The Best Episodes of Climax!
Every episode of Climax! ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Climax!!
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.
Top Episode Ratings Summary
The best episode of "Climax!" is "The Day They Gave the Babies Away", rated 8.9/10 from 13 user votes. It was directed by Allen Reisner and written by N/A. "The Day They Gave the Babies Away" aired on 12/22/1955 and is rated 0.6 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "The Long Count".
8.9/10 13 votes#1 - The Day They Gave the Babies Away
Season 2 Episode 14 - Aired 12/22/1955
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.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/10 16 votes
#2 - The Long Count
Season 3 Episode 22 - Aired 2/21/1957
After a cocky American boxer on a European tour is defeated by a French fighter, he is befriended by a beautiful cafe owner who tries to rouse him from the depression that threatens his career.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/10 11 votes
#3 - Payment for Judas
Season 3 Episode 39 - Aired 7/11/1957
When one of the ranchers resisting an unscrupulous railroad agent's efforts to buy them out breaks ranks and decides to sell, the other ranchers turn against him, his wife scorns him and her brother is murdered.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/10 20 votes
#4 - The Devil's Brood
Season 4 Episode 13 - Aired 12/5/1957
Two fugitives, hoping for a life of ease and respectability, leave for Australia to buy a sheep ranch, not knowing they're being followed by a blackmailer.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.7/10 28 votes
#5 - Night of Execution
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 9/22/1955
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.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/10 14 votes
#6 - Trail of Terror
Season 3 Episode 43 - Aired 8/8/1957
Murdered doctor had been researching a rare disease.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.5/10 20 votes
#7 - A Promise to Murder
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 11/17/1955
At his wealthy aunt's insistence, a rising young London barrister submits to having his palm read. The prophecies come true with alarming accuracy.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: N/A
- 7.2/10 30 votes
#8 - Scream in Silence
Season 4 Episode 17 - Aired 1/2/1958
Medical student tries to help depressed neighbor.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.1/10 15 votes
#9 - Trial by Fire
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 9/5/1957
A forest fire spreads with fury, threatens a town with destruction, and brands a boy a murderer.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.0/10 16 votes
#10 - The Fifth Wheel
Season 2 Episode 20 - Aired 2/9/1956
Two sports-minded priests, off for a fishing holiday, become involved with thieves, a stolen car and stolen money!
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: N/A
- 6.8/10 22 votes
#11 - Public Pigeon #1
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/8/1955
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 6.6/10 88 votes
#12 - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Season 1 Episode 34 - Aired 7/28/1955
Classic Stevenson tale of a scientist whose experiments into the duality of man transform him into the misshapen, murderous Mr. Hyde.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: Gore Vidal
- 6.6/10 12 votes
#13 - Jacob and the Angels
Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 10/3/1957
A criminal lawyer makes a desperate gamble to defend a boy charged with murder. Risking his career, his love, even his health, he faces an even greater terror when he finds his own guilty conscience is on trial.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 6.3/10 12 votes
#14 - The Long Goodbye
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/7/1954
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.
Director: William H. Brown Jr.
Writer: E. Jack Neuman
- 6.2/10 17 votes
#15 - Wild Stallion
Season 1 Episode 31 - Aired 7/7/1955
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: DeWitt Bodeen
- 6.2/10 28 votes
#16 - The Lou Gehrig Story
Season 2 Episode 27 - Aired 4/19/1956
Baseball's ""Iron Horse,"" whose brilliant career was ended by a terminal illness, and who struggled valiantly against adversity.
Director: Fielder Cook
Writer: N/A
5.6/10 1,548 votes#17 - Casino Royale
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/21/1954
American spy James Bond must outsmart card wiz and crime boss LeChiffre while monitoring his actions. The first dramatization of a James Bond novel.
Director: William H. Brown Jr.
Writer: Charles Bennett
- 5.6/10 17 votes
#18 - The Louella Parsons Story
Season 2 Episode 23 - Aired 3/8/1956
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.
Director: John Frankenheimer
Writer: N/A
- 5.5/10 23 votes
#19 - An Error in Chemistry
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 12/2/1954
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.
Director: William H. Brown Jr.
Writer: David Dortort
- 5.1/10 39 votes
#20 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/1/1955
Huck and Jim once again embark on their adventure-filled trek down the Mississippi .
Director: N/A
Writer: DeWitt Bodeen
- 4.2/10 21 votes
#21 - The Disappearance of Amanda Hale
Season 3 Episode 33 - Aired 5/30/1957
An actress is plagued with dread before opening night when her leading man suddenly falls ill, a man follows her on her way to the theater, and she narrowly escapes injury from a falling sandbag.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/10 0 votes
#22 - The Thirteenth Chair
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/14/1954
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.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: Walter Newman
- NaN/10 0 votes
#23 - Sorry, Wrong Number
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 11/4/1954
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.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: N/A
- NaN/10 0 votes
#24 - The Gioconda Smile
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 11/11/1954
The death of his crippled wife causes upheaval for the husband and his mistress. Only his family friend believes in his innocence.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/10 0 votes
#25 - The After House
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/25/1954
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A