what I was thinking?
If we could gather
all the energy
expended in just
one square dance,
we could send that meteor
back to where it came from.
Well, our very first
shot in the movie
was a location shot.
And we went to Phoenix,
Arizona,
 because the National Guard
 was on bivouac,
 I believe is what
 you call it.
 And we needed tanks,
 and we needed action.
 And so we were flown there.
 It was raining.
 It was muddy. It was cold.
 It was miserable.
 And when those tanks ran,
they didn't stop
and start for us.
Gene Barry and I
had to run around
and dodge all those thing.
( lasers zapping )
The effects had to be
put in live.
 Falling beams, burning beams.
 We did some
 of the actual footage.
 We built these big containers
 that was at the top 
 of the street.
 It all worked on a button,
and it opens up.
So they can time it
so that it comes
right on the back
of the double or the actor
that's doing it.
Burning amber, smoke coming
and wind. It was--
It's all done
with a lot of help
from some very good people
working--
Doing the special effects.
BARRY:
 Yeah, George Pal produced
 wonderfully strange,
 different kind of movies.
Movies that had physical
accomplishments in them
that had to be done,
and he did them.
He made them happen.
Magic.
He brought a magic
to the screen.
MOORE:
 George knew what he wanted.
 He was on the set quite often,
 but he wasn't one to be
 always looking
 over somebody's shoulder.
 He let things flow.
 He let the director
 get out of the actors
 what he felt was right
 for the part.
Mr. Haskin would laugh,
and he'd say, "All right, Ann,
 which frightening look
 shall we have you do today?"
MOORE:
 Everybody knew pretty well
 what Byron wanted.
 And if Byron didn't get
 what he wanted,
 we would do it over again,
 fill everything up
 and start from scratch.
HUMPHREYS:
 Haskin had a tremendous
 knowledge of special effects.
 He had a really marvelous
 collaboration with Pal.
They apparently got along well,
at least when they were
working together.
( intense, dramatic theme
 playing )
MOORE:
 Well, the locations were
 difficult only in the fact
 that you're in the middle
 of Los Angeles,
 and you're showing an exodus
 of hundreds of people,
 packs on their back,
 cars overloaded.
We worked on Sundays
on most of the shots
made down through
the streets of Los Angeles.
 Because we had more control.
 The policemen had
 a better chance 
 of blocking the streets.
 And we wanted
 some of the shots
 to look desolate,
 with nothing but some wind
 and a piece of paper
 going through,
 and that gave the picture
 the mood it was in.
 Also, at the back lot
 of Paramount,
 we had a good street,
 so we could--
 That was one where we could
 really stage the fights
 of them being knocked through,
 men, windows going,
 at the height
 of the excitement.
It is some of the most gorgeous
three-strip Technicolor
you'll ever see.
 So saturated, so deep.
ROBINSON:
 It will never fade.
 The colors are magnificent.
 A Technicolor camera is huge.
 It's the size of a person,
 and you have to cover it
 with heavy, heavy matting
 because you have three
 strips of film going through,
 and it's very noisy.
 Very, very noisy.
 I don't know why--
Uh, you can't--
And maybe you can,
or they were able
to get rid of the sound,
but why it wasn't
recorded is beyond me.
MOORE:
 Most of this picture was made
 in the back lot of Paramount
 and on Stages 18.
 Eighteen was a double stage.
 You could take
 the middle of it out
 and make a lot more
 room to work.
And that's where
the sets were built.
BURNS:
 Al Nozaki was probably
 one of the finest
 art directors around.
 I mean, he was really
 a visionary guy.
 And he's the one that came up
 with the saucers.
 Sort of the manta-ray look,
 and then the sort of
 cobra-head thing.
 Because they wanted
 to see about doing
 the tripod machines.
 George wanted to do that
 originally,
 and do it in
 his Puppetoon style.
 And Paramount said,
 "That's too much money.
 We can't do it. You gotta
 come up with something else."
NOZAKI:
 This could've cost
 ten times as much.
Martian destruction
all over the world,
to know that there was
a scene like that.
BURNS:
 And so Al came up with these,
 I think, brilliant,
 brilliant designs. I mean,
 those saucers were beautiful.
 And being a manta ray,
 they're kind of
 scary right away.
 Cobra heads. Cobras are scary.
 So it had all the elements,
 only it was a mechanical thing.
My daughter, you know,
she-- She claims
that she's the one
that designed
the Martian machine.
( audience laughs )
Was 2 then, but, uh...
She's designed--
She's helped me
in a lot of ways,
so I guess that
was one of them.
Now, what you're seeing here
is the close up of the cobra eye
of the Martian war machin.
Now, this particular machine
was not in the original film.
