It was an ABC-TV film first broadcast on October 31, 1975,
dramatizing the famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

I thought it was well done. I liked how they showed the sound
effect of the Martian cylinder's metal lid slowly coming unscrewed
by a technician slowly turning the lid of a mason jar in a toilet!

At the end, after everyone eventally figures out there was no
Martian invasion, the camera pans up to the Moon in the sky,
where one can hear a broadcast of some Hitler speech, hinting
at the real threat to civilization to come.

Details are here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_That_Panicked_America

By contrast, when they did a similar program in Peruvian capitol
in 1946, the citizens were so incensed when the learned it was
just a play that they assaulted the radio station that played it
and killed some of the employees.

Some day perhaps someone will do a film version of WOTW that
takes place when and where H. G. Wells originally had it, in Victorian
Era England. I have always been fond of the 1953 George Pal version
that took place in modern day Southern California, but found the 2005
version by Speilberg to be too nightmarish, to say nothing of looking
askance at how the invaders "arrived" to begin with, though of course
the FX were excellent.

I wonder how the Martians invasion of Venus went after they gave up
on conquering Earth?