Climax!

3.3
19541h

Production

Logo for CBS

Climax! is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS programs of that era to be broadcast in color. Many of the episodes were performed and broadcast live.

Seasons

38 Episodes • Premiered 1954

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 1: The Long Goodbye

1. The Long Goodbye

Private Detective Philip Marlowe decides to help out a friend Lennox when his wife is found brutally murdered. Marlowe winds up in jail accused of her murder and tries to solve the case after his release.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 2: The Thirteenth Chair

2. The Thirteenth Chair

When his friend is murdered, Edward Wales sets out to capture the killer. He stages a seance and invites 13 people, any one of who may have killed the dead man, but it ends in chaos when the killer strikes again during a blackout.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 3: Casino Royale

3. Casino Royale

American spy James Bond must outsmart card wiz and crime boss LeChiffre while monitoring his actions. The first dramatization of a James Bond novel.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 4: Sorry, Wrong Number

4. Sorry, Wrong Number

A neurotic invalid whose only contact with the outside world is her phone. One night, because of a crossed wire, she hears plans for a murder which turns out to be her own. Her frantic efforts to get help and her growing terror and realisation of the truth chill you to the bone.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 5: The Gioconda Smile

5. The Gioconda Smile

The death of his crippled wife causes upheaval for the husband and his mistress. Only his family friend believes in his innocence.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 6: The After House

6. The After House

A steward aboard a yacht thinks his job is easy sailing until the dream voyage turns into a nightmare. The ship's officer is thrown overboard and another is hacked to death who is next.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 7: An Error in Chemistry

7. An Error in Chemistry

A carnival huckster ingratiates himself with an elderly farmer and his naïve daughter; she soon falls for her new suitor and marries him, only to wind up dead shortly afterwards, the husband quick to confess.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 8: Epitaph for a Spy

8. Epitaph for a Spy

An unsuspecting Iron Curtain refugee is used as a pawn by two French traitors while he is at a resort in France.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 9: The White Carnation

9. The White Carnation

A woman receives some mysterious white carnations, which seem to be an innocent gift but lead to terror.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 10: Nightmare in Copenhagen

10. Nightmare in Copenhagen

Thru romantic eyes she knew not what he was.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 11: The Bigger They Come

11. The Bigger They Come

Private investigators Cool and Lam become involved in this suspenseful tale of thugs, thieves and legal chicanery.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 12: Escape From Fear

12. Escape From Fear

An American engineer in Germany crosses over into the Soviet Zone on business and becomes entangled with the secret police.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 13: The Mojave Kid

13. The Mojave Kid

The Mojave Kid is warned to stay away from a small town feud.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 14: The Leaf Out of the Book

14. The Leaf Out of the Book

The story revolves around two women, one a successful career woman, the other an ambitious girl. After giving the daughter of an old friend a job, the successful businesswoman realizes the drawbacks of her generosity.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 15: The Valiant Men

15. The Valiant Men

Lt. Comm. Knowles is assigned to skipper the USS Hamilton from England back to New York. While he and his crew celebrate New Year's Eve 1943, an unknown danger lurks nearby.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 16: The Box of Chocolates

16. The Box of Chocolates

A hated columnist becomes involved in murder after receiving an innocent-looking box of chocolates with a note from the manufacturer asking him to try them.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 17: South of the Sun

17. South of the Sun

They were strangers to each other, even the married ones, and they all dreamed in human ways. But the least of these eight persons did something about his little dream. In so doing, he bound the strangers in an intimate circle, whether they knew it or not. He touched them all in passing and changed their lives and dreams forever, according to their own choices. In one turn of the earth something happened.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 18: The Great Impersonation

18. The Great Impersonation

The action of this tale of intrigue and espionage takes place in the jungles of East Africa in 1914. The destinies of Germany and Great Britain are dependent upon one man whose decision is influenced by one of the two women in his life.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 19: The Darkest Hour

19. The Darkest Hour

An ex-cop is released from San Quentin after five years and sets out on revenge against the men who framed him for manslaughter.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 20: The Champion

20. The Champion

The famous story deals with a boxer whose rise to fame has been at the expense of friends and associates. Through flashbacks, we see how Midge Kelly rose from the Chicago slums to a world championship.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 21: Private Worlds

21. Private Worlds

A woman doctor probes the twisted minds of her patients in a mental institution.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 22: Flight 951

22. Flight 951

A doctor forsakes the medical profession following a court trial where he was the defendant. Now a successful businessman travelling under an assumed name, he must decide between keeping his secret and saving the eyesight of a fellow passenger.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 23: The First and the Last

23. The First and the Last

The threat of scandal, revolving around the death of a man in London, prompts an ambitious lawyer to disregard both legan and moral principles. His concern for his own career puts an innocent man's life in jeopardy.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 24: The Deliverance of Sister Cecilia

24. The Deliverance of Sister Cecilia

A courageous nun suffers ordeals while trying to escape from behind the Iron Curtain.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 25: No Stone Unturned

25. No Stone Unturned

A Scottish student has the historical Stone of Scone stolen from Westminster Abbey. His purpose is to get England to recognize Scotland's independence.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 26: A Farewell to Arms

26. A Farewell to Arms

An American, in the Italian Army during World War I, who meets a nurse and falls in love with her. Together they try to find a haven from the turbulence around them.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 27: The Unimportant Man

27. The Unimportant Man

The life of an ordinary, mild-mannered man is changed when he identifies the murderer of his employer's brother.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 28: The Dark Fleece

28. The Dark Fleece

A gold miner returns to his righteous California hometown, circa1857. He has great wealth, but also a burdened conscious; he has killed a man.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 29: To Wake at Midnight

29. To Wake at Midnight

All the pent-up prejudices and hatreds of postwar Europe are revived when a Nazi lieutenant recovers consciousness in a British hospital after being in a coma for years.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 30: The Dance

30. The Dance

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 31: Wild Stallion

31. Wild Stallion

A handsome, devil-may-care fortune hunter [from South America] makes his home with a well-to-do Southern family. He is attracted at first to the daughter, until he discovers the mother is the one who holds the key to the family fortune.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 32: The Escape of Mendes-France

32. The Escape of Mendes-France

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 33: The Healer

33. The Healer

A brilliant surgeon, burdened with a self-centered wife and a beautiful heiress who's in love with him, becomes tormented by doubts about his ability after losing a patient during a difficult operation.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 34: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

34. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Classic Stevenson tale of a scientist whose experiments into the duality of man transform him into the misshapen, murderous Mr. Hyde.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 35: One Night Stand

35. One Night Stand

In 1937, the members of a jazz ensemble come to the aid of one of their colleagues who is stricken with tuberculosis.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 36: Edge of Terror

36. Edge of Terror

A small town banker and his family are threatened with death if he identifies the leader of the gang that tried to rob his bank.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 37: Fear Strikes Out

37. Fear Strikes Out

True story of ballplayer battling mental illness and domineering father.

Still image for Climax! season 1 episode 38: Deal a Blow

38. Deal a Blow

A teenage boy gets into a dispute with an abusive movie theater manager Mr. Grubbs. The boy's father Tom Ditmar accepts the manager's somewhat twisted version of the incident and doesn't give his son a chance to explain his side of the matter.

Cast

Photo of William Lundigan

William Lundigan

Self - Host

Photo of Mary Costa

Mary Costa

Self - Host

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