Friday's Favorite OTR

The Shadow: “The Giant of Madros” 5/16/48


This is an extremely entertaining story that is different than most Shadow episodes in terms of plot construction. It’s a sort of “The Shadow meets Die Hard” situation.


Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane are aboard a train that’s taken over by thieves and diverted along some little used tracks. The thieves are after a particular valuable object, but haven’t been able to locate it yet.


Cranston has to outfight and outthink the villains. One interesting thing is that he doesn’t become the Shadow until the very end of the episode, finally doing so only under very unusual circumstances. In the meantime, he and the gang leader try to bluff and double-bluff each other and Lamont gets some assistance from a surprisingly helpful old lady.


Episodes of The Shadow are nearly always good, but this one has the advantage of being significantly different from the show’s usual formula. And it’s fun to hear Lamont himself—rather than his invisible alter ego—get to do the bulk of the heroic stuff.