Review of The Night That Panicked America

Today is the 71st anniversary of Orson Welles' radio production of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" as adapted by Howard Koch for the program "Mercury Theater on the Air". It's also the 30th of my first listening to it on WIBR-AM when I switched between the radio (which had a clear signal) to stereo (which had static making it impossible to hear) back to radio for the last news "bulletins" and the final monologue of Welles. So for the occasion, I decided to rewatch the telemovie, "The Night That Panicked America", especially after listening again to the original radio broadcast this morning. While Koch's script was indeed used for the movie there are some noticeable differences: Koch was not identified in the original radio broadcast, after the initial music of "Ramon Raquello and His Orchestra" the rest of it was not the same as on the program, and Orson here says the network's full name at the end instead of its initials. Anyway, the film goes from the behind-the-scenes before, during, and after the show at CBS to events at various places in the United States where the "invasions" supposedly took place. Much of it is pretty intensely dramatic but there are also some humorous scenes like when reporter "Carl Phillips" is identified as "burned", the person that played him (Granville Van Dusen) is seen looking at a crossword puzzle. That scene in San Francisco with that butler mocking his employer with his take on the Martians was also good for a laugh. Not to mention that water tower scene near the end. But there were some intense ones too like the scenes involving Eileen Brennan and Vic Morrow as a married Jersey couple who panic during the broadcast with their kids in tow or Will Geer as the Presbyterian minister who almost loses it when Cliff DeYoung-whose character is Catholic-rushes back in the church to frantically get Geer's daughter played by Meredith Baxter to marry him. It's also a hoot to see Tom Bosley, who's always Howard Cunningham to me, as a nervous network executive, John Ritter as a farmer boy anxious to fight the Germans, and especially, "American Top 40/America's Top 10" host Casey Kasem as many of the radio play's characters (of course, he introduces the band at the beginning). The same goes for one Burton Gilliam, who I recognized from Blazing Saddles, as a bar patron who knows it's a radio show initially before being fooled and getting arrested. Other nice touches are the way the "aliens" opened their hatch (a jar being opened inside a toilet bowl), seeing that farmer switch from the more popular "Chase and Sanborn Hour"-which starred Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy-because he didn't like the singer showcased, and seeing the "Secretary of Interior" sound just like Roosevelt! (Loved hearing the way the last one just stretch his words!) The best part, however, was seeing the way Orson Welles was portrayed by Paul Shenar as we see him directing from his podium, saying the lines Welles said, and arguing with Bosley about putting that disclaimer on the air during the station break (I happen to think the way they all got excited about where to put the disclaimer was contrived and was probably meant to be there even before the hysteria but it was still a dramatically compelling scene). I've probably said too much so I'll just say that "The Night That Panicked America" comes highly recommended to anyone who loves seeing a behind-the-scenes depiction of a radio program and the events that happened around it.