 When Polly is on the phone to her editor, reporting the advance of  the giant robots, her line is "Theyre crossing Sixth Avenue...  Fifth Avenue... theyre a hundred yards away...". This is a direct  lift from Ray Collins (I) (qv)s lines in Orson Welles (qv)s  "The War of the Worlds" broadcast of 1938 as Collins plays a  reporter on the roof of "the Broadcast Building" reporting the  advance of the Martian tripods.