Continuity mistake: When Sylvia and Dr. Forrester are in the farm house, Sylvia cooks some eggs, then places the plates of eggs on the table. As she places them down you can see a plate with toast stacked on it. This plate disappears in the next shot of them both sitting down. (00:42:40)
The War of the Worlds (1953)
Directed by: Byron Haskin
Starring: Gene Barry, Les Tremayne, Robert Cornthwaite, Ann Robinson
Visible crew/equipment: After the demonstration at the blackboard, the big group of soldiers walk over to the big table with the picture of the world on it. As they walk away from the blackboard, they turn and walk down some steps, and as they do you can see the shadow of a boom mic pole on the upper side of the grey part of the wall. (00:55:40)
Revealing mistake: In the first scene of the crashed meteor, on the extreme left of the scene where the smoke is, it seems to be billowing up from behind a stage wall, as there is a definite vertical line and a gap between the smoke and the left edge of the frame.
Trivia: Steven Spielberg saw this film when he was a child and was fascinated by the Martians. He later based E.T. from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) on them.
Trivia: The Flying Wing used to drop the atomic bomb on the Martians was the YB-49, an experimental bomber discontinued in 1950, three years before this movie was made. By the time the movie came out all YB-49s had been scrapped.
Trivia: The reporter speaking into the tape recorder just before the atom bomb is used is Paul Frees. Even today (though he passed away years ago) Frees is still the voice of the 'ghost host' in the Haunted Mansion rides at the Disney parks, as well as Ludwig Von Drake and many other cartoon characters.
Dr Clayton Forrester: We prayed for a miracle.
Forrester: If they're mortal, they must have mortal weaknesses. They'll be stopped, somehow.
Major General Mann: Pattern-wise, one lands, then two, making groups of threes joined magnetically. Is that possible?
Dr Clayton Forrester: If they do it, it is.
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