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The Climax

Play trailer The Climax Released Oct 20, 1944 1h 26m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 4 Reviews 19% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
An opera-house doctor (Boris Karloff) tries to silence a soprano (Susanna Foster) who looks like one he strangled years earlier.

Critics Reviews

View All (4) Critics Reviews
Matt Brunson Film Frenzy The movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Color Art Direction-Interior Decoration, an amusing fact since the exact same set (and same four artisans) won the Oscar in that category the previous year for its use in Universal's The Phantom of the Opera. Rated: 2.5/4 Mar 29, 2020 Full Review Don Q. Cine-Mundial The combination of opera and drama is interesting. [Full review in Spanish] Sep 20, 2019 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com A routine Boris Karloff horror flick from Universal, nominated for the Interior Decoration Oscar. Rated: C+ Aug 27, 2012 Full Review Ken Hanke Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) The dullest horror film to ever come from Universal. Rated: 1/5 Aug 29, 2006 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (12) audience reviews
Steve D It really wants to be Phantom. It fails. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 05/29/23 Full Review Audience Member Loved this.haven't seen it in 40+years.want to see it again Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member A young opera singer (Foster) becomes the target of the crazy house doctor (Karloff) at the Vienna Royal Opera. Will her dashing boyfriend (Bey) manage to save her before her voice is silenced forever? [center][img]http://www.geocities.com/nuelow/movclimax.jpg[/img] [i]Susanna Foster and Boris Karloff star as victim and victimizer in "The Climax"[/i] [/center] "The Climax" is Boris Karloff's first color picture and it's pretty to look at. It also has some nice performances from Karloff, Turhan Bey--who swings from dramatic of comedic with graceful ease--and Thomas Gomez as the beleaguered manager of the opera company. Unfortunately, their performances are propping up a fairly boring melodrama the titular climax of which isn't much to sing about. The film is available on DVD for the first time as part of Universal's "Boris Karloff Collection" ([url="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FWHW8Q?ie=UTF8&tag=stevemillesdo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000FWHW8Q"]click here to read more about it at Amazon.com[/url]) and as such it rates as inoffensive filler. It's not exactly a bad movie, just a bland one, and one you can safely leave for last if you pick up the set. The Climax Starring: Boris Karloff, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Ludwig Stossel, Thomas Gomez and Gale Sondergard Director: George Waggner Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Big budget for a Universal Studios movie, good art direction and costumes. However, even with it's reasonable length, it drags on and has some definite sleep inducing sections. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member A very enjoyable romp from the 40's about unrequited love driving a man to obsession, selfishness and murder, and you really can't go wrong with Boris Karloff, particularly from this vintage. This is especially enjoyable if you're a fan of opera at all. New York City-born director Waggner, most famous for 'The Wolf Man', is decent at this sort of thing, though he got relegated the last phase of his career to TV-work (such as the 60's 'Batman'). Karloff's first colour film (and in Technicolor, no doubt), it's also famous for using the same sets as 'The Phantom of the Opera', made the previous year--the oldest surviving movie set. I came across this in an excellent 5-film pack of Karloff-starred thrillers from the late 30's and early 40's. Both the boxed set and this individual film are highly recommended to fans of the star's work. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member A very enjoyable romp from the 40's about unrequited love driving a man to obsession, selfishness and murder, and you really can't go wrong with Boris Karloff, particularly from this vintage. This is especially enjoyable if you're a fan of opera at all. New York City-born director Waggner, most famous for 'The Wolf Man', is decent at this sort of thing, though he got relegated the last phase of his career to TV-work (such as the 60's 'Batman'). Karloff's first colour film (and in Technicolor, no doubt), it's also famous for using the same sets as 'The Phantom of the Opera', made the previous year--the oldest surviving movie set. I came across this in an excellent 5-film pack of Karloff-starred thrillers from the late 30's and early 40's. Both the boxed set and this individual film are highly recommended to fans of the star's work. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Climax

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis An opera-house doctor (Boris Karloff) tries to silence a soprano (Susanna Foster) who looks like one he strangled years earlier.
Director
George Waggner
Distributor
Universal Pictures
Production Co
Universal/Universal Int
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 20, 1944, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
May 10, 2018
Runtime
1h 26m