“The Insidious Serpent” was one slam-bang adventure on The Shadow radio program. It was performed live on Sunday, April 2, 1950, and sadly no recordings are known to exist. You just had to be there, at the time, listening on your radio. And this is what you would have heard:
The program opened as so many other Shadow programs had, to the stirring music of Omphale’s Spinning Wheel and the voice of Bret Morrision speaking the time-honored lines: Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!
Announcer Andre Baruch segued into a mercifully quick 30-second commercial for the automatic Blue Coal burner, and then introduced The Shadow. It was the same introduction, with virtually no change, that had been used on The Shadow for years. “The Shadow, who aids the forces of law and order…” yada, yada, yada. Yeah, we know. “Years ago in the Orient…” .”..hypnotic power,” “the lovely Margo Lane…” And then, finally, “Today’s drama… The Insidious Serpent.”
Okay! Now we’re talking! The preliminaries are over, and now it’s time to get down to the good stuff. Unconsciously, you draw a little closer to your radio. Your ears miraculously filter out all the other sounds in the house. All you hear is the music as the story opens, that and the pound of jungle drums and the chant of natives.
Haiti, land of mystery
Deep in the hill country of the island of Haiti, flaming torches light up the night sky as the natives practice their secret, age-old, jungle worship. Now, as the celebration reaches a feverish peak, the unseen figure of a white man steals into the inner temple of The Serpent God, where the high priest stands in meditation before the stone replica of a snake.
Charles Slater, an American importer, has interrupted the sacred rites. He has defiled the holy of holies and entered the forbidden temple. He demands a rare scroll that is guarded by the stone idol of the serpent. The priest, under the threat of a gun, removes the sacred parchment, hundreds of years old, from the image’s mouth and hands it to Slater. He is warned: whoever touches the scroll will suffer the wrath of the god!
You listen in awe as the story unfolds. You can hear the fluttering sounds of the dancing flames from the torches, the chanting of the natives, the hypnotic beat of the drums… and the hiss of a snake as it strikes!
The image of the stone idol has come to life! It has struck the priest. Poison from its living fangs courses through his veins. With his dying words, he places a curse upon the soul of this American who has defiled the temple. His life will be a living nightmare. He will never again know a happy day!
Charles Slater awakes from his nightmare, lying in his bed, safely in Manhattan. He has been forced to relive this terrifying ordeal ever since he stole the sacred scroll in Haiti. His wife, Marjorie, tries to comfort him, but he is inconsolable. He tries to assure her that it’s just a senseless, crazy dream. But then he discovers two red marks on the inside of his wrist… just like the fang marks of a snake! They fade away before his unbelieving eyes.
Marjorie tries to convince him to see a doctor, but he doesn’t trust doctors. There is only one man he trusts. Lamont Cranston!
That afternoon, Cranston and Margo Lane visit the home of the Slaters. Cranston is convinced the disappearing fang marks are a hysterical reaction to the dreams that Slater has been having. Slater is of the opinion that the dreams are being aggravated by a painting he has seen in a shop window. He passes it every day on his way from work. It is a painting of a snake with burning eyes which seem to draw him hypnotically.
The curious curio shop
Cranston determines to make a visit to that curio shop on West Fourth Street, and see that painting for himself. Slater takes Cranston and Margo to the shop which specializes in West Indian objects of art, but the painting is no longer in the window. Cranston sends a confused Charles Slater home, while he and Margo enter the shop to investigate further.
It’s a strange, dusty little shop, filled with weird figures… examples of voodoo art. Their nerves are already on edge when they are confronted by a giant of a man dressed in native costume. The slow-witted gargantuan tells them the proprietor is busy, and they must leave. They are nearly forced out the door when Florian Noel, the shop owner, appears and dismisses his gigantic servant. Juando is his name, by the way.
