Title: The Society of the Living Dead
Air date: January 23, 1938
Guest star: Dwight Weist (Commissioner Weston)
Plot summary: Newspapers break stories of a counterfeit passport ring. Margo Lane wonders why Lamont Cranston would take interest in a case that Scotland Yard and the State Department are all over, but Lamont mentions a connection to his broker, Henry Adams. Henry killed himself two weeks ago. Henry's business partner, one Ray Kelvin, is engaged to Henry's daughter Irene—and Ray is suspected of stock swindling. So what does that have to do with passports? It seems that Ray Kelvin has been connected with a man named Berger, who is believed to be involved in the fake passport ring.
So Lamont decides that it's a case for The Shadow. The Shadow follows Berger, who leads him to Kelvin. It turns out that Henry Adams isn't dead! Kelvin and Berger are holding Adams hostage, and trying to force him to sign a paper saying that he was the swindler, instead of Ray.
Tropes:
- Badass in Distress: The Shadow is stuck in a rapidly flooding tomb, and in fact would have drowned, if the police hadn't shown up in time to free him. (Of course, they only showed up in the first place because The Shadow had Margo Lane call them.)
- Drowning Pit: Kelvin traps Adams and The Shadow in the tomb, which he starts filling with a fire hose. The cops show up Just in Time.
- Faking the Dead: An unusual example of faking someone else's death. Ray Kelvin faked Adams' suicide, even obtaining a substitute corpse, while kidnapping the real Adams and attempting to get him to sign a false confession.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: After they rendezvous at Adams' family tomb (where they are holding Adams himself), Berger says "I'd give plenty to know where The Shadow is right now." Cue The Shadow's Evil Laugh, as he is in the tomb with them.
- Never Suicide: Lamont remarks that his broker Adams never seemed like the type to kill himself. Not only did Henry Adams not kill himself, he isn't even dead.
- Not What I Signed Up For: Berger, as it turns out, has been using IDs of dead folks to get fake passports, and he obtained a corpse from the morgue to substitute for Henry Adams. But he recoils at the prospect of murdering Adams and Kelvin has to force him at gun point.
- Stealing from the Till: Ray Kelvin was stealing from the brokerage, and he tried to pin it on his partner, Henry Adams.
- Title Drop: After telling Commissioner Weston that he, The Shadow, has wiped out the fake passport gang (which was taking IDs from dead people), The Shadow says "This is the end of the society of the living dead."
- Villain Ball: Kelvin has trapped The Shadow, Adams, and Berger in the tomb, which is filling with water. He seems to be getting away, and then he comes back, to savor The Shadow's death. The police show up and Kelvin is shot and killed.
