Trama

Lamont Cranston (Rod La Rocque), amateur criminologist and detective, with a daily radio program, sponsored by the Daily Classic newspaper, has developed a friendly feud that sometimes passes the friendly stage with Police Commissioner Weston (Thomas E. Jackson). He complains to his managing editor, Edward Heath (Oscar O'Shea), over the problems that have developed in his department since Phoebe Lane (Astrid Allwyn) has been hired as his assistant. He is advised to forget it since she is the publisher's niece. During his broadcast about Honest John (William Pawley), a famous safe cracker who has served his time, Phoebe gives him a note that the Metropolitan Theatre is to be robbed at eight o'clock and she is so insistent that he adds it as his closing note. Off the air, he learns she got the information from a man she met in a café who had an honest face. Cranston goes to the theatre where Weston and his men have gathered and, of course, nothing happens but, across town, a safe is blown at the home of international banker Gerald Morton (John St. Polis) and the banker is killed. Cranston arrives there ahead of the police and discovers enough evidence to show him that it wasn't just a simple robbery with the banker accidentally killed. The irate Weston has him jailed as a material witness, but Phoebe comes through with a habeas corpus in time for him to make his broadcast. Honest John crashes into the studio with a gun and demands that Cranston exonerates him over the air from the police suspicion that he committed the robbery. Weston rushes to the studio but Honest John has escaped. Cranston takes Phoebe on a tour of night clubs hoping she will spot the man who gave her the robbery message. She does and Cranston poses as a new arrival from Europe and learns that the man is Flotow (Wilhelm von Brincken) and his companion is Starkov (Tenen Holtz'). They make a date for lunch the next day. While they are waiting for him to join them for lunch, Cranston breaks into Flathow's apartment where he meets Phoebe who also has had the same idea. A phone call is answered and Morton's butler says there is a meeting at the Morton home that afternoon.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Newspaperman Lamont Cranston is known for his crime busting daily column in The Star as well as his nightly broadcasts as "The Shadow" on the Star radio station. Though the public adores him and criminals fear him, police inspector Weston merely thinks of him as a thorn in his side. One night, when cub Star reporter Phoebe Lane, who happens to be the owner's niece, comes into the station with a story about an imminent robbery, The Shadow broadcasts the information. When he and the police arrive at the supposed robbery site, though, they find nothing, but soon hear that there has been an explosion elsewhere in town and decide to investigate. The explosion happened at the home of financier Gerald Morton, who was killed in what appears to police to be a robbery attempt on his safe. The Shadow doesn't buy the robbery theory, however, even though the modus operandi is that of famed safecracker "Honest John." To keep the Shadow out of his hair, Weston has him arrested as a material witness, but Phoebe and his driver Moe get him out of jail in time for his next broadcast. During the program, Honest John breaks into the studio and forces the Shadow at gunpoint to say that he is not the killer. The audience believes that the whole thing is a joke, but the Shadow still maintains John's innocence, even after he escapes from the studio. Meanwhile, Morton's brother Roger and his attorney come to the station to protest the Shadow's implication that Morton was involved in some crooked dealings. The next day, The Shadow helps Phoebe to recall that the man who told her about the bogus robbery had a Viennese accent. They go to Viennese restaurants looking for him and eventually discover the man, who is named Flotow. The Shadow poses as an Austrian baron and Phoebe poses as his wife. Though Flotow says that Phoebe looks familiar, she denies ever meeting him. After the Shadow turns down an invitation to Flotow's apartment, they agree to meet the next day for lunch. While The Shadow writes letters of apology to the police, at their behest, Flotow and his cohort Storkhov make plans to do away with "the Baron," whom they know to be The Shadow. At lunchtime, while Flotow and Storkhov await the Shadow, he searches Flotow's apartment and is interrupted by the eager Phoebe. Soon after a man with a German accent telephones the apartment, two men come to the door and confront Phoebe and the Shadow. They are saved just in time by Moe, who uses a cigarette case shaped like a gun to fool the thugs. Because the Shadow has been able to obtain incriminating evidence on the international financing of Germanic aristocrats, he writes a column saying The Shadow knows who the killers are and accuses the police of stupidity in handling the case, again angering Weston. As The Shadow leaves his office, Honest John confronts him in Moe's taxi, but reveals that he really has been trying to go straight and agrees to join forces with The Shadow to find the real killer. They go to Roger Morton's house, where Flotow and his friends confront Roger, ordering him to hand over bonds from the safe that he, and not his brother Gerald, had been handling for them. They try to convince Roger to kill himself, but he will not. A short time after the Shadow and Honest John arrive, followed by the police, who had been told by Phoebe of the Shadow's whereabouts, everyone is arrested, leaving The Shadow free just in time for his next broadcast.