When Movies were Good...(sort of)
Movies before the "code" were pretty wild. THE site for pre-code movie addicts is Seraphic Secrets which had a piece today that linked to a "notorious" movie called The Mystery of the Leaping Fish which starred Douglas Fairbanks as.....(get ready) Coke Enyday, and they meant cocaine.....Enyday's bio:
Coke Ennyday, the scientific detective, divides his own time in periods for "Sleep", "Eat", "Dope" and "Drink"IMBD didn't like the movie but the synopsis might make it worth the 20 minute run time. The above pic is from today's bio on Coleen Moore (pictured). The "kid" in the still is the six year old Mickey Rooney.
Quick plot synopsis: Extremely bizarre spoof of Sherlock Holmes written by Tod Browning and an uncredited D.W. Griffith with Douglas Fairbanks in the lead. Detective Coke Ennyday (Fairbanks) spends all his time drinking booze, snorting cocaine and smoking pot but he gets a chance at a comeback when the flying fish shows up. Can you imagine a comedy where