Thursday, October 6, 2016

The Climax (1944)

Director: George Waggner

Writers: Curt Siodmak, Lynn Starling, Edward Locke

Composer: Edward Ward

Starring: Boris Karloff, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Gale Sondergaard, THomas Gomez, June Vincent, George Lolenz

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The screen's classic of suspense!

Plot: A demented physician becomes obsessed with a young singer whose voice sounds similar to his late mistress.



My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This was disappointing.  It's Karloff's first color film.  He's great as always but you won't be surprised if you think you've seen it before...or something like it.  The film has a strong PHANTOM OF THE OPERA vibe in more ways than one.  This was filmed on the same set as the 1925 and 1943 PHANTOM.  It's also got a lot of the same people involved that worked on the 1943 film.  When Karloff is on screen he's the man and when he's not, it's usually dull.  What makes it worse is that there's an extraordinary amount of time devoted to the musical numbers on stage.  It's staggering how much time is spent watching the 'show within the film'.  I suppose they had to do something to fill out the 86 minute run time.  If a movie bores me I usually don't go higher than a 5 but it is Boris Karloff and he is a bright spot in the film plus the production design is magnificent, worth of a Hammer picture.  This is one of five films in The Boris Karloff Collection box set from Universal.  The sole extra for this film is the theatrical trailer.



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