1950-1-22 The Ritual of the Hoof

Broadcast January 22nd 1950 on Mutual at 5:00 p.m. EST sponsored by D.L. & W. Coal Company "Blue Coal" and Grove Laboratories (Fitch Dandruff Remover Shampoo)

This is a lost episode and no recreation of it has yet been made. If you have a copy of the script please let me know.

Written by: Alfred Bester

Announcer: Andre Baruch

Cast: Bret Morrison (Lamont Cranston/The Shadow) Gertrude Warner (Margot Lane)

Music: Elsie Thompson

Synopsis:

When a connoisseur and dealer of lost art treasures believes he purchased the Devil’s Hoof, a five hundred year old manuscript that is rumored to bring Satan to Earth for the total destruction of mankind, he arranges a séance for members of high society and celebrates the ritual. After calling out the medieval Satanic rites, a tall, mysterious figure appears and murders Gus Sleik (the man who discovered the manuscript), complete with purple fire. Among the guests at the séance, Lamont and Margot set out to solve the mystery. After Faith’s secretary, Linda Crane, is murdered, Lamont discovers the manuscript was a fake. The man who created it, Dr. Mather of Salem, Massachusetts, conspired with Crane and Sleik to sell the paper and they double-crossed him, stealing the manuscript back after payment was made. When Gideon Faith uncovers the truth he almost becomes the next victim. The Shadow interferes and lures Dr. Mather, posing in the image of Satan, to his death at the top of a weak section of an ancient church. Mather used a bottle of purple poison to create the purple flames and burns on his victims. When the chapel altar collapses, Mather’s plunge is broken by an old stone cross, which then falls and crushes him to death.

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