The inimitable Boris Karloff guest stars as the titular Gruesome, an escaped prisoner who is planning a daring bank robbery. The robbers use a gas that temporarily paralyses the bank’s employees and customers allowing them quick access and escape. Unfortunately for them, one customer, Tess Truehart (Anne Gwynne), is unaffected, and telephones Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) for help.

In this legendary dark masterpiece, Orson Welles stars as Franz Kindler, a horrific Nazi war criminal who has painstakingly erased all evidence of his identity. Edward G. Robinson plays Wilson, a War Crimes Commission detective who is determined to track Kindler down. Only one man, Kindler’s former ally Meinike, knows the true identity of the monster. The suspense build relentlessly as the chase reaches its nerve wracking conclusion.

To those around him he is Lamont Cranston (Rod LaRoque), debonair man-about town. Secretly he is the legendary Shadow, whose secret is known only to his loyal servant and companion Henry. This time he must find the killer of a rich “gentleman” whose long list of enemies included his heirs and an assortment of mobsters.