The Mystery Of The Leaping Fish

This short silent film from 1916 is a thinly veiled parody of the Sherlock Holmes series. Douglas Fairbanks stars as Coke Ennyday, a "Scientific Detective" with a cocaine habit. The film was released in 1916, a year before the Harrison Act that regulated narcotics came into force.



Directed by John Emerson, the story was written by Tod Browning, director of the notorious Freaks. Anita Loos wrote the film's intertitles.

Thanks Bruce!