1:25:01
grossing $51,000 the first week
in Los Angeles, at two theatres.
1:25:08
It was the number one film
in New York City,
1:25:10
where its opening week gross
was $85,000,
1:25:14
the best the theatre had done in 12 years.
1:25:17
So encouraging were the returns, that
on August 23, four days after the opening,
1:25:22
Universal announced The Climax
as a sequel to Phantom,
1:25:25
reuniting the cast and production team.
1:25:28
Claude Rains was to return as
the phantom, along with Foster, Eddy,
1:25:32
director Arthur Lubin,
producer George Waggner.
1:25:36
Excited by the prospect, Eddy clipped the
trade announcement for his scrapbook,
1:25:40
scribbling "Looking forward"
in the margin.
1:25:43
As an aside, you'll notice here
the blonde wig the maid is carrying
1:25:47
suggests something that has not been
hinted at before, and the white gown.
1:25:51
Christine has just debuted
as Marguerite in Faust,
1:25:54
and we'll see some more evidence
of that later.
1:25:57
The opera maybe could not be cleared,
but Lubin knew the value of the image.
1:26:03
By October 1943, trade papers
cited story troubles and blared
1:26:08
"Eddy out, Bey in"
as Turhan Bey signed on to The Climax.
1:26:12
Arthur Lubin was still set to direct, but
Claude Rains' availability was in question.
1:26:17
The day after Phantom wrapped, he
signed a contract with Warner Brothers,
1:26:21
and he was more keen to make
a picture like Passage to Marseille
1:26:25
than Return of the Phantom.
1:26:30
By November, The Hollywood Reporter
said that there would be
1:26:33
"no sequel to Phantom".
1:26:34
The Climax went ahead,
in Technicolor, on the same sets,
1:26:39
under the direction of its producer,
George Waggner,
1:26:41
with Susanna Foster as a diva menaced
by theatre physician, Boris Karloff.
1:26:46
Though similar, The Climax failed
to duplicate Phantom's popularity.
1:26:50
Almost from the beginning,
The Phantom proved rife for rip-offs,
1:26:54
parodies and remakes.
1:26:56
Claude Rains appeared on Fred Allen's
radio show in February 1943,