Radio review – Lux - “War of the Worlds” (1953) **1/2

Sci-fi works well on radio because what your imagination comes up with is often better to special effects. This is a decent adaptation of George Pal’s film version of Wells’ tale; it’s not as good as the famous Orson Welles version, but it’s alright. The main debit is irritating Pat Crowley as a chirpy girl – I always remember Crowley being introduced by Paramount with this big credit at the end of the Ginger Rogers-Bill Holden starrer, Forever Female; she seemed to disappear soon after that and to be honest it’s not that much of a mystery. Dana Andrews takes over Gene Barry’s screen role as a physicist – there’s a fun bit where Andrews, “speaking on behalf of his fellow physicists” encourages the military to use nukes. Like they didn’t consider that already! It’s always entertaining listening to Andrews on radio because you can’t help wondering if he’s drunk.