Struggle with Death, April 11, 1954

(This is one of the episodes that may not exist any longer in recorded form. The following is based on a script of the episode.)

Elsie is a greedy young woman; Roger is Jim's best friend until he met Elsie; Bill is a vendor; Mary is a mentally disturbed young woman; Hazel is Mary's aunt.

The opening is as follows:

The Shadow, who aids the forces of law and order, is, in reality, Lamont Cranston, wealthy young man-about-town. Several years ago, while in the Orient, Cranston learned a strange and mysterious secret...the hypnotic power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him. Cranston's friend, Margot Lane, is the only person who knows whom the voice of the invisible Shadow belongs to.

(Note: the script uses the spelling Margot rather than Margo.)

Elsie is planning on leaving her husband, Jim Reynolds. She wants the wealth of her husband's parents and is leaving since she can't get that wealth right away.

He agrees to go and get a ruby that supposedly belongs to him and give it to her and, if he does, she says she won't leave him.

A guy named Roger shows up and apparently he and Elsie were supposed to run off together. She tells him she plans to stay, though. On the train, Mary talks to Bill (the vendor) and it's obvious she has mental problems.

Then the play jumps to a scene where the police commissioner, Margo, and Lamont Cranston are talking with Reynolds. Apparently Elsie was murdered on the train. She was killed while he was off getting her the ruby she wanted, but since he can't prove he was at his parent's house, he is a prime suspect in Elsie's death.

Reynolds claims the ruby was stolen from him. Lamont and Margo plan to look into the matter. Roger Small later talks to Lamont. He's very concerned about his friend, Reynolds.

A commercial would have been next, but the script only says a commercial, so it could have been for any of several products advertised in the 1954 series.

Mary is in a house not far from Lamont's apartment, and she's arguing with her aunt. Apparently Mary is the one who stole the ruby; she's a kleptomaniac.

Lamont and Margo are on the train talking to Bill, the vendor. Bill gives them a compact Mary traded him for some sandwiches. Lamont can recognize the school that it's from.

(Another commercial)

An announcer summarizes a rather large amount of action, indicating the play's probably been shortened from plays in the late thirties, and with more commercials added. Anyone, Lamont and Margo have set up something to try and bring Mary to them. Roger shows up again.

Mary says she never saw Reynolds on the train. She's given her compact back, but Lamont tells her she's taken Roger's wallet.

(Another commercial)

Lamont gives Roger back his stolen wallet and tells him about Mary and how he thinks she stole the ruby and could prove Reynolds was on the train after all and thus could not have killed his wife.

Lamont says he'll tell the police commissioner who can get a search warrant for Mary's place and find the ruby, then get her to admit she saw Reynolds on the train.

Small goes to talk to Mary. He takes the ruby from her and twists her wrist, getting her to admit she took the ruby from Reynolds. He starts to wrap a rope around her neck when he hears the voice of the Shadow.

The Shadow accuses Roger of killing Elsie and he admits that he did. The Shadow gets him to drop the rope just as the police are arriving.

Margo and Lamont talk about what happened, and the episode ends.

(It seems to me that the Shadow was only in the episode for a very, very short time, much less than in the recorded shows that I have listened to so far. Maybe the increase in commercials and the decrease in the Shadow's usage is due to the show nearing the end of its run, but that's just a guess on my part.)

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