The Mystery of the Leaping Fish
This short, silent comedy is a bit of classic weirdness from 1916. Apparently it's quite well known, even considered a cult classic. But I hadn't heard of it before, so perhaps it'll be new to you too. Wikipedia offers this description:
In this unusually broad comedy for [Douglas] Fairbanks, the acrobatic leading man plays "Coke Ennyday," a cocaine-shooting detective parody of Sherlock Holmes, given to injecting himself from a bandolier of syringes worn across his chest, and liberally helping himself to the contents of a hatbox-sized round container of white powder labeled "COCAINE" on his desk.
Fairbanks's character otherwise lampoons Sherlock Holmes with checkered detective hat, clothes and even car, along with the aforementioned propensity for injecting cocaine whenever he feels momentarily down, then laughing with delight. A device used for observing visitors, which is referred to in the title cards as his "scientific periscope", bears a close resemblance to a modern closed-circuit television. What is apparently a clock face has "EATS, DRINKS, SLEEPS, and DOPE" instead of numbers.
The film displays a lighthearted and comic attitude toward Coke Ennyday's use of cocaine and laudanum, while he catches a gang of drug smugglers, he does so after consuming most of their opium. One of the actresses appearing, Alma Rubens, later became addicted to morphine and died young.
Fairbanks's character otherwise lampoons Sherlock Holmes with checkered detective hat, clothes and even car, along with the aforementioned propensity for injecting cocaine whenever he feels momentarily down, then laughing with delight. A device used for observing visitors, which is referred to in the title cards as his "scientific periscope", bears a close resemblance to a modern closed-circuit television. What is apparently a clock face has "EATS, DRINKS, SLEEPS, and DOPE" instead of numbers.
The film displays a lighthearted and comic attitude toward Coke Ennyday's use of cocaine and laudanum, while he catches a gang of drug smugglers, he does so after consuming most of their opium. One of the actresses appearing, Alma Rubens, later became addicted to morphine and died young.
Comments
The precursor to today's Backstrom.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 02/04/15 at 10:35 AM
Tod Browning, of Freaks and Dracula? He wrote this? Sorry if I missed it if you pointed that out already.
Posted by Jeremy M Brown on 02/04/15 at 12:24 PM
I was thinking more about Hemlock Stones, The Great Defective and his partner, Dr. Flotsam. Stones was always in search of a little "nose candy."
Posted by KDP on 02/04/15 at 05:12 PM
Most people refer to this as a Sherlock Holmes parody, but "Coke Ennyday" is a play on the name of the American detective character "Craig Kennedy"...who had recently been featured in the Pearl White serial, "The Exploits of Elaine." Of course, the character is little-known a century later and it's easier to say that the whole thing is a Holmes joke.
Still, Sherlock Holmes never had a closed-circuit TV in his waiting room, as parodied in "Leaping Fish"...and Kennedy did.
Still, Sherlock Holmes never had a closed-circuit TV in his waiting room, as parodied in "Leaping Fish"...and Kennedy did.
Posted by Paul Curtis on 02/04/15 at 08:36 PM
I love this!
I recommend you try to find a copy of "Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again" (1982). It's sort of a cross between this movie, the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, and The Nutty Professor. Much drugs, much slapstick.
I recommend you try to find a copy of "Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again" (1982). It's sort of a cross between this movie, the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, and The Nutty Professor. Much drugs, much slapstick.
Posted by Phideaux on 02/04/15 at 10:58 PM
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Category: Drugs | Movies | 1910s