Title: The Red Macaw
Air date: October 3, 1937
Plot summary: Someone is pulling off a series of jewel robberies at rich people's parties. The rich ladies who wind up without their necklaces aren't able to give coherent accounts of what happened, because they were hypnotized. Commissioner Weston, because he is an idiot, decides that the guilty party must be the only person he knows with "the power to cloud men's minds," namely, The Shadow.
Commissioner Weston goes after The Shadow on the suggestion of one of the guests at the last party/robbery, one Ram Lai. Ram Lai is an Indian mystic who conducts seances where he summons the spirit of Shiva, which speaks through Ram Lai's talking pet macaw, Bareen. Lamont Cranston, because he's way smarter than the commissioner, quickly realizes that Ram Lai must be the guilty party.
Lamont sends Margo Lane to make Ram Lai's acquaintance, because Ram Lai is known to prey on upper-class women. Ram Lai sees through what Margo is up to, which requires The Shadow to rescue her. After fending off an attempt by Ram Lai to murder Margo that night, The Shadow decides to lay a trap for him at the scene of the next rich person's fancy party.
Notes: The audio performance of this episode is lost, but a script survives (and is the basis for this recap).
Tropes:
- Dramatic Irony: "I'm glad you're not trailing me," says Lamont Cranston to Commissioner Weston, after the commissioner lays out his theory that The Shadow is behind the string of robberies.
- Hanging Around: "An Indian strangler," one of "those who kill by rope," attempts to do this to Margo Lane. But Lamont is alert to danger, and stick his head out instead while also holding a gun. He fires a shot and the strangler, one of Ram Lai's minions, is forced to flee.
- Phony Psychic: Ram Lai claims to summon the spirit of Shiva through his pet macaw. It's all a trick, although he does have the hypnotic skill to make his victims forget what happened.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: Bareen, the eponymous red macaw, who supposedly speaks at Ram Lai's prompting. In fact it's simply Ram Lai throwing his voice.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Margo actually says "The reports of my death were somewhat exaggerated," after showing up at Mrs. Buckley's party. After Lamont foiled Ram Lai's attempt to kill her, he had the newspapers run stories that in fact she had been killed.
- Ventriloquism: Lamont explains to Margo that Ram Lai's talking parrot was actually just Ram Lai using "simple ventriloquism". Lamont did the same, causing the bird to seem to give the signal for the robbery, and summoning the police.
- Villain Opening Scene: This episode begins with a brief scene in which Ram Lai calls "the voice of Shiva" out through the macaw, and the macaw says "PUT YOUR HANDS UP ALL OF YOU."
