Mystery of the Leaping Fish - Cocaine-using "Scientific Detective" - Coke Ennyday

Here's a bit of weirdness for our 'strange but true' files:

:7shirley7:

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This short, silent comedy is a bit of classic weirdness from 1916. Apparently it's quite well known, even considered a cult classic. The film is about a "Scientific Detective" using copious amounts of cocaine, an array of quirky gadgets and his not always quick wit to solve the mystery.

From Wikipedia..
"The picture stars Douglas Fairbanks as Coke Ennyday, a detective with a massive drug habit who resorts to cocaine at every opportunity; he jigs through the film looking unnaturally happy.

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."

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

To help the police he discovers a contraband of opium (which he eagerly tastes) transported with "Leaping Fishes", and the blackmail of a mysterious man who wants to marry the "fish blower" girl. Will Coke be able to free the girl?

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]



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