Cranston explains the purpose of their visit, but Noel denies having any such snake painting. There has never been such a thing on display in his window. He’s quite adamant, and Cranston realizes it will take more than a normal interrogation to shake his story. This is a job for The Shadow!
Not much later, Florian Noel is visited in his back room by the unseen menace to evil, The Shadow. Under pressure from the invisible crimefighter, the shop owner finally confesses that he lied to Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane. He does own a painting of the sacred serpent, but was seeking to keep it out of Slater’s hands, fearing he would destroy it.
It’s night time as Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane return to the Slater home. Marjorie Slater greets them at the door. She’s frantic. Her husband has locked himself in the library, and the sound of voodoo drums can be heard coming from within. There is a muffled shout. A harsh scream! Something dreadful is taking place behind that locked door!
And it’s time for a commercial.
You sit back in your chair, your rapidly beating heart begins to slow as Andre Baruch takes a minute to extol the virtues of the automatic Blue Coal burner. It costs far less than gas or oil. Hmmm… well, that sounds pretty good. And Blue Coal offers one big advantage no other type of fuel can give: constant, dependable, healthful heat. Healthful? Gas or oil heat isn’t healthful? While you ponder that, Andre Baruch finishes up his spiel and we’re back to today’s story.
Act Two
You lean back in toward the speaker of the radio, as you listen to the beginning of act two. Inside that locked library, Charles Slater can be heard shouting, “The Serpent God! Save me from him! Help me!” Cranston puts shoulder to door and breaks it down. Inside, Slater is huddled in a corner. A giant snake weaves closer and closer to him. Cranston whips out his gun and shoots. (I’m guessing this is one of the infamous .45 automatics that the pulp version of The Shadow carries.)
The snake disappears. Did Cranston miss? Did the snake slip out the half-open window? Or is there something mystical going on here? Cranston and Margo decide to go outside and check the grounds, while Marjorie takes her nearly-hysterical husband upstairs to get some rest.
A bit later, Marjorie is back downstairs. She enters the study to find Florian Noel, the curio shop owner, waiting for her. What’s this? As you listen to them talk, you realize they are in cahoots. They are romantically involved, and are plotting against her husband. But, wait a minute. Maybe she’s more interested in him than he is in her. Some sort of one-sided affair. She’s talking about them marrying, but he’s not having any of it. It’s pretty obvious he’s just been using her, and she was foolish enough to fall for a sadistic egomaniac.
She angrily reaches for the phone. A woman scored, and all that stuff. She’s calling the police. Florian Noel grasps her by the throat and squeezes. And we can add another death to this story. “Never mind, operator.”
The footprints of Juando
Now, while all this is going on inside, outside Cranston and Margo continue their search for the snake. And, also, for the person who was beating that native drum. In the beam of his flash, Cranston discovers footprints. Prints of bare feet… and large ones at that. The feet of Juando, Florian Noel’s servant Juando. Juando of the small brain and large muscles. And those bare footprints are heading back toward the house!
In his upstairs bedroom, a groggy Charles Slater is accosted by the evil curio shop owner, Florian Noel. Noel drags him down to the study, and shows him the dead body of his wife, Marjorie. He accuses Slater of killing his own wife while under the influence of hallucinations. It’s the curse of the Serpent God.
Ah, how the distraught Slater wishes he had never heard of the evil map. What’s this? A map? Florian Noel feigns ignorance and surprise. A map, you say? Slater explains. He got it in Haiti. A worthless souvenir, he thinks. But Noel knows better. He slyly offers to take the cursed map off Slater’s hands. He’ll return it to Haiti. Yeah, sure he will. You don’t trust him. You know he killed Marjorie Slater. But Slater trusts him and writes down the address of his importing warehouse where the ancient scroll is hidden, and the combination to his safe.
When Cranston and Margo return to the house, they find Marjorie’s body in the study and Charles gone. Cranston’s keen eyes detect the impression of a pencil point on the note pad lying on the desk. He is able to read the address and combination that Slater gave Noel. Cranston has Margo call Commissioner Weston for assistance, while he heads to the riverfront warehouse. It’s time for The Shadow to take a hand!
