The War of the Worlds - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[tom]

Although there is a lot of religious symbolism in the movie, H.G. Wells was a noted agnostic.

[marc]

Production of this film was completed just as the transition from Academy ratio to wide screen was taking place. For this reason, though the film was shot at an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, and in fact was shown in the UK in this format, for US domestic release it was shown theatrically at the aspect ratio of 1.66:1.

[ella]

For the force fields, the crew filmed plastic bubbles against a black screen and layered that over the war machines.

[ruby]

The Wilhelm Scream (prolonged) appears 00:37:54 - the scene in which stuntman "Mushy" Callahan suffered serious burns in real life as an Army Private lit afire by a Martian heat ray.

[harry]

In an apparent homage to the famous Orson Welles's radio broadcast, on Sunday evening, October 30th, 1938, when the hatch of the Martian machine begins to unscrew, the same technique, a metal lid being turned on a glass jar, was used to create the sound effect.

[steve]

Recordings of real artillery shells was used to created the sound of the meteor landing.

[norma]

Orson Welles, who rose to prominence with his "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast during the evening before Halloween of 1938, on Sunday evening, October 30th, 1938, and scaring numerous radio listeners, was pressured into making this his first feature film, but he wanted no part of it.

[addison]

Bob Hope appears in the film, not as an actor, but his name is on a large, red billboard seen after one of the churches visited by Dr. Clayton Forrester.

[jesus]

Originally, the Martian war machines were supposed to walk on visible electronic beams. This was attempted by having electrical sparks emanate from the three holes at the bottom of the machine. This was quickly abandoned for fear of it becoming a major fire hazard. The first two shots of the first war machine emerging from the gully have this effect. During filming, the actors were under the impression that they were dealing with the walking tripod machines of the book. This explains the farmhouse scene when Gene Barry says, "There's a machine standing right along side of us." However, the results of the walking can be seen wherever the Martian machines fly throughout the film, even though the sparking effect was no longer used.