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Revisiting 'War of the Worlds'

NPR | By Pat Dowell

Published June 26, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT

This Wednesday, Steven Spielberg's version of The War of the Worlds opens across the country. The film is based on H. G. Wells' classic novel, which has been adapted many times since it was published in 1898. Most famous is Orson Welles' 1938 radio play, which frightened millions who mistook it for a news report. The 1953 film version appeared during a wave of sci-fi movies that hit American screens in the 1950s, a time of great fear in the United States.