Title: Murder by Rescue
Air date: December 11, 1938
Plot summary: Prof. Claude Mitchell and his wife Ellen are guardians to Claude's nephew, Warren. Warren is a month shy of his 21st birthday and when he reaches it, control of the Mitchell family fortune will go to him and Claude and Ellen will be left dependent on Warren's charity.
Claude and Ellen do not like this, so they have devised a murder plan. Claude, an expert in hypnotic conditioning, has trained Warren to go into trance at the sound of a car motor. Warren knows well a family story of how his grandfather saved his mother from getting run over by a car when she was a child. When Warren takes his usual walk by the road, the sound of an approaching car will send him into a trance. Claude and Ellen have rigged up a doll, made to look like Warren's mother as a child, that they will dangle in front of the approaching car. An entranced Warren will attempt to save the "little girl" and be fatally struck and killed by a car.
What Claude and Ellen don't count on is Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane being their next door neighbors while Lamont and Margo stay in his summer house. Prof. Mitchell's oddly twitchy behavior and Warren's bizarre reaction after Lamont and Margo offer him a lift cause The Shadow to find out what is going on.
Tropes:
- As You Know: Tons of this in the opening scene as Claude and Ellen tell each other stuff they already know about how Claude's an expert scientist and Warren's their nephew and the family money all goes to him.
- Evil Uncle: Claude, plotting the death of his naive and trusting nephew.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: A clock in the Mitchell house tolls midnight as Warren goes off on what's supposed to be his fatal stroll.
- Hypno Fool: Warren is programmed to go into trance at the sound of a car engine, and to try and save a little girl in danger of being run over.
- Inheritance Murder: Claude and Ellen's motive, to take control of the family fortune.
- Laser-Guided Karma: At the end, Warren decides to let his aunt and uncle escape. This is immediately followed by Claude and Ellen losing control of their car and driving off a cliff to their deaths.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Claude's plot, to engineer Warren's death in what seems like a hit-and-run.
- Villain Opening Scene: The first scene is Claude and Ellen scheming, talking about their plot.
