Title: Murder in E-Flat
Air date: December 4, 1938
Plot summary: A group of young people are enjoying music at a swing club. Suddenly, a bomb goes off! A man in traffic angrily honks his horn. Suddenly, a bomb goes off! A plane takes off—yep, a bomb goes off. Other bombings follow, all with particularly ominous notes about the joy of silence or "symphony of silence."
With no leads on the bomber, the police do the only thing they can think of: tell everyone in the city to be quiet. Nerves stretch past the breaking point as the whole city is enveloped by silence. Meanwhile, tuning forks tuned to E-flat have been found at all the bomb sites. Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane investigate, scouring music stores around the city for people who have bought tuning forks. Finally they track the tuning forks to a deranged composer, Dr. Andre Bedaux.
Tropes:
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: Paperboys advertise their papers after a pilot is blown up while flying his plane.
- Flashback: Margo fainted, so after she wakes up Lamont tells her how he grilled Dr. Bedaux (as his "conscience") and found out where the other bombs were, in a scene that plays out in flashback.
- Laughing Mad: Dr. Bedaux is calm enough when Margo first arrives but he starts cackling with increasing intensity after revealing himself as the bomber.
- Mad Bomber: Dr. Bedaux, who has been leaving bombs all over the city with special triggers hooked up to E-flat tuning forks, because...well, no reason really other than he just doesn't like noise.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: Demented Dr. Bedaux plays his "Symphony of Silence" on an organ.
- Police Are Useless: Well naturally it wasn't the cops who found that particular music shop and traced the tuning forks to Dr. Bedaux.
- Time-Passes Montage: Lamont and Margo go through several unsuccessful interviews before finally finding the right shop.
