Climax

THE CLIMAX stars the one and only Boris Karloff as the quietly unhinged Dr. Friedrich Hohner, who has already disposed of his wife. When a young opera star (Susanna Foster) catches his ear and eye, Hohner sets out to have her under his control at any cost.

Karloff is a master at playing this type of low-key, seemingly docile character, who has something sinister boiling just beneath the surface. This is difficult to pull off, but he makes it look easy.

Lovers of opera should enjoy this movie, since it's packed with big musical productions. In fact, it's almost a musical!...

Even though the legendary Boris Karloff gave image to hundreds of cinematic monsters, psychopaths and mad scientists, he never played the titular character in Gaston Leroux' acclaimed masterwork "The Phantom of the Opera". Other contemporary horror stars did, like Lon Chaney and Claude Rains. Perhaps this production was Universal's attempt to involve Karloff in a horrific opera film-production anyway, re-using the expensive sets of the Phantom-film that was released one year earlier. The story is set in a prominent Vienna opera building where Boris stars as the resident physician, Dr. Hohner, and successfully hides a dark secret from his friends and co workers. After a short intro and a truly well choreographed flashback, we learn who Dr. Hohner murdered his fiancée and upcoming star-singer Marcellina because he feared her magically developing voice would come between their relationship. Now, ten years later, the new promising singer Angela – with a voice almost identical to Marcellina's – arrives at the theater and once again awakens Hohner's maniacal lusts. He hypnotizes her into never singing again, but Angela's young and devoted lover Franz carries on battling to make Angela share her wondrous voice with the world. "The Climax" is a beautiful movie to look at, with the terrific use of color and a nearly endless amount of great decors, but it surely could have used a slightly better screenplay. It's a rather predictable film with very few action scenes and only a bit of old-fashioned, legitimate tension during the last 15 minutes. There are many marvelous yet overlong opera sequences, even a lot more than in the actual "Phantom of the Opera", but they naturally slow down the film's pace and eventually even affect (negatively) the acting performances of Boris Karloff and Gale Sondergaard. It's an enjoyable mystery/thriller to a certain extent, but if you want to see Karloff at his most malicious, check out Val Lewton's "The Body Snatcher" or "Bedlam".

This much-maligned Boris Karloff vehicle is actually not too bad; then again, the 1943 version of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - for which this was a follow-up, conveniently filmed on the same expensive sets - isn't very popular with horror fans either.

Many have stated that Karloff sleepwalks through his role here: true, it doesn't really extend his range but, given that he was headlining a super-production and being the consummate professional that he was, I hardly believe he could afford to be indifferent about it (and, in any case, it returned him to territory he had already covered in CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA [1936])! It's fairly enjoyable in itself, if not a little silly (Karloff demanding that his sweetheart stop her glorious singing career merely because he's jealous of all the admiration she's getting, his hypnotic control over the Susanna Foster character being exercised by means of a flask of atomizer {throat spray}!), and the lavishly colorful production is certainly attractive. The musical numbers are more 'modern' than those in PHANTOM, though there are still too many of them (remaining, in any case, a matter of taste!).

Foster does okay by her role but I agree that Turhan Bey is totally miscast and almost sinks the film; however, the supporting cast is pretty good - above all Gale Sondergaard (in a surprisingly sympathetic role), Thomas Gomez and Ludwig Stossel.The film's best sequences would have to be the murder of Karloff's wife, the hypnotism sessions (highlighting Karloff's glaring eyes in close-up) and the fiery climax {sic} (as in THE BLACK CAT [1934], Karloff keeps the body of his dead wife embalmed in a secret room) - in essence, all the horrific elements there are.

P.S. According to the "Classic Horror Film Board", as was the case with Universal's initial DVD release of Dracula (1931), this film is missing the underscoring during the opening sequence (not having watched THE CLIMAX previously, I couldn't have known about this) - how the hell does something like this happen...?!

The Climax (1944)

** (out of 4)

Boris Karloff returned to Universal Studios playing Dr. Frederich Hohner, a man most people believe is haunted by the disappearance of a female opera singer ten years earlier. What they don't realize is that he actually murdered her. In present times he hears the beautiful Angela Klatt (Susanna Foster) sing and her voice reminds him of the one he killed so he plans to control the new singer.

THE CLIMAX was Karloff's return to the studio that made him a legend and the company went all out in regards to what the film has to offer. They gave him director George Waggner who had just scored a major success with THE WOLF MAN. They allowed the film to be shot in Technicolor. They even went all out with a higher budget and a classier looking picture. Everything is here except for a story, energy or any passion. I'm always shocked that Universal threw everything at this picture yet they basically delivered a rehash of SVENGALI and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.

On a technical level this film is very impressive as the visuals really jump off the screen. The Technicolor is extremely beautiful and especially the dresses and costumes in the picture. Just wait until you see the fire at the end as it looks incredible. The music itself is quite good if you really judge it and I'd argue that the cast is very good as well. This includes Karloff who has no problem playing the passion that this role requires. Foster, Turhan Bey and Gale Sondergaard are all good as well.

So, what's the problem with THE CLIMAX? It's the story, which is downright boring and the movie ends up moving so slow that it feels twice as long. I really don't know why Universal did this to Karloff and offered such a boring screenplay and especially when they had just done PHANTOM OF THE OPERA the previous year.

"The Climax" produced and directed by George Waggner inevitably suffers in comparison to his "The Phantom of the Opera" re-make released the previous year. Filmed on the same opera set as the Phantom (both 1925 and 1943 versions) and in glorious color and with the same female lead (Suzzanna Foster) as the previous year, it is nevertheless disappointing. It was also the first color film for star Boris Karloff.

The film opens with Dr. Hohner (Karloff) lamenting the loss of his beloved Marcellina (June Vincent) who was an opera star, ten years earlier. We then flash back to learn that Hohner had been in love with the diva but was jealous of her voice, which he saw as coming between them. When she rejects his love, he murders her and she "disappears".

While leaving the theater, Dr. Hohner hears a voice that he believes to be that of Marcellina. It belongs however, to aspiring student Angela (Foster) who with her fiancé Franz (Turhan Bey) is hoping to become an opera singer. Impresario Count Seebruck (Thomas Gomez) hears her and plans to present her in the theater much to the dismay of resident soprano Jarmila Vadek (Jane Farrar).

Angela achieves immediate success, but when Seebruck plans to star her in "The Magic Voice", Dr. Hohner decides to take action. Luring her to his home on the pretense of examining her throat on behalf of the opera company, he hypnotizes her into believing that she no longer wants to sing.

We also learn that the good doctor has preserved Marcellina's body and keeps it in a sealed room in his home while being observed by his housekeeper Luise (Gale Sondergaard) who had served Marcellina.

Franz decides to take action. He secures an audience with the boy King (Scotty Beckett) who orders a command performance of "The Magic Voice" and................

Karloff has had better roles. In spite of a promising opening, the film drags through the middle and gives him little to do. Foster basically plays the same role as she had in the Phantom, a year earlier. Gale Sondergarrd who usually played evil and sinister villains, is wasted here. Bey, who was a rising star at the time also has little to do but drool over Foster.

Although the technicolor photography is stunning, it is spoiled by a weak story and weak characters. The film doesn't seem to know whether it will be a horror story or a musical. Trying to mix the two fails miserably.