THE MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH (1916) – Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog may remember that I’m a geek for Silent Movies. Last week’s look at Douglas Fairbanks’ swashbuckler films from the silent era was so well received that I decided to post a review of Doug’s often overlooked “drug comedy.”
In this roughly 25-minute comedy short, Fairbanks played a detective named Coke Ennyday as a reference to Sherlock Holmes’ addiction to injections of cocaine in his original stories. Yes, I’m serious.
The short’s comedic approach to cocaine, opium and more demonstrates the “anything goes” attitude before film codes were implemented to ban certain content from the big screen. In the pre-internet years, The Mystery of the Leaping Fish was a film that people refused to believe existed until you had them sit down and watch it with you.
The notion of a theatrical comedy about drug use in 1916 seemed utterly impossible to them, and you could win a fair amount of bets with skeptics who insisted there is no way such a film would have been allowed to be made. The fact that it was written by THE Tod Browning shocked them, too.
THE STORY: Continue reading
Balladeer's Blog 