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.
Climax! (Season 2)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Episode 1)
Writer: DeWitt Bodeen
Air date: 1955-09-01
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Huck and Jim once again embark on their adventure-filled trek down the Mississippi .
Public Pigeon #1 (Episode 2)
Air date: 1955-09-08
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Cafeteria worker Rusty is cheated by stock swindlers and winds up in jail, but the crooks have to break him out in order to recover their loot, which was stashed in Rusty's safety deposit box.
Silent Decision (Episode 3)
Air date: 1955-09-15
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A surgeon finds out about his wife's unfaithfulness and takes matters into his own hands.
Night of Execution (Episode 4)
Air date: 1955-09-22
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A mother watches her cruel and destructive husband continually expose their young son to all kinds of violence. Finally she feels she must take steps to save her son from this sinister influence.
Sailor on Horseback (Episode 5)
Air date: 1955-09-29
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: As Jack London's reputation as a writer grows, his fame causes conflicts with his sister Eliza and his wife Charmain.
Thin Air (Episode 6)
Air date: 1955-10-13
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: An advertising executive's wife disappears during a summer vacation.
House of Shadows (Episode 7)
Air date: 1955-10-20
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A woman keeps her elderly uncle locked up as a prisoner in his own home when a man decides to investigate the story himself.
The Pink Cloud (Episode 8)
Air date: 1955-10-27
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: An ex-con returns to New York looking for the man responsible for the crime he did time for.
Scheme to Defraud (Episode 9)
Air date: 1955-11-10
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: An insurance underwriter and his secretary are both disgruntled over their dull, monotonous routine. They fall in love, and then discover a way to cash in on a $70,000 insurance claim.
A Promise to Murder (Episode 10)
Air date: 1955-11-17
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: At his wealthy aunt's insistence, a rising young London barrister submits to having his palm read. The prophecies come true with alarming accuracy.
Portrait in Celluloid (Episode 11)
Air date: 1955-11-24
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Art Shaddick, formerly a writer, now a writer's agent, sits in his gaudy, pretentious office, on the bookcase reposes an Oscar, won by Art for his last picture. That was in 1929. Since then he has gone steadily downhill, shouting all the way. When suddenly a young writer appears with a great script, it is just what Art needs, a golden opportunity to rise again to greatness.
A Man of Taste (Episode 12)
Air date: 1955-12-01
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A cultured Englishman, living in Paris, becomes interested in art for purely mercenary reasons. He sponsors a young artist and goes to great lengths to keep his protege's canvases valuable.
The Passport (Episode 13)
Air date: 1955-12-08
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: An American correspondent, assigned to Europe shortly after World War II, is offered part of a fortune in confiscated gems in return for letting a former Nazi officer use his passport.
The Day They Gave the Babies Away (Episode 14)
Air date: 1955-12-22
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: While decorating a Christmas tree, narrator Joan Evans recalls the story of the Christmas of her ancestors during the 1860s in Wisconsin. A 12-year old boy becomes the head of his family when both parents die. On Christmas Eve he finds a way to provide homes for his five younger brothers and sisters.
Bailout at 43,000 Feet (Episode 15)
Air date: 1955-12-29
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Three men prepare to test the ejector seat of a jet bomber. As they wait for favorable weather conditions, each reacts differently.
The Prowler (Episode 16)
Air date: 1956-01-05
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A rancher's wife is bored with her monotonous life. One night when her husband is away, her mother-in-law inadvertently suggest the "perfect escape" .
The Hanging Judge (Episode 17)
Air date: 1956-01-12
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: One of the most despised men in the legal profession clings tenaciously to the belief that English law is infallible. Because of his fixation he even stands trial for a murder he did not commit.
The Secret of River Lane (Episode 18)
Air date: 1956-01-26
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: The son of a respected lawyer is involved in a case of homicide over the shooting of a schoolmate. Even though the father suspects his son's guilt, he tries to protect him. The entire town is indignant when charges are not brought against the boy immediately for lack of sufficient evidence.
Gamble on a Thief (Episode 19)
Air date: 1956-02-02
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A dedicated parole officer makes a daring effort to help a two-time loser who has violated the conditions of his parole.
The Fifth Wheel (Episode 20) 10.0
Air date: 1956-02-09
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Two sports-minded priests, off for a fishing holiday, become involved with thieves, a stolen car and stolen money!
Nightmare by Day (Episode 21)
Air date: 1956-02-23
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: The parents of a recently married young woman, whose husband claims she's taken a trip to New York, slowly become convinced she's been murdered.
The Sound of Silence (Episode 22)
Air date: 1956-03-01
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A priest becomes involved in murder when the killer confesses his crime to him.
The Louella Parsons Story (Episode 23)
Air date: 1956-03-08
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: The Louella Parsons story, based on incidents in her autobiography ""The Gay Illiterate"", is a series of flashbacks. Teresa Wright portrays Miss Parson in the drama. As she speaks with the stars the cameras will re-create incidents in her long career. The time span is from the early twenties to 1948. We see Miss Parsons' early days as a newspaper reporter in Chicago. Here she loses her job and departs for New York. In New York she resumes her career, only to be stricken with tuberculosis. When she recovers from her illness, she meets the man who is to become her second husband, and her rise as Hollywood columnist begins. As a climax to tonight's drama, there will be a tribute from the stars of the movie industry.
