Title: Mansion of Madness
Air date: November 5, 1939
Guest star: Richard Widmark
Plot summary: Lamont and Margot are tooling around somewhere in the boonies in their car, when the car stalls out. They walk to the only building they can see, a creepy old castle. After being met by creepy castle's even creepier butler, they are introduced to the master of the house, Caldus Montersal. Montersal says that he's sorry, but the dark old castle doesn't have a phone, so they'll just have to wait until morning—and then there's a scream! The scream came from one Millicent Chanselford, the young lady who is the actual owner of the castle. Montersal says that Millicent is mentally ill and suffers from hallucinations, and a frightened Millicent raves about scary cats (she has a terror of cats) and vultures and generally comes across as unbalanced.
Cut forward an undetermined amount of time, and Lamont and Margot are at a competency hearing for Millcent Chanselford. Her uncle Caldus is trying to have her committed to an asylum, and Lamont and Margot have been called in to testify to Millicent's unbalanced behavior. It seems Millicent will be committed, but then her ex-boyfriend Richard suddenly starts yelling about how Millicent is being manipulated by Calder. The Shadow visits the judge and gets him to adjourn the hearing for 24 hours, after which The Shadow goes back to the castle to try and find out what's really going on.
Tropes:
- Evil Uncle: Caldus Montersal, who tries to drive his niece Millicent insane so he can gain control of her fortune.
- Gaslighting: How Chanselford is trying to drive Millicent insane. Among other things, he has Stevenson imitate the yowling of cats, after which he tells Millicent that she's imagining it.
- Haunted Castle: A spooky haunted castle with ghosts, the disembodied yowls of cats, and vultures cawing outside. It's all a hoax.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Montersal tries to run for it when the cops show up and goes down in a hail of bullets.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The judge at the competency hearing, who admits that he has no grounds to postpone the verdict for 24 hours, but agrees to do The Shadow a favor anyway.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Turns out everything at the castle, the ghosts and the hounds howling at the moon and everything, is part of a scheme by Montersal and his minion Stevenson to drive Millicent insane.
- Time Skip: Presumably it must have been a while between Lamont and Margot's strange night in the mansion and the later competency hearing in which Montersal tries to have his niece committed.
