After seeing this dramatization, I'm really glad I wasn't around in 1938, otherwise I'd probably still be under the bed. Studio One was a prestigious TV hour for 9-years during the '50's. This hour shows why. In my little book it's an excellent recap of Orson Welles' 1938 radio drama "War of the Worlds", but really of its effect on an unsuspecting national audience. The camera goes back and forth from radio studio where the play's being performed to the mounting panic among audiences who took it as a real Martian invasion. After all, radio is "the theatre of the mind" and I can just imagine what listeners were imagining as the invasion updates poured forth.
The hour's really well produced with a cross-section of America's listeners reacting, from the necking couple, to the poker-playing buddies, to the frantic teen baby-sitter, and maybe most harried of all, the police stations trying to calm down a cascade of panicked callers. No one gets much screen time as the scenes switch around. After all, this is about a national audience, not a character study.
All in all, I really enjoyed seeing the inside of a radio station with the cast of players taking their cues. A number of stars are getting their start here, including Ed Asner with hair, James Coburn as a dad, along with Warren Beatty, Warren Oates, and John Astin, but look fast since the latter three aren't very recognizable. I guess my only gripe is the fashions that are out of my 1950's high-school yearbook, but that's just minor.
Anyway, I for one was highly entertained by this TV dramatization of an event that has since merged into national folklore. So catch it if you can. And, by the way, TCM would be wise to include a few showings if that's possible.
The hour's really well produced with a cross-section of America's listeners reacting, from the necking couple, to the poker-playing buddies, to the frantic teen baby-sitter, and maybe most harried of all, the police stations trying to calm down a cascade of panicked callers. No one gets much screen time as the scenes switch around. After all, this is about a national audience, not a character study.
All in all, I really enjoyed seeing the inside of a radio station with the cast of players taking their cues. A number of stars are getting their start here, including Ed Asner with hair, James Coburn as a dad, along with Warren Beatty, Warren Oates, and John Astin, but look fast since the latter three aren't very recognizable. I guess my only gripe is the fashions that are out of my 1950's high-school yearbook, but that's just minor.
Anyway, I for one was highly entertained by this TV dramatization of an event that has since merged into national folklore. So catch it if you can. And, by the way, TCM would be wise to include a few showings if that's possible.