Climax!

Overview

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

S01E01 The Long Goodbye

October 7, 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...

S01E02 The Thirteenth Chair

October 14, 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...
Casino Royale

S01E03 Casino Royale

October 21, 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.

S01E04 Sorry, Wrong Number

November 4, 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...

S01E05 The Gioconda Smile

November 11, 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.

S01E06 The After House

November 25, 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.

S01E07 An Error in Chemistry

December 2, 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.

S01E08 Epitaph for a Spy

December 9, 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.

S01E09 The White Carnation

December 16, 1954 60 min
A woman receives some mysterious white carnations, which seem to be an innocent gift but lead to terror.

S01E10 Nightmare in Copenhagen

December 30, 1954 60 min
Thru romantic eyes she knew not what he was.

S01E11 The Bigger They Come

January 6, 1955 60 min
Private investigators Cool and Lam become involved in this suspenseful tale of thugs, thieves and legal chicanery.

S01E12 Escape From Fear

January 13, 1955 60 min
An American engineer in Germany crosses over into the Soviet Zone on business and becomes entangled with the secret police.

S01E13 The Mojave Kid

January 27, 1955 60 min
The Mojave Kid is warned to stay away from a small town feud.

S01E14 The Leaf Out of the Book

February 3, 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.

S01E15 The Valiant Men

February 10, 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.

S01E16 The Box of Chocolates

February 24, 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.

S01E17 South of the Sun

March 3, 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...

S01E18 The Great Impersonation

March 10, 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...

S01E19 The Darkest Hour

March 24, 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.

S01E20 The Champion

March 31, 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...

S01E21 Private Worlds

April 7, 1955 60 min
A woman doctor probes the twisted minds of her patients in a mental institution.

S01E22 Flight 951

April 21, 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...

S01E23 The First and the Last

April 28, 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...

S01E24 The Deliverance of Sister Cecilia

May 5, 1955 60 min
A courageous nun suffers ordeals while trying to escape from behind the Iron Curtain.

S01E25 No Stone Unturned

May 19, 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.

S01E26 A Farewell to Arms

May 26, 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.

S01E27 The Unimportant Man

June 2, 1955 60 min
The life of an ordinary, mild-mannered man is changed when he identifies the murderer of his employer's brother.

S01E28 The Dark Fleece

June 16, 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.

S01E29 To Wake at Midnight

June 23, 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.

S01E31 Wild Stallion

July 7, 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...

S01E32 The Escape of Mendes-France

July 14, 1955 60 min

S01E33 The Healer

July 21, 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.

S01E34 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

July 28, 1955 60 min
Classic Stevenson tale of a scientist whose experiments into the duality of man transform him into the misshapen, murderous Mr. Hyde.

S01E35 One Night Stand

August 4, 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.

S01E36 Edge of Terror

August 11, 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.

S01E37 Fear Strikes Out

August 18, 1955 60 min
True story of ballplayer battling mental illness and domineering father.

S01E38 Deal a Blow

August 25, 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...

Cast

William Lundigan
William Lundigan
Self - Host
Mary Costa
Mary Costa
Self - Host

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