Title: The Hypnotized Audience
Air date: March 27, 1938
Plot summary: An Indian "dancer and mystic", Sultan Durga Khan, arrives in the city to give a show. His performance is a big event that will include in the audience both Commissioner Weston and Governor Barnes. However, Durga Khan has an ulterior motive. His brother, Joseph Hakim, is in the death house at the penitentiary and is scheduled to be executed that very night. Durga Khan will use his hypnotic powers to kidnap the governor and get him to issue a 24-hour stay of execution for Hakim. That will allow time enough for a jail break that will liberate Hakim.
Unfortunately for Durga Khan, he does not count on the presence in the audience of Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow. Cranston, himself being a master of hypnotic skill with his "power to cloud men's minds", is able to resist the hypnotic spell that Durga Khan puts on everyone else in the theater, including Margo Lane. Thus Cranston is able to see the governor being kidnapped. Cranston, Lane, and (once they wake him up) Commissioner Weston go to the home where Durga Khan is staying, along with Hakim's wife Princess Zalda. They demand to search the place, and Durga Khan lets them in—but he again deploys his powers of hypnosis.
Notes: This was the first of 26 episodes of The Shadow that are sometimes referred to as the "summer series." After the original 1937-38 season sponsored by the Glen Alden Coal Company ended on March 20, 1938, the show continued on the air the very next week, now sponsored by Goodrich Tires. This episode also marked the debut of Margot Stevenson as Margo Lane, replacing Agnes Moorehead; Stevenson played the part for the entire summer series but Moorehead would return when Season 2 proper started.note
Tropes:
- As You Know: Durga Khan feels the need to tell Princess Zalda that "your husband is my brother," when they are discussing their plan.
- Catchphrase: This episode, and this season, were the first to use the iconic full catchphrase "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" In Season 1 the opening catchphrase was just the Evil Laugh and "The Shadow knows!"
- Chekhov's Gun: Lamont, Margo, and Commissioner Weston have to stop the car, with Lamont and the commissioner proceeding to Durga Khan's house on foot, thanks to a downed telephone pole. The fact that the pole has been downed later allows Margo to tap into the line and intercept the call to the prison, which is why Hakim winds up getting executed after all.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Surprisingly, Durga Khan does not use his hypnotic skills to turn Governor Barnes into a Hypno Fool and make him issue a stay. Nope, he uses good old torture, putting the governor onto the rack. (The Shadow arrives before the governor breaks.)
- Crazy-Prepared: The Shadow has a "telephone apparatus" in his car! Why? It sure does prove handy, however, as the conveniently downed telephone pole allows Margo to hook her apparatus onto the phone line and intercept the governor's call.
- Driven to Suicide: The plot to rescue her husband before his execution having failed, Princess Zalda kills Durga Khan, and then shoots herself.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Enraged at Durga Khan's failure and believing (with The Shadow's suggestion) that Durga Khan tricked her, Princess Zalda pulls a gun. Durga Khan demands that she put it down, saying "Durga Khan speaks!" The princess answers "Durga Khan speaks for the last time!", and then she shoots him.
- Villain Opening Scene: The episode begins with Durga Khan getting off the boat (and presumably through Immigration), meeting his henchman Ahmed and Princess Zelda, and talking about their plans for that night.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Stage One is thwarted! The plan is to get Hakim a stay of execution and then break him out of jail, but thanks to the quick action of The Shadow the execution goes on as scheduled.
