Title: The Old People
Air date: June 26, 1938
Plot summary: Two planes have disappeared somewhere in the vastness of the Amazon delta. A third plane goes on the same route to "the Argentine" when the pilot refuses to cancel his flight—and it too disappears.
This naturally is huge news as the airlines cancel their South American routes. The news attracts the attention of Lamont Cranston, who decides it's a job for The Shadow. So The Shadow and Margo Lane get the airline to send another plane. The plane is misdirected by a faked radio beacon from Argentina, with The Shadow realizing what is going on but taking the bait anyway.
The plane lands and our heroes discover a most unusual villain: Dr. Edward Freeman. Dr. Freeman has been luring airplanes into his base in the jungle, where he injects the people on the planes with a Rapid Aging serum. Why? Because Dr. Freeman doesn't like to be made fun of for being old, that's why. (Really.)
Tropes:
- Badass in Distress: The Shadow may be invisible but he is still corporeal, and Dr. Freeman is able to grab him. Dr. Freeman nearly crushes him to death before Margo sics the old people on the doctor and The Shadow is able to escape.
- Bittersweet Ending: Dr. Freeman is killed when his lair collapses, but so are all the old people. Lamont pretty casually blows this off, saying that it's more merciful, what with the old people not just being old but also being reduced to a childlike imbecility.
- Captain Obvious: The Shadow pays a visit to Superintendent McWade, to get him to authorise a flight into South America. When McWade asks where his voice is coming from, he's given a laconic answer:The Shadow: As my name implies, Mr. McWade, I'm in the shadows.
- Collapsing Lair: Dr. Freeman's self-destruct device goes off and his lair explodes, as The Shadow, Margo, and the pilot make their escape.
- Did Not Think This Through: The Shadow goads Dr. Freeman into taking his embiggening potion, because making him a giant without increasing the intelligence-governing portions of his brain will make him a moron. Sure, but it also makes him an incredibly strong giant, who manages to grab The Shadow and nearly crushes him to death before the old people come to the rescue. Lamont admits afterwards to Margo that he "overestimated my strength."
- Evil Is Petty: That certainly is a radical reaction Dr. Freeman had, to being made fun of for being old.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: Newspaper vendors are heard hawking papers about the second plane disappearing. After the third plane disappears, they do it again.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Freeman is an insane scientist who is hijacking planes and turning the people aboard them old, basically For the Evulz. He also has devised a serum for turning people into giants, and has ambitions of ruling the world.
- Noodle Incident: Just how the heck did this situation even come into being? What is a scientist of phenomenal talent (completely crazy, but obviously talented) doing sitting in the Amazon jungle, luring planes in so he can make the people on them old?
- Rapid Aging: The grim fate of Dr. Freeman's victims. He injects them with a serum that turns them into doddering old folks, and just to make it even worse they have no memory of their pasts.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: Dr. Freeman has rigged up a self-destruct bomb that will blow up his lair on a two-minute time delay if he needs to make a quick getaway. The mechanism blows up the lair with Dr. Freeman in it.
