Detective Coke Ennyday divides his time in periods of sleeping, eating, using drugs and drinking. His drug use makes him invincible. The secret service asks him to find out how Fishy Joe gets all his money. Soon Coke had traced the money down to a gang of drug smugglers. I myself doubt whether Coke Ennyday is the right man to lead this investigation, but when there is a girl in trouble, there is no longer any doubt about Coke's integrity.
Fairbanks started his successful career as an actor a year before the release of this film. Since the tempo in which silent films were made were back then much higher than is currently the case, 'The Mystery of the Leaping Fish' from 1916 was already his seventh film. Fairbanks is best known for his action films in which he did all his stunt work himself. Personally, I find it very unfortunate that so little use was made of his talent for comic timing. With this film he shows that he can certainly compete with big names like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
It’s a pity that Fairbanks was not satisfied with this film. It is even said that he wanted to prevent the movie from getting distributed. It is unclear whether this is really true and if so, why.
Bessie Love started her long and successful acting career in the same year as Douglas Fairbanks and this was also her seventh film. She has continuously played in films up to three years before her death in 1986. The roles were not always that big, but she kept being asked for big films like 'On her majesty's secret service' from 1969 and 'The Hunger' with David Bowie from 1983.
Tod Browning, later known for various horror films like 'Dracula' and 'Freaks', wrote the scenario for 'The Mystery of the Leaping Fish' when he was recovering from a number of serious injuries he had sustained in a car accident. Undoubtedly, the use of painkillers had an influence on how this Sherlock Holmes parody turned out. Drug use was not uncommon in the early 1900s. Many drugs were simply obtainable legally. When Browning was writing the script, the Harrison Act had just been implemented. This act ensured valuation, regulation and the production of opiates and coca products. And it would be another fourteen years after 1916 before the Hays Code, which had to watch over the standards and values in America, was introduced. The message; 'With drugs you overcome all obstacles' would certainly not be approved by the Hays Code. It would not take long before films like 'The Mystery of the Leaping Fish' would be banned.
The dialogues were written by Anita Loos. She started her successful career as a scriptwriter in 1912 and she was also the first person to be employed permanently by a production company. Fairbanks also owed his star status to her. Loos later wrote plays for Broadway and she also wrote several books, including 'Gentlemen prefer blondes' and 'But gentlemen marry brunettes'.
‘The Mystery of the Leaping Fish’ was directed by John Emerson. He mad sure that the film had a good pace and the editing was done just so that the talents of all the actors, especially those of Fairbanks and Love, would be fully appreciated. Emerson made Brownings' scenario an unforgettable film that reminds me a lot of the comedies with Leslie Nielsen from the 80s. Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance described the film as 'a hallucinogenic odyssey into the absurd ... '. And I wholeheartedly agree with that.
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