NOTES: Nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award for its color sets, but lost to Wilson. Locke's play opened on Broadway at Weber's on 12 April 1909 and ran a very satisfactory 240 performances. A four-character play, it starred Leona Watson, Effingham A. Pinto, Albert Bruning and William Lewers, produced and directed by Joseph Weber. Universal made a film version in 1929, with Renaud Hoffman directing Jean Hersholt, Kathryn Crawford, Henry Armetta, LeRoy Mason and John Reinhardt.COMMENT: As the trailer makes exceedingly plain, The Climax is an unashamed attempt by Universal to cash in on its 1943 success with Phantom of the Opera. Not only is the setting basically the same (indeed the same opera set was used), but the trailer tells us this new movie is "in the tradition of Phantom of the Opera" and it stars "Susanna Foster, the lovely songbird from Phantom of the Opera" opposite "Boris Karloff, the highly acclaimed star of Arsenic and Old Lace." It's a movie "of spectacle and color" (as indeed it is) with "a monster of psychological horror" (not exactly plain English, but you get what they mean). Some classic clips of subtle Doctor Karloff menacing the heroine follow: "I've come to help you, my dear." Oh, boy! Nobody can pack as much menace into a simple sentence like that than bad old Boris! Definitely the screen's number one heavy.OTHER VIEWS: Lavish sets, hundreds of extras and expensive Technicolor photography lift a potentially dull hypnotism-come-theater piece into first-class entertainment. Not to mention the sterling efforts of the players. Karloff, making a return to the screen after a highly acclaimed two-year stint on Broadway in Arsenic and Old Lace, has another of his marvelously chilling "Don't be frightened, my dear" characterizations, and there is an equally fine support cast led by Jane Farrar and June Vincent. As for our songbird lead, she certainly looks pretty enough and is most attractively costumed in period dress, but her voice (at least in the print under review at our Hollywood Classics screening) is rather too stridently recorded. - JHR writing as George Addison.

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.

According to the Wiki: The Climax was "Originally intended to be a sequel to Universal's Phantom of the Opera..." This film is really nothing like "Phantom" but it does have a dark charm of it's own dealing with an opera house and singer.I realize that this film is not a favorite among some Karloff fans but some of us do find this film has an appeal of it's own. I for one enjoyed the movie.Boris plays Dr. Friedrich Hohner a man obsessed with the memory of his dead girlfriend Marcellina and keeps her body preserved in a hidden chamber. He is determined that no one shall sing Marcellina's songs - NO ONE. It's a sinister role that Karloff plays and quite good too.Franz Munzer (Turhan Bey) and Angela Klatt (Susanna Foster) are a couple in love. Angela is the target of Dr. Hohner anger because she sounds very much like his beloved Marcellina. Franz is a man out to find out what is going on with Angela. -- You will have to watch the film to find out more!! Turhan Bey really steals the show in this movie to me. The cutest scene is when Angela (Susanna) is on stage singing and Franz (Turhan) is chewing on the paper of the opera program... LOL that was quite funny. Let's just say Franz really is deeply in-love with Angela! :D This is also the first Boris Karloff movie that is in colour. The colour film shows us a reasonably ruggedly handsome man! He is very photogenic and the colour really brings that to light. The movie is a good Victorian thriller. It is a horror film but I find the film more of a dramatic thriller.7/10

Without being told so it is fairly obvious that The Climax was a film made by Universal to get some more use out of the set built for Phantom Of The Opera. I do mean both versions too.Boris Karloff takes the place of Claude Rains as the man obsessed with a soprano. Unlike the pitiable Rains who went mad at the thought that someone was stealing concerto, Karloff is the house physician who is the paramour of soprano June Vincent. But the deeper he's involved the more jealous he becomes. When she gives him the brush finally he strangles her and hides the body. He's got quite the shrine to her, think of Lenin's tomb.Ten years after Karloff did the deed young music students Susanna Foster and Turhan Bey audition for Thomas Gomez the head of the opera company. Karloff hears Foster sing and she reminds him so much of Vincent he's determined to halt her career. No one should sing like Vincent or sing any of her material. Karloff embarks on a campaign of psychological intimidation against Foster. Karloff's menace Foster's soprano are the main reasons to see The Climax. Films like this and Phantom Of The Opera combine the music and horror genre well and remain popular to this day. There's also a nice performance by Gale Sondergaard as Vincent's maid who has been waiting for years to finally get the goods on the good Dr. Karloff.And the music is swell. English is used instead of the foreign languages that we of the English speaking world enjoy classic opera. I suspect that opera fans would have put down their theater admission to hear Susanna Foster sing the Erie County Phone Directory of 1944.