About this season
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.
Episodes (38)
1. The Long Goodbye
Aired 7 October 1954 • 60 min
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.
2. The Thirteenth Chair
Aired 14 October 1954 • 60 min
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.
3. Casino Royale
6.0Aired 21 October 1954 • 60 min
American spy James Bond must outsmart card wiz and crime boss LeChiffre while monitoring his actions. The first dramatization of a James Bond novel.
4. Sorry, Wrong Number
Aired 4 November 1954 • 60 min
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.
5. The Gioconda Smile
Aired 11 November 1954 • 60 min
The death of his crippled wife causes upheaval for the husband and his mistress. Only his family friend believes in his innocence.
6. The After House
Aired 25 November 1954 • 60 min
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.
7. An Error in Chemistry
Aired 2 December 1954 • 60 min
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.
8. Epitaph for a Spy
Aired 9 December 1954 • 60 min
An unsuspecting Iron Curtain refugee is used as a pawn by two French traitors while he is at a resort in France.
9. The White Carnation
Aired 16 December 1954 • 60 min
A woman receives some mysterious white carnations, which seem to be an innocent gift but lead to terror.
10. Nightmare in Copenhagen
Aired 30 December 1954 • 60 min
Thru romantic eyes she knew not what he was.
11. The Bigger They Come
Aired 6 January 1955 • 60 min
Private investigators Cool and Lam become involved in this suspenseful tale of thugs, thieves and legal chicanery.
12. Escape From Fear
Aired 13 January 1955 • 60 min
An American engineer in Germany crosses over into the Soviet Zone on business and becomes entangled with the secret police.
13. The Mojave Kid
Aired 27 January 1955 • 60 min
The Mojave Kid is warned to stay away from a small town feud.
14. The Leaf Out of the Book
Aired 3 February 1955 • 60 min
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.
15. The Valiant Men
Aired 10 February 1955 • 60 min
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.
16. The Box of Chocolates
Aired 24 February 1955 • 60 min
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.
17. South of the Sun
Aired 3 March 1955 • 60 min
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.
18. The Great Impersonation
Aired 10 March 1955 • 60 min
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.
19. The Darkest Hour
Aired 24 March 1955 • 60 min
An ex-cop is released from San Quentin after five years and sets out on revenge against the men who framed him for manslaughter.
20. The Champion
Aired 31 March 1955 • 60 min
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.
21. Private Worlds
Aired 7 April 1955 • 60 min
A woman doctor probes the twisted minds of her patients in a mental institution.
22. Flight 951
Aired 21 April 1955 • 60 min
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.
23. The First and the Last
Aired 28 April 1955 • 60 min
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.
24. The Deliverance of Sister Cecilia
Aired 5 May 1955 • 60 min
A courageous nun suffers ordeals while trying to escape from behind the Iron Curtain.
25. No Stone Unturned
Aired 19 May 1955 • 60 min
A Scottish student has the historical Stone of Scone stolen from Westminster Abbey. His purpose is to get England to recognize Scotland's independence.
26. A Farewell to Arms
Aired 26 May 1955 • 60 min
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.
27. The Unimportant Man
Aired 2 June 1955 • 60 min
The life of an ordinary, mild-mannered man is changed when he identifies the murderer of his employer's brother.
28. The Dark Fleece
Aired 16 June 1955 • 60 min
A gold miner returns to his righteous California hometown, circa1857. He has great wealth, but also a burdened conscious; he has killed a man.
29. To Wake at Midnight
Aired 23 June 1955 • 60 min
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.
30. The Dance
Aired 30 June 1955 • 60 min
31. Wild Stallion
Aired 7 July 1955 • 60 min
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.
32. The Escape of Mendes-France
Aired 14 July 1955 • 60 min
33. The Healer
Aired 21 July 1955 • 60 min
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.
34. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
7.0Aired 28 July 1955 • 60 min
Classic Stevenson tale of a scientist whose experiments into the duality of man transform him into the misshapen, murderous Mr. Hyde.
35. One Night Stand
Aired 4 August 1955 • 60 min
In 1937, the members of a jazz ensemble come to the aid of one of their colleagues who is stricken with tuberculosis.
36. Edge of Terror
Aired 11 August 1955 • 60 min
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.
37. Fear Strikes Out
Aired 18 August 1955 • 60 min
True story of ballplayer battling mental illness and domineering father.
38. Deal a Blow
Aired 25 August 1955 • 60 min
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.