Title: The Shadow Returns
Air date: November 19, 1939
Guest star: Richard Widmark
Plot summary: Some shipping magnates convene to discuss a disturbing trend. Lately, a large number of sailors have been coming into port with severe infections that have required hospitalization. Fifteen have had arms or legs amputated, and four have died.
Cut to a ship at sea, where a cabin boy, Victor Payne, has had a reaction to a vaccination. Dr. Vadelaw, the ship's doctor, insists that he must operate on Victor's arm. Victor is reluctant and an old sailor calls Vadelaw a "butcher" and warns Victor against it, but Dr. Vadelaw insists.
Cut to Lamont Cranston and Margot Lane, on a ship back from vacation somewhere. It's the same ship that Victor and Dr. Vadelaw are on, and Lamont and Margot notice that the sailors are in a state of near-mutiny. Mr. Johnson, the sailor that warned Victor, actually strikes Dr. Vadelaw and is placed under arrest. Lamont insists on investigating and finds Victor, being held deep in the hold, with a horribly infected arm. When Dr. Vadelaw refuses even to let Victor be moved, Lamont springs into action.
Richard Widmark, future A-list movie star, voiced Victor.
Tropes:
- Back-Alley Doctor: Dr. Vadelaw was stripped of his license and is working on the boat on forged papers.
- Busman's Holiday: Yet again, Lamont Cranston can't go on a trip without having to solve a crime.
- Crash Course Landing: The surgical equipment thereof. With Victor obviously unable to wait until the ship makes it into port, Lamont performs emergency surgery, with some radio advice from a qualified doctor on a different ship.
- Driven to Suicide: With the angry crew pounding on the door and about to tear him limb from limb, Dr. Vadelaw shoots himself.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Lamont continues the operation and removes the ruby from Victor's arm even after he's been shot in the shoulder. (He does faint after the job is done, though.)
- Sea Stories: An evil doctor on a ship at sea is deliberately maiming sailors in his care.
- Treasure Chest Cavity: Is Dr. Vadelaw a weirdo with a fetish for lopping off limbs? No. It turns out that he was part of a smuggling ring. Whenever a sailor suffered any sort of reaction from a shot Dr. Vadelaw seized the opportunity to stick a jewel in them—Victor had a ruby in his arm. Once a sailor with an infection passed through customs his partners on land operated and removed the jewel, and if the sailor died or needed a limb amputated, too bad.
