Title: Village of Doom
Air Date: October 15, 1939
Plot summary: Lamont and Margot are off picnicking in the country, and having a tough time of it—a stray dog carries their chicken away, a boy chasing after the dog comes barreling through and steps in their salad, and Lamont can't get the jar of olives open. Lamont is breaking out the sandwiches when Margot asks him to turn on the radio. He almost immediately hears an appeal for The Shadow! It seems a town called Old Mill is having a series of mysterious deaths. The town is emptying out as citizens flee in panic, but those that remain make a public announcement over the radio begging for The Shadow's help.
Naturally Lamont and Margot hotfoot it to the town of Old Mill. They are too late to prevent the latest death, that of the infant son of a man named Holly. The Shadow discovers a tiny prick under the baby's chin and realizes that the child was poisoned. Lamont and Margot stay for the night, and soon find their suspect: a creepy old lady named Mrs. Carstairs, who has a creepy talking bird, a jackdaw that keeps bleating about "Death!"
Tropes:
- Attack Animal: "Mrs. Carstairs" has trained "her" pet jackdaw to kill, coating its beak with a rare poison and sending it off to bite people.
- Book Ends: The opening scene has Lamont and Margot on a picnic, where Lamont tries and fails to open a jar of olives. The end scene has them back on their picnic, the case being closed, and Margot opening the jar of olives with ease.
- Clueless Mystery: The old lady with the jackdaw who is responsible for the murders isn't an old lady at all. "She" is actually a man named Matthew Carstairs, in disguise as a woman. At some point in the past Carstairs pressed an old family "feudal claim" that would have given him ownership of the whole town, but he lost his case in court, and now he's killing people in order to drive them out of the town. The thing is, the show gives no hint of this exotic motive until the end where Lamont just tells the whole story to Carstairs.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Naturally The Shadow doesn't hear a baseball game or a weather report or anything like that when he turns on the radio. Instead, he is almost immediately greeted by a public appeal from a small town that wants help from The Shadow.
- Death of a Child: The murder of the Holly infant gives urgency to Lamont's investigation.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Carstairs tries to sic his killer jackdaw on Lamont, but the bird bites him instead and he dies.
- Perception Filter: Lamont is in his Shadow disguise when he comforts Mrs. Holly and takes the baby from her to examine it. No one seems to think it peculiar that a dead baby is floating in mid-air, being held by an invisible man.
- We Interrupt This Program: The light music that Lamont hears when he first flips on the radio is almost instantly interrupted by a special bulletin, namely the public appeal from the town of Old Mill for help from The Shadow.
