Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Cassandra
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Haven Kaycee
It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
Spikeopath
Dr. Hohner (Boris Karloff) is Physician at the Vienna Royal Theatre, who in a fit of obsession and jealousy murders his fiancée. Ten years later, he hears another young singer (Susanna Foster) who reminds him of his slain fiancée, and he's determined to make her sing only for him, even if it means silencing her forever.Karloff's first movie in glorious Technicolor is beautiful to look at, but ultimately a so so movie not offering much for the big man to do. Using the same sets that were used for the Claude Rains led Phantom Of The Opera the previous year, this appears to be Universal's attempt to give Karloff a slice of demented operatic pie. Why then is he given so little to do? So much time is spent with Foster and the hopelessly miscast Turhan Bey, that Karloff's warped Doctor almost feels like an intrusion on some Gothic melodramatic romance. A shame since what screen time Karloff gets shows potential for a memorable horror character to rank up with his better ones. Some good support comes from Gale Sondergaard & Thomas Gomez, and without doubt the operatic scenes are great, even if they take up so much time the flow of the movie is never at one with the creepy undercurrents of the tale. But really it's like opening a gorgeously wrapped birthday present only to find that within is a used gum ball without any flavour. 4.5/10
Coventry
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".
BrentCarleton
"The Climax" provides Boris Karloff not only with his first Technicolor film, but audiences with a handsome, humdinger of a mustache-twisting Victorian melodrama.True, the story is not supernatural, but what does that matter when Boris keeps his deceased girl friend preserved beneath a gauze shroud in a secret room? If this is not sufficient, then just savor the mouth watering color photography, art direction and costumes.This is one of the most visually handsome color films from the 40's, and ranks favorably against Minnelli's "Meet Me in St. Louis" in the warmth, depth, and clarity of its chromatic range, whilst simultaneously recalling Twentieth Century Fox's lighting schemes from "The Little Princess," and anticipating "Blanche Fury" in its tonal subtleties.The settings are both sumptuous and historically accurate, (sharp eyed viewers will note that some of the same props show up later in Ulmer's "Bluebeard,") and provide the perfect background for the cloak and dagger theatrics.Not to be outdistanced are Vera West's (one of Hollywood's most undervalued designers) late Victorian gowns--each a marvel of velvet, chiffon, plumes, and various embroideries, not to mention being a testament to the lost art of dressmaking.Susanna Foster not only wears them charmingly, but sings like an angel, until Boris hypnotizes her. Thereafter, she is a bit somnambulistic--something of a problem given an impending operatic engagement.Not to worry though, a turban-less Turhan Bey will save the day, in a nick of time, allowing Susanna to hit her high C on opening night, as scowling villain Karloff rushes off to a succulent fate.That fate, as depicted, with Uncle Boris collapsing on a curtained bier that is laden with the corpse of his long dead (though still photogenic) inamorata, as they both go up in flames, is as aesthetically and dramatically delicious as they come.One can almost imagine the the whoops of the popcorn patrons as they cheered this pyrotechnic finale in the Rialto's of yesteryear.Not to be missed.
Neil Doyle
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.
