The Climax (1944)

A jealous physician (Boris Karloff) murders the opera singer (June Vincent) he loves when she refuses to give up her career. Ten years later, a budding opera singer (Susanna Foster) with a similar voice becomes the target of his obsession. Very loosely based on the play by Edward Locke and directed by George Waggner (THE WOLF MAN). Horror and opera are an uneasy mix but Universal's Technicolor version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA had been a big hit the year before so they decided to try it again using the same sets and the same actress (Foster). It didn't repeat the success of its predecessor. There's not much horror here and not even opera, it's more like an operetta gaudily channeled through Florenz Ziegfeld. It's a handsome film to look at (the art direction received an Oscar nomination) in vivid three strip Technicolor but the musical sequences are a chore to sit through. With Turhan Bey, Gale Sondergaard (wasted), Thomas Gomez, Scotty Beckett, Jane Farrar and George Dolenz.