They had three of them.
In the original film
they were made of copper
and had all kinds
of electronics in here,
and the green things glowed.
All the windows
and stuff glowed.
And this was made
for the TV series
that they did a few years ago.
And so this is just made
of fiberglass.
And a sad story about
the original ones
that were made of copper--
They gave them
to a copper drive,
a Boy Scout copper drive,
and they were melted down,
and so they don't exist.
ROBINSON:
 I did get to go on Stage 18
 and watch them glide.
 It was silent.
And these magnificent
copper machines
were just gliding above you.
All, you know,
across the sound stage.
It was quite eerie and very,
very impressive.
BURNS:
 There were, like, 20 wires
 hanging from these things,
 some of them to make
 the electronics work in there,
 because in the saucers
 themselves,
 they had electronics where
 the things would glow green,
 the cobra head that would
 actually pulsate.
 And they were made
 out of copper
 and had all the mechanism.
 And they were fairly heavy.
NOVAKI:
 See, the wires
 were painted blue
so that they would
not show up on the screen.
 But some people have
 maintained they can see
 the wires pretty well.
BURNS:
 When they fired the ray,
 they took a, like,
 an acetylene torch
 against black
 and with a fan,
 and they would match it up
 to where the ship
 was supposed to be
 or the cobra head was
 supposed to be.
 And they would hit
 the acetylene with the fan
and blow it out.
And that's what you saw,
the tss-ch-choo,
when that ray came out,
which was really
kind of brilliant
when you think about it.
I remember coming on the set
and looking up at this
enormous cobra head.
And I said,
"What in God's name is that?"
And somebody flipped a switch,
and that thing came on.
Scared the devil out of me.
I jumped a mile.
There's a scene later
where they make these blisters,
 and they're like domes.
 And what they literally
 did there,
they just took glass domes
and shot them against black
and super-ed 'em
right over the saucers.
Because to make a dome
big enough for a saucer that's,
you know, 3 and a half
feet across,
that would have been
a pretty darn big dome.
 Charlie Gemora, he was
 one of the all-time great
 makeup artist guys and also
 one of the best gorilla men
 in the business.
He created, Al Nozaki designed,
this Martian guy.
 The first glimpse
 you get of it
 is where they're looking
 through a hole in the wall.
And you see him, blu-blu-blu,
go by, and it really looked,
"Whoa! That's creepy."
When they brought
the Martian on the set
the very first time,
he was enormous
and far too big
than whatever George Pal
had anticipated,
and they had to use it
the next day.
 Well, Charles Gemora
 and his daughter,
 she was only 12 at the time,
 they went home and worked on
 that thing all night long.
Basically we had to start
from square one.
And that meant that we had
to build the armature,
and we had to wire
the head in.
 And we put chicken wire
 around the armature.
 We put plaster bandages
 over that,
leaving the back open
because Charlie knew
that he had to work
the monster now.
Charlie would
kneel inside of it,
and he could put his hands
into the arms.
They came about
to the elbows
of the Martian.
And he had little pull rods
that he could pull, and that
made the fingers do this.
 And that's that one scene.
 You see the hand come in
 to grab Ann Robinson.
GEMORA:
 The monster's arms was made
 for an over-6-foot monster.
 So now we have to work So k
 these huge arms
 into this very small body.
We pulled the old latex
off the old monster
and layer it on first
and then start putting
new layers on over it,
and this is beginning to really
start looking opaque and real.
And I'm going, "This is real.
This is really looking real."
Even I'm thinking
this is looking real.
BURNS:
 And they wanted
 a three-eye system in it,
 so it had a round eye,
 but it was red, green and blue
 inside of this thing.
GEMORA:
 And he's realizing,
 as he puts the eye in,
that now the wires
can't go along the side.
They have to go up
and over the head
for freedom of movement.
So this is where
the veins in the head
were totally
a last-minute idea.
 As it gets close to dawn, we're
 realizing it's the deadline,
 and this Martian has not cured
 and is falling apart
 right before our eyes.
We're wondering if this is gonna
hold up through the shot.
But...what are you going to do?
So it's just a little more
wet, pat, smesh, mush
and hope that it doesn't show.
But if you look very carefully,
you can see the tape unwinding
on the arms of the Martian.
BURNS:
 Diana, who was just
 a teenager at the time,
 was under the stage floor
 with little squeeze bottles
making the veins pulsate
inside the head.
Charlie is listening
for cues on his own.
He's trying to get the prop man
to go this way, that way,
faster, not so fast,
stop, go, left, right,
pump, pump, pump,
pump, pump, pump!
All this is going on
at the same time.
( Martian screams )
The prop guy had him
on wires and pulled him,
and it darn near pulled Charlie
and the whole thing over
when it went out of the scene.
