The Night That Panicked America (1975)

A dramatization of the Oct. 30, 1938 mass panic that Orson Welles' radio play, "The War of the Worlds" accidentally provoked.

Director:

Joseph Sargent

Writers:

Howard Koch (play), Nicholas Meyer (screenplay),

Stars:

Vic Morrow, Cliff De Young, Michael Constantine

Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

The true story of the night that Orson Welles broadcast his version of 'H.G. Welles' ' classic ''The War of the Worlds'' on the radio. Designed to be as realistic as possible, many people were fooled into thinking that an alien invasion was actually taking place.

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Plot Keywords:

radio | radio show | 1930s | mass hysteria | radio broadcasting | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 October 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

La nuit qui terrifia l'Amérique

Filming Locations:

2nd Street Tunnel between Hill and Figueroa, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television, The Culzean Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min 120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

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.

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Quotes

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

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Connections

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

User Reviews

The night the Martians attacked

On October 30th, 1938, exactly 70 years ago tomorrow, the Martians attacked.Or at least many people thought they did.A radio broadcast by Orson Welles took place that night.The radio version of H.G.Wells' The War of the Worlds was being played on the radio and they made it as realistic as possible.People, who hadn't heard the beginning of that play took it all seriously.They really thought the Martians had invaded the Earth.Joseph Sargent's The Night That Panicked America is a made-for -television movie from 1975.There are some known names in this movie.Tom Bosley,as remembered from Happy Days playing Howard Cunningham, plays Norman Smith.Meredith Baxter, as remembered from Family Ties playing Elyse Keaton, plays Linda Davis.John Ritter, who we lost way too soon, plays Walter Wingate.Michael Constantine plays Jess Wingate.Eileen Brennan is Ann Muldoon.Paul Shenar plays Orson Welles.This movie gives a very good portrayal of those events.Something like this couldn't probably happen today.We know too much now.Our world is filled with knowledge, I could say even too much.If we didn't have all the knowledge, we'd all be escaping the Martians.