Climax! (1954)
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.
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Episode 1 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Release Date: 1955-09-01Huck and Jim once again embark on their adventure-filled trek down the Mississippi .
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Episode 2 - Public Pigeon #1
Release Date: 1955-09-08Cafeteria 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.
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Episode 3 - Silent Decision
Release Date: 1955-09-15A surgeon finds out about his wife's unfaithfulness and takes matters into his own hands.
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Episode 4 - Night of Execution
Release Date: 1955-09-22A 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.
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Episode 5 - Sailor on Horseback
Release Date: 1955-09-29As Jack London's reputation as a writer grows, his fame causes conflicts with his sister Eliza and his wife Charmain.
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Episode 6 - Thin Air
Release Date: 1955-10-13An advertising executive's wife disappears during a summer vacation.
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Episode 7 - House of Shadows
Release Date: 1955-10-20A woman keeps her elderly uncle locked up as a prisoner in his own home when a man decides to investigate the story himself.
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Episode 8 - The Pink Cloud
Release Date: 1955-10-27An ex-con returns to New York looking for the man responsible for the crime he did time for.
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Episode 9 - Scheme to Defraud
Release Date: 1955-11-10An 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.
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Episode 10 - A Promise to Murder
Release Date: 1955-11-17At his wealthy aunt's insistence, a rising young London barrister submits to having his palm read. The prophecies come true with alarming accuracy.
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Episode 11 - Portrait in Celluloid
Release Date: 1955-11-24Art 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.
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Episode 12 - A Man of Taste
Release Date: 1955-12-01A 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.
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Episode 13 - The Passport
Release Date: 1955-12-08An 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.
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Episode 14 - The Day They Gave the Babies Away
Release Date: 1955-12-22While 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.
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Episode 15 - Bailout at 43,000 Feet
Release Date: 1955-12-29Three men prepare to test the ejector seat of a jet bomber. As they wait for favorable weather conditions, each reacts differently.
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Episode 16 - The Prowler
Release Date: 1956-01-05A 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" .
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Episode 17 - The Hanging Judge
Release Date: 1956-01-12One 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.
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Episode 18 - The Secret of River Lane
Release Date: 1956-01-26The 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.
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Episode 19 - Gamble on a Thief
Release Date: 1956-02-02A dedicated parole officer makes a daring effort to help a two-time loser who has violated the conditions of his parole.
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Episode 20 - The Fifth Wheel
Release Date: 1956-02-09Two sports-minded priests, off for a fishing holiday, become involved with thieves, a stolen car and stolen money!
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Episode 21 - Nightmare by Day
Release Date: 1956-02-23The 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.
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Episode 22 - The Sound of Silence
Release Date: 1956-03-01A priest becomes involved in murder when the killer confesses his crime to him.
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Episode 23 - The Louella Parsons Story
Release Date: 1956-03-08The 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.
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Episode 24 - Pale Horse, Pale Rider
Release Date: 1956-03-22A 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.
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Episode 25 - An Episode of Sparrows
Release Date: 1956-03-29An 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.
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Episode 26 - Spin into Darkness
Release Date: 1956-04-05After 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.
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Episode 27 - The Lou Gehrig Story
Release Date: 1956-04-19Baseball's ""Iron Horse,"" whose brilliant career was ended by a terminal illness, and who struggled valiantly against adversity.
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Episode 28 - Sit Down with Death
Release Date: 1956-04-26A dinner party turns into a guest's nightmare as a murder plot is uncovered.
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Episode 29 - The Empty Room Blues
Release Date: 1956-05-03When 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.
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Episode 30 - Flame-Out on T-6
Release Date: 1956-05-17Ten 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.
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Episode 31 - The Shadow of Evil
Release Date: 1956-05-24The 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.
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Episode 32 - Figures in Clay
Release Date: 1956-05-31After agreeing to defend an irrational old man charged with murder, an attorney finds that his partner believes he took the case for publicity reasons.
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Episode 33 - Faceless Adversary
Release Date: 1956-06-07A man suspected of a young woman's murder denies even knowing her and claims he's being framed.
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Episode 34 - To Scream at Midnight
Release Date: 1956-06-14A 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.
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Episode 35 - The Circular Staircase
Release Date: 1956-06-21A middle aged spinster decides to go to the country for the summer with her friend. They end up becoming involved in a murder mystery.
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Episode 36 - A Trophy for Howard Davenport
Release Date: 1956-06-28A 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.
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Episode 37 - Phone Call for Matthew Quade
Release Date: 1956-07-05A 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.
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Episode 38 - Fear is the Hunter
Release Date: 1956-07-12A 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.
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Episode 39 - Fury at Dawn
Release Date: 1956-07-19When 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.
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Episode 40 - The Man Who Lost His Head
Release Date: 1956-07-26A 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.
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Episode 41 - Child of the Wind
Release Date: 1956-08-02 -
Episode 42 - No Right to Kill
Release Date: 1956-08-09A starving author tests his theory about people who think they are above the law by killing a pawnbroker.
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Episode 43 - The 78th Floor
Release Date: 1956-08-16On 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.
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Episode 44 - Throw Away the Cane
Release Date: 1956-08-23A 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.
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Episode 45 - Dark Wall
Release Date: 1956-08-30An 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.