AaronCapenBanner Boris Karloff stars in his first color feature, playing Dr. Hohner, the physician to the Vienna Royal Theater who one day, in a fit of insane jealousy, murders his mistress, who was also the star singer of the theater. He gets away with it, but ten years later, a new singer(played by Susana Foster) reminds him strongly of his long ago love, and so plots to keep her for himself using hypnosis to convince her to sing only for him, though her fiancée(played by Turhan Bey) gets wind of this and tries to save her... Despite Karloff, this is a dismayingly slow, turgid film, with too much singing and no suspense. Color is wasted here, as is Karloff, in one of his worst films.

MartinHafer My summary, if you knew me, is quite sarcastic, as I am not a fan of opera. And, when I watch a horror movie (with the exception of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA), I tune in to watch horror--not see song after song after song. While technically this is a Boris Karloff film, you'd never know it unless you paid attention. It looks much more like a musical--something fans of Karloff probably were not happy to see.When the film began, I was immediately struck by the vivid Technicolor. Karloff rarely performed in color until late in his career when most films were in color. But, for 1944, it was unusual to see color films--particularly horror films. Also, the spectrum of colors they used were unusual--lots of pastels like mauve, rich purple and aqua as well as gray. It was very striking.A decade ago, Karloff argued with a prima dona at the opera and strangled her. However, her body was never found and Karloff has remained free. Now, a new singer, Miss Klatt, arrives and she reminds him strongly of dead woman, Marcellina. And, since Karloff is a bit touched, he feels strange impulses towards Klatt. He tricks her into being hypnotized and gives her the suggestion that her voice is gone! Apparenly now that Marcellina is dead, Karloff won't allow anyone else to sing like her or sing her music. In many ways, this film is like an anti-Phantom of the Opera or anti-Svengali--where the mad genius guides a woman's career to failure instead of great success.The young lady's fiancé, Turhan Bey, is worried about her and the odd influence that Karloff is having on her. So, he sneaks her away from Karloff's home (where she is staying while she "recouperates"). Bey is surprised to find that the medicine that Karloff has given her in an atomizer turns out to be nothing but colored water. What gives?! Somehow Bey gets the idea to help his fiancée get over her inability to sing can be cured by arranging a command performance before the very young king. This plan made very little sense and I have no idea what Bey's reasoning was. The king, it turns out, is pretty swell and agrees to the plan.Somehow Bey also gets the idea that by destroying the atomizer in front of her, that his lady friend will regain her voice. It's as if he read the script! Such amazing "insider knowledge" is an inherent weakness of the film.When Karloff discovers what's happened, he once again tried to persuade Klatt not to sing. But, just to make sure, plans to either kill her or destroy her vocal cords--it's hard to tell which he's about to do when the housekeeper confronts him--of course, with no backup or witnesses!! She KNOWS the truth and will stop him (how?!)! Fortunately, as Bey read the script, he knew to appear just in time to save the lady and rescue Klatt from Karloff's clutches.In the end, Klatt goes on and is marvelous (if you like that sort of stuff) and Karloff overacts as he and his dead Marcellina (who he kept embalmed in a hidden room in his house) catch fire for no particular reason.Overall, it's hardly fair to call this a Karloff movie, as he's really just a supporting playing to a bunch of warbling. Unless you are a glutton for opera (very high-pitched opera, by the way), then this film will be, at best, barely a time-passer and nothing more. That's because there is almost no suspense, no twists, Bey apparently always has ESP (how else can he do what he does in the movie?) and in the end, Karloff catches fire for no apparent reason other than it's the end of the film! Truly, despite looking nice, this is a very badly written film that wastes Karloff's considerable talents.And to think that Karloff's first color film was this dull song-fest.

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.

MARIO GAUCI 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...?!