and out and not necessarily catching the disclaimer at the start, panic began to spread, as people heard the fake news reports and actually believed that Martians were attacking. The portrayal of mass hysteria is very interesting; how easy it was to convince people that this was real was actually rather frightening. I've seen estimates that about 6 million people heard the broadcast, 1.7 million of them believed it and 1.2 million were actually very frightened by what they thought was happening. Fascinating to think how easily manipulated the masses could be by someone deliberately setting out to do it - and, in 1938, CBS wasn't setting out to manipulate; they were just setting out to entertain with a scary Halloween Eve broadcast. Fascinating.The other interesting aspect of the movie is the technical side. It was also fascinating to see the re-creation of how a 1938 radio show was put together. That alone made this worthwhile viewing - especially to see what they did for something that we today would think of as being as simple as sound effects.Is this is a great movie? Probably not. It's not exactly what I would call riveting. But it is a good look both at early radio and at the phenomenon of mass hysteria. (7/10)

"The Night That Panicked America" is an adaption of the famous War of the Worlds broadcast of October 30, 1938. I'm watching this on October 30, 2000, the 62nd anniversary of the actual broadcast. A 30-year-old Nicholas Meyer wrote the excellent screenplay and supervised the production of this made-for-TV movie, making sure it was done in an historically detailed and accurate way. I am very, very impressed by this production, and I doubt that it could have been done any better. The movie usually shows up on the Sci-Fi Channel around Halloween. Look for many future youthful stars such as Meredith Baxter, John Ritter, and Casey Kasem.This is a must for anyone interested in the career of Orson Welles. Paul Shenar, who played the role of Welles in this production, is much too old for the role but his voice is close to the beautiful voice of Welles.

This film was an excellent portrayal of the radio broadcast and the actor who played Orson Wells did an excellent job. The sound effects at the radio station was unbelievable accurate as to the sound of an alien space craft both landing and the sound of the hatch coming off, very scare as was suppose to happen especially back in the 30's. The acting to go along with the radio broadcast was out of sight. This was a very entertaining movie and i wish it was also available on video as stated by Mike Spangler, if that is not possible than it should be made available to be shown on TV again, so people could record it as I did some years ago, but have a very poor copy of. If this is available to be replayed on TV, than this Halloween should be appropriate to re-broadcast this fine movie