With a swirl of organ music, we are taken to Slater’s warehouse. Noel has retrieved the sacred scroll containing the mystery map, and he and Slater are about to leave. They are blocked by a lumbering form. Juando had arrived to stop them!
He demands the scroll. He knows that Noel has no intention of returning the old parchment back to Haiti. It is Juando’s sacred duty to return the map to his people. Noel fires his gun; Juando staggers, hesitates, then continues moving forward toward Noel. A second shot! But Juando will not be stopped. Slowed, maybe, but not stopped.
Noel’s gun is unexpectedly knocked to the floor by some invisible power. The disembodied voice of The Shadow calls out, “Stop!” His unearthly laughter confirms to Noel that The Shadow stands in this very room, veiled from human sight.
Noel tries to place the blame on Juando. The Shadow restrains the injured but still powerful Juando, to keep him from ripping the murderer to pieces. Noel hastily confesses. “Don’t let him go! He’ll kill me!” And he spills the beans, forthwith.
The story of the map
It seems that Florian Noel has been looking for this map for years. It reveals the hiding place of a fabulous treasure left by buccaneers. The priests of the hill natives of Haiti knew this, but kept the map hidden because they didn’t want their people to be torn by greed and murder. Slater had obtained the map, and the curio shop owner had conspired with Marjorie Slater to discover where her husband had hidden it.
The police are on the way. The Shadow vows that while the authorities hold Noel for the murder of Mrs. Slater, The Shadow will see that the map… and Juando… are safely returned to the peaceful people from which they came.
The music swells and in your mind, you can see the curtain falling. Another weekly exploit of The Shadow is concluded. You could turn off the radio now, but no. You sit through one more short plug for the Blue Coal tempmaster thermostat, just so you can hear the shuddery voice of The Shadow proclaim that The weed of crime bears bitter fruit… crime does not pay… The Shadow knows! As The Shadow’s ethereal laughter fills the room, you gradually turn down the volume, letting the eerie tones fade into nothingness.
The scriptwriter
Now, let’s give credit where credit is due, meaning the scriptwriter. This most excellent Shadow story was written by Edward J. Adamson. Adamson, who usually just went by Ed, began writing for radio after his service in the Army during World War II. He wrote scripts for Bulldog Drummond, David Harding, Counterspy, The FBI in Peace and War, and various others during the post-war period. Adamson’s Shadow scripts leaned more toward crime dramas and less toward the weird and horror genres, although “The Insidious Serpent” might be considered an exception. He wrote a whopping 49 scripts for The Shadow between 1948 and 1952. Unfortunately, recordings have survived for only three of his Shadow radio plays: “A Mask For Murder,” “Murder By A Corpse,” and “Unto Death Do Us Part.”
Adamson kept busy working in television in the ’50s through the ’70s on a virtual who’s-who of well-remembered series. A few of those included “Inner Sanctum,” “The Millionaire,” “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon,” “Lassie,” “Richard Diamond, Private Detective,” “The Untouchables,” “Bonanza,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “Mannix.” His final writing credits were on the updated 1995-2002 series of “The Outer Limits.”
Today, we fans of The Shadow tend to associate the radio show with its long-time sponsor, Blue Coal. The episode discussed here, “The Insidious Serpent,” was one of the last of the programs sponsored by Blue Coal. Two months later, Blue Coal dropped its sponsorship, and The Shadow continued on the air under the sponsorship of Grove Laboratories, makers of Fitch Dandruff Remover Shampoo.
No, you can’t hear a recording of this classic radio drama. It seems to be lost to the ravages of time, although perhaps someday, through some miracle, a recording of it will surface. But, barring that, you can still remember how The Shadow, master of other men’s minds, battled against the specter of “The Insidious Serpent.”
