Title: The Phantom Voice
Air date: February 6, 1938
Plot summary: Senator Durham, a politician that Lamont Cranston greatly admires, is on trial for corruption. Durham is accused of taking a bribe from a since-deceased mobster, one Mario Renaldi. Durham strongly denies the charges, but the prosecution produces what appears to be clinching evidence: a film taken with a hidden camera that shows Durham demanding a $50,000 payout from Renaldi in return for a construction contract.
Margo Lane thinks the film is convincing but Lamont disagrees. In fact, he tells her that with his lip-reading skills, he was able to see that Durham did not utter the incriminating statements he seemed to say onscreen. Lamont decides that The Shadow must pursue Anthony Vogel, the supposed concerned citizen who planted the camera in Durham's office. It turns out that Vogel is a crook, who doctored up a fake film with the help of one Hugh Wilson, an actor who's good at impressions.
Tropes:
- Almost Dead Guy: Vogel shoots Wilson, and then runs away. Unfortunately for him Wilson is Not Quite Dead and manages to linger long enough to make a recording, with The Shadow, explaining how the scheme was done. Wilson even manages to impersonate Durham's voice again, for the recording, before he croaks.
- Courtroom Episode: An innocent man is on trial for bribery, and The Shadow is determined to find the real bad guy.
- Frame-Up: Sen. Durham is the victim of a frame by Anthony Vogel, who altered the film and had Hugh Wilson record the incriminating statements in Durham's voice, for dubbing.
- The Mafia: A mobster named Mario Renaldi was the one who was trying to bribe Durham in return for a construction contract.
- Race Against the Clock: With Durham's defense getting a 24-hour stay to examine the film, The Shadow must spring into action and find the guilty party, before court reconvenes and Durham is convicted.
- Suddenly Always Knew That: The Shadow turns out to have made a study of "the way a man's jaw moves when he pronounces certain words", which is how he knows the film is a fake. Also, he finds himself grappling with a professional wrestler, who gets him into a chokehold... but he wins anyway, because the wrestler "didn't know one little hold that I learned in the Orient."