Pale Horse, Pale Rider (Episode 24)
Air date: 1956-03-22
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A young woman lives in fear that a recurring dream foretells real tragedy. The premonition persists when she falls in love with a young soldier about to leave for overseas duty.
An Episode of Sparrows (Episode 25)
Air date: 1956-03-29
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: An 11-year old girl whose home has always been the slums, steals a packet of flower seeds from a playmate. In her search for a small bit of earth in which to grow flowers, she is befriended by a youthful gang leader.
Spin into Darkness (Episode 26)
Air date: 1956-04-05
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: After gambling away the money her pilot husband gave her for the down payment on a plane, a woman takes a job as nurse to an alcoholic, who in a drunken stupor gives her $5,000 to recoup her losses and later reports to the police that the money was stolen.
The Lou Gehrig Story (Episode 27)
Air date: 1956-04-19
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Baseball's ""Iron Horse,"" whose brilliant career was ended by a terminal illness, and who struggled valiantly against adversity.
Sit Down with Death (Episode 28)
Air date: 1956-04-26
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A dinner party turns into a guest's nightmare as a murder plot is uncovered.
The Empty Room Blues (Episode 29)
Air date: 1956-05-03
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: When her husband disappears with their savings and their son, a woman fears for the child's life. But she can't convince her friends or the police that the man is a pathological liar and a menace.
Flame-Out on T-6 (Episode 30)
Air date: 1956-05-17
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Ten men are assigned to a drifting ice floe near the North Pole to test the effect of subzero weather on men supplied only with tents and meager rations. One of the men goes berserk from the strain and wrecks the group's radio so that no one can notify headquarters of their location.
The Shadow of Evil (Episode 31)
Air date: 1956-05-24
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: The unsuspecting girlfriend of a young man whose brother is the head of a Rome narcotics ring arrives from the United States with an investigator at her heels.
Figures in Clay (Episode 32)
Air date: 1956-05-31
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: After agreeing to defend an irrational old man charged with murder, an attorney finds that his partner believes he took the case for publicity reasons.
Faceless Adversary (Episode 33)
Air date: 1956-06-07
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A man suspected of a young woman's murder denies even knowing her and claims he's being framed.
To Scream at Midnight (Episode 34)
Air date: 1956-06-14
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A wealthy young woman breaks down and is placed in a sanitarium after being thrown over by the man she loves. Her psychiatrist becomes suspicious when the man reappears and claims he wants to marry her.
The Circular Staircase (Episode 35)
Air date: 1956-06-21
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A middle aged spinster decides to go to the country for the summer with her friend. They end up becoming involved in a murder mystery.
A Trophy for Howard Davenport (Episode 36)
Air date: 1956-06-28
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A Babe Ruth League team is perpetually in last place, because its compassionate manager tends to pick youngsters no other team wants. When the team has a chance to place in the finals, he turns down a boy's plea to pitch in the big game, and the boy then runs away from home.
Phone Call for Matthew Quade (Episode 37)
Air date: 1956-07-05
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A retired construction firm executive seeks a respite from enforced idleness and oncoming old age. While waiting for a phone call that will confirm or deny his request for a job back at his old firm, Matthew Quade relives his past.
Fear is the Hunter (Episode 38)
Air date: 1956-07-12
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A young man comes to the town of Brewster, his car in need of repairs, and is ordered to leave at once. He soon learns that the ruthless man after whom the town is named looks on any stranger as his potential murderer.
Fury at Dawn (Episode 39)
Air date: 1956-07-19
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: When an atomic bomb mounted on a 200-foot-tall steel tower fails to detonate, a veteran nuclear physicist and his aides have to climb the rickety tower to disarm the bomb.
The Man Who Lost His Head (Episode 40)
Air date: 1956-07-26
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A young sailor collapses on the estate of a wealthy Englishman in the Orient and, upon reviving, is offered a strange bargain in exchange for his life.
Child of the Wind (Episode 41)
Air date: 1956-08-02
Runtime: 60 min
No Right to Kill (Episode 42)
Air date: 1956-08-09
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A starving author tests his theory about people who think they are above the law by killing a pawnbroker.
The 78th Floor (Episode 43)
Air date: 1956-08-16
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: On a foggy afternoon just before a plane strikes the Empire State Building, a businessman recently gone blind is in one office dictating a suicide note to his wife, while in another office a young man is trying to persuade his fiancee to help him rob the firm she works for so they can be married.
Throw Away the Cane (Episode 44)
Air date: 1956-08-23
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A popular singer whose earnings are supporting his entire family returns to his home town for a visit and proceeds to make a play for the girlfriend of his twin brother, an aspiring concert pianist.
Dark Wall (Episode 45)
Air date: 1956-08-30
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: An extreme form of disassociative reaction to stress in which two or more separate personalities exist. The person may shift from one personality to another, which is often very different. Each personality has no memories of the other's thoughts and actions.
