Title: Guest of Death
Air date: December 18, 1938
Plot summary: A guard named Keezy gives a prison tour. He escorts his guest into the death house, then half-cajoles, half-bullies the man into sitting in the chair. Then Keezy throws the switch!
As it turns out, this is the second time that someone has died on the jailhouse tour. The cops are beside themselves but, naturally, never think to question what the guy giving the tours is up to. No, that falls to Lamont Cranston, who, despite Margo Lane's entreaties, decides to take the tour himself. Sure enough, Keezy straps Lamont into the chair and throws the switch yet again. Has The Shadow met his end? (No.)
Tropes:
- As You Know: Keezy's guest asks what a certain building is, and Keezy tells him it's the death house. Then after they go there the guest asks again.
- Driven to Suicide: Keezy kills himself rather than go to prison.
- Fright Deathtrap: Done to normal, healthy people! The unlikely ending has Lamont tell Margo that the chair wasn't even hooked up, but that Keezy induced a "fear hypnosis" and his victims seemed to die of a heart attack.
- Police Are Useless: The cops sure are lackadaisical about two people dying on prison tours in short order.
- Villain Opening Scene: The first scene has Keezy taking a visitor into the death house, maneuvering him into the chair, and (supposedly) electrocuting him.
- Wolves Always Howl at the Moon: Well fine, it's just a regular old dog. But the howling of a dog as Keezy comes home after supposedly murdering Lamont Cranston just makes things spookier.
