So much average

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Blistering performances.

The Climax is a gorgeous film due to the breathtaking Technicolor, and Boris Karloff himself is more elegantly presented than in any film he made.However, the story is lightweight melodrama, and the film as a whole is a weak attempt to recreate the success of Phantom of the Opera. Turhan Bay as the male lead is a poor replacement for Nelson Eddy, and the rest of the cast is just acceptable.Karloff is always good, but he's not that engaged with the material as this film was part of a one-year contract he took at Universal to cash in before the second horror boom faded away.Those looking to see The Climax will enjoy it much more if they keep their expectations low.

Lovely and talented aspiring opera singer Angela Klatt (an appealing performance by the fetching Susanna Foster) gets a plumb job as the star of a opera that's being produced by a prestigious theatrical company. However, the obsessive Dr. Friedrich Hohner (an oddly low-key turn by the usually reliable Boris Karloff) tries to stop Angela from succeeding with said opera. The key problem with this film is that George Waggner's pedestrian direction and the overly talky script by Curt Siodmak and Lynn Starling crucially fail to provide much in the way of tension, excitement, and momentum. The story basically plods along sans pizazz prior to finally coming to briefly stirring life with the inevitable fiery conclusion. Granted, the opera sequences are staged with impressive grandeur and elegance. Moreover, the gorgeous cinematography by W. Howard Greene and Hal Mohr makes exquisite use of the richly saturated Technicolor format and Edward Ward's lush orchestral score does the sweeping trick. The sound cast do their best with the so-so material: Gale Sondergaard as Hohner's suspicious housekeeper Louise, Turhan Bey as Angela's likable and supportive composer fiancé Franz Munzer, Thomas Gomez as the merry Count Seabruck, Jane Farrar as stuck-up prima donna Jarmila Vadek, Ludwig Stossel as the friendly Carl Baumann, and George Dolenz as arrogant baritone Amato Roselli. But as a horror thriller this film totally fizzles, with only one murder set piece (done in flashback, no less!) and no suspense to speak of. Stately, but static.

The Climax would be more aptly named The Anti-Climax. It marked Boris Karloff's return to movies after three years on Broadway and touring in Arsenic and Old Lace. His name alone led many to believe The Climax would be a grand, shivering horror fest, especially as it would be Karloff's first color film. Instead, The Climax is a sad tale of an elderly doctor who has a thing about a singer he strangled ten years previously. For some, it might have promised a delightful Technicolor movie of Viennese operetta and Hollywood soubrettes. Instead, it's a weak re-make of The Phantom of the Opera, without the Phantom, which was released the year before. At the very least, ticket buyers would have expected, based on the lavish sets and art design, all in Technicolor, a passionate story of behind-the-scenes Old Vienna, complete with everyone wearing evening dress or gilt-braid uniforms with red breeches, with gas lights and wet cobblestones, with jealous prima donnas, excerpts from operettas and dancers in pastel tutus. We get the tutus, all right, but the lavishness is from the Minnelli school of garish over-kill. More than anything else, we get a story of aged obsession, hypnotism and throat spray that is as flavorless and stale as a slice of month-old Sachertorte. Dr. Friedrich Hohner (Boris Karloff), an aging and dignified doctor, serves the medical needs of the operetta singers at Vienna's Theatre Royal. Count Seebruck (Thomas Gomez) runs the theater and the opera company with firmness and humor. One day the doctor chances upon an audition Seebruck is giving to a young student, Angela Klatt (Susannah Foster). She has a marvelous voice, and Seebruck immediately gives her a role in an upcoming production. Hohner is horrified. Angela sounds just like the great singer, Marcellina, who disappeared without a trace ten years ago. We have already learned in flashback at the start of the movie that Hohner loved Marcellina obsessively, and blamed her refusal of his love on her ambition...caused by her extraordinary voice. Hohner solved that problem by silencing the voice. An unfortunate by-product of his action was the dead body of Marcellina. And now it appears that the same voice will star again at the the Theatre Royal. For the rest of the movie we have Angela being pulled and pushed between Hohner, determined that Marcellina's voice will never be heard again, and the young man and fellow student who loves Angela, Franz Munzer (Turhan Bey), who is determined Angela will sing and be a great success. Lurking around the doctor's lavishly decorated medical office and home is his assistant and housekeeper, Luise (Gale Sondergaard). Luise is playing some game of her own, but what could it be? Could it have something to do with the steel, locked door at the top of the stairs in Hohner's home, a door which leads to a room we dread to see what it might contain? What makes a movie dull? The Phantom of the Opera the year before also starred Susannah Foster. It was a Technicolor knock-out of a movie, and featured a fine performance by Claude Raines, all the behind-the-scenes stuff you could want, an amusing light comedy performance from Nelson Eddy, aided by his rival for Foster's affection, Edgar Barrier. The sets were lavish, including some of the creepiest below-ground scenes ever filmed. It is no classic, but it isn't dull. The Climax uses the same sets, same story line and has a fine actor as the main threat. But there it ends. The story is too familiar and drags on and on. Inexplicably, Karloff is under-utilized. When Karloff says in that deep, sincere voice of his, "I've come to help you, my dear," we hope things will pick up. They don't.

Edward Ward wrote the score (as in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA), George Waggner directed (he was producer of PHANTOM), JANE FARRAR again plays a rival singer jealous of the new diva, and SUSANNA FOSTER is the lovely singer terrified of co-star BORIS KARLOFF, instead of Claude Rains. Other than that, any similarity between THE CLIMAX and POTO is strictly coincidental.The story is pretty lifeless, dealing as it does with the old chestnut about an older gentleman, the opera's resident doctor (BORIS KARLOFF) who killed his opera sweetheart years ago and is resentful when a new singer is engaged to sing the former diva's greatest role. He hypnotizes her in an attempt to silence her voice but doesn't count on interception from her romantic interest (TURHAN BEY) and the help of his housekeeper (GALE SONDERGAARD in a sympathetic role).It was justifiably honored with Oscar nominations for Set Decoration and Art Direction, but failed to become the profitable hit Universal was obviously reaching for. The main reason is the plot doesn't hold enough interest with its cardboard characters. Even the role of the mad doctor is played in very low-key style by BORIS KARLOFF, one of the screen's great horror stars. A little more menace would have been a wise thing and would have heightened whatever suspense there is.The supporting cast is a pleasant one, with JUNE VINCENT as the unfortunate opera diva Karloff murders, LUDWIG STOSSEL, THOMAS GOMEZ and SCOTTY BECKETT. The most obvious holdover from POTO is JANE FARRAR who practically repeats her role as a jealous diva, but even her tantrums were more credible in the former film.Edward Ward's score is attractive but not as impressive as his work on PHANTOM, and Susanna's higher register sounds a bit strained at times, although overall her vocal performance is a good one.Not likely to please fans of horror films with too much music and too little plot.