Reviewing the episode for the New York Herald Tribune, John Crosby wrote, "this may have been the best television drama I have ever seen" (a fact he attributes equally to all parties concerned),[4] while Hollywood Reporter critic Milton Luban's equally emphatic thumbs-up focuses primarily on Brown's "beautiful directing job, from both performance and acting viewpoints, his crowd handling being masterful," and on O'Brien's "brillian[ce]."
O'Brien has turned in far too many brilliant performances to call this his best, but it certainly ranks close to it, [...] getting every nuance out of the role yet maintaining a certain inscrutability that keeps his motives a complete mystery until the bitterly ironic climax.[3]
Time magazine likewise singled out O'Brien's performance but deemed the story's climax "too forced and too trifling to support an hour show."[1]
^ abLuban, Milton (December 3, 1954). "TV Review: 'Climax! – An Error in Chemistry'". The Hollywood Reporter. p. 8. ProQuest2338182185. From the opening moment showing a carnival scene crowded with spectators, it was hard to believe that, apart from the spontaneity, this was a live production. William H. Brown, Jr., did a beautiful directing job ...
^Crosby, John (December 6, 1954). "RADIO AND TELEVISION: Great Drama". New York Herald Tribune. p. 21. ProQuest1322566286. The works of Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner seem wonderfully adaptable to television. I have seen two—the first, 'Barn Burning,' on the last of the Suspense programs [...] The other one was 'An Error in Chemistry' last Thursday night, and this may have been the best television drama I have ever seen.