I mean, it really goes out fast.
Going out waving the arms
like crazy.
And the back was opened,
and the guy pulled him so fast,
he darn near fell out
of the thing.
You'll see that he's
going like this.
He almost fell over, and we
knew if that Martian fell,
it would be a disaster.
 It would've been just
 a blood blob on the floor.
( laughs )
With tape and wood 
and chicken wire.
It would have just splattered.
BURNS:
 The best look you get of it
 is the arm at the end,
 when it comes out and it dies.
ROBINSON:
 Charlie Gemora was on
 the other end of the arm,
 blowing into a tube.
 And so it was pulsating.
 And then as the Martian died,
 we changed the color
 from red to green,
 slowed down the heart beat,
 sucked all the air out.
 And that's all we did.
No computer had to do that.
And it was something you'd
never seen before, ever.
And then Charlie's
great sculpting abilities
to be able to pull
this thing off
and make it work is,
uh, pretty unique.
It started a whole new
genre of filmmaking
that we're still
profiting from today
and that I'm able to tell
you about 50 years later.
And so the contributions
that Charlie made
ring out to this day
and even though
nobody knew his name.
After the filming
was all over with,
I went back on
to see the miniatures,
which was absolutely
breathtaking,
because they weren't little.
They were large.
 City Hall had to be,
 oh, between eight,
 ten, 12 feet tall.
 Men were on ladders to get
 to the top of it,
 to get the beacon,
 you know, to work.
The miniature sets
were very interesting
in the work that went
into them, because they were
exact duplicates in miniature
of the buildings
that we were trying to say
was in the picture.
BURNS:
 Well, I think the miniatures,
 probably, in War Of The Worlds
 were some of the best
 I'd ever seen,
 especially at the time.
 I mean, they hold up
 today even.
 But the miniatures are great.
 They built, you know,
 parts of Los Angeles,
 you know, streets,
 whole streets
 of Los Angeles in miniature.
ROBINSON:
 It looked like Gulliver's
Travels, quite frankly.
 It looked like it just would've
 come to life any minute.
Shooting miniatures,
you have to be able
to close your lens down,
so you've got
a very small aperture.
And that allows, uh,
very sharp focus,
from the very foreground
in front of the camera
to the very back of the set.
So you have to be able
to close the lens down.
That means you need
a lot of light.
ROBINSON:
 The thing that people
 don't remember nowadays
 were the tremendous
 arc lights they had.
They had two filaments
that would come together,
and they'd set them on fire
inside, and they would--
They were carbon,
and they would burn outward.
They were somewhere between
2,000 and 5,000, you know,
arc of power, of--
Of-- Of heat.
You couldn't stand
anywhere near them.
  And this is one thing
 I'll never forget.
 You know, when--
 When you'd always say, "Cut,"
you'd hear somebody say,
"Save the arcs!"
And there it comes again!
HUMPHREYS:
 George Pal and Pete Freeman
 have cameos in the film
 during the radio
 broadcast montage.
 They're two bums
 standing by a radio.
REPORTER ( on radio ):
 Suppose they are Martians,
 professor,
 what would they look like?
 Bigger than us, smaller?
There were only two scenes
that I recall
that were eliminated.
 One where I was lying
 in Gene Barry's arms,
 and there's something
 about his tie, as I awaken,
 that remind me
 of my Uncle Matthew.
 And then suddenly
 I start reminiscing
 about Uncle Matthew.
 But that was eliminated.
 I don't know why.
 Maybe it just wasn't necessary.
The other one was when we're
climbing out of the farm house,
 and he's shaking me.
 He says, "Don't worry,
 we're going to get
 out of this...somehow."
Well, the theater just
fell on the floor laughing.
So they cut that out.
Those are the only
two scenes that I recall
that were eliminated
from the film.
MAN:
 The end came swiftly.
 All over the world,
 their machines began
 to stop and fall.
 After all that men could do
 had failed,
 the Martians were destroyed
 and humanity was saved
 by the littlest things,
 which God in his wisdom
 had put upon this Earth.
George is considered
the father of sci-fi films.
And he pretty much is,
because he was the first one
to really do sci-fi films
that-- That got a name.
It did prove to be
the kind of supreme story
of alien invasion in the cinema.
At the time, it was--
It was another job,
another acting job.
And until I got into it,
I didn't realize how...
How good it was
and how important it was.
 War Of The Worlds,
 unfortunately,
did not have a premiere.
It should have.
If you see
this picture behind me
 I took in Times Square
 on the day it opened
 over 50 years ago
 in New York City,
 you could see that the lines
 around the block are enormous.
It was Saturday,
and I had nothing to do,
