Wonderfully offbeat film!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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.

A potential opera singer's career is threatened when a mad doctor, throat therapist Dr. Friedrich Hohner(Boris Karloff), places a hypnotic spell on her in order to halt her from performing in a production, The Magic Voice, once occupied by Marcellina(June Vincent)..Hohner was responsible for strangling Marcellina to death because she denounced his love in favor of stardom. Angela Klatt(Susanna Foster, who is wonderful)must somehow resist Hohner's power, with help from her beloved and faithful fiancé, Franz Munzer(Turhan Bey), a pianist and Carl(Ludwig Stössel), an employee in the theater whose association with the Vienna Theater House's proprietor, Count Seebruck(Thomas Gomez)landed her a position in a production opening the door to possible success in the first place. Hohner will do whatever is in his power to keep Angela from completing the opera of The Magic Voice for only Marcellina, in his mind, was "allowed" to perform it. Hohner will have a secret adversary in Luise(Gale Sondergaard), his maid, for she was Marcellina's best friend, needing some sort of incriminating evidence, or confession, to prove he killed her.More of a Gothic melodrama with an opera backdrop(..it's similarities to the previous year's Phantom of the Opera are interesting as I have read that the same extravagant sets were used from that film for The Climax)than a full-bore horror film. The usual magnificence associated with Universal Studios are on display such as luxurious sets, impressive art direction, detailed costume design(..from the always reliable Vera West)and top notch cast, but there's nothing extraordinary regarding plot or characters. Opera lovers might appreciate this more than the usual Gothic horror fans who flock, like yours truly, to these movies. Karloff, as the haunted physician, was my reason of interest in seeing this besides The Climax being produced by my favorite studio. Also, seeing a younger Karloff in Technicolor, was really neat as well. Jane Farrar is good fun as a pampered(long in the tooth) prima donna opera singer and George Dolenz is the lothario on stage who earns her ire, both often at each other's throats over this and that, mundane ordeals Seebruck has to deal with on a daily basis. While I adore the excellence of B&W photography, Universal Studios is known specifically for during this period in cinema, films like Phantom of the Opera(..the '43 version with the great Claude Rains)and The Climax are simply ideal for Technicolor so we can fully appreciate the look of the production and wardrobe. I'm not an opera guy, to tell you the truth, but I admire the obvious hard work and dedication that went into The Climax. The Climax was directed by George Waggner(The Wolf Man).

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.

How can you fix a film that has... -too much opera for horror fans, -too creepy ending for opera fans, -too little action for Karloff fans, -too much Karloff for melodrama fans, -and a director who seems content with showcasing his lavish sets and the relatively new Technicolor process? After giving the question quite a bit of thought, I don't think you can fix a project like "The Climax". It was ill-conceived from the start and the film they made was probably as good as could be made with the story they had to work with. But ultimately, the film is unsatisfying for all of the reasons listed above. Watch it if you must,... but you've been warned.