"The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" is a movie I wasn't able to follow at all from one scene to another, or even from moment to moment, but I enjoyed it nevertheless due to its madcap performance of Douglas Fairbanks and its satire of drug use.
Fairbanks plays a Sherlock Holmes parody named Coke Ennyday, which proves to be an apt title as he spoons powder from a drum on his desk marked COCAINE and wears a belt of syringes across his abdomen. He is a "scientific detective", tasked with discovering the titular mystery of leaping fish, which seem to be people paddling around on inflatable rubber flotation devices. I didn't really get this.
Fairbanks shows off some of his trademark athleticism in a scene where he climbs up on a rafter in the roof to hide from a group of people. He also appears very jittery, practically vibrating like a broken washing machine, even after helping himself to a container marked OPIUM. This made me wonder if the filmmakers were ignorant of the effects of that particular substance, or if they just assumed the audience to be.
Fairbanks plays a Sherlock Holmes parody named Coke Ennyday, which proves to be an apt title as he spoons powder from a drum on his desk marked COCAINE and wears a belt of syringes across his abdomen. He is a "scientific detective", tasked with discovering the titular mystery of leaping fish, which seem to be people paddling around on inflatable rubber flotation devices. I didn't really get this.
Fairbanks shows off some of his trademark athleticism in a scene where he climbs up on a rafter in the roof to hide from a group of people. He also appears very jittery, practically vibrating like a broken washing machine, even after helping himself to a container marked OPIUM. This made me wonder if the filmmakers were ignorant of the effects of that particular substance, or if they just assumed the audience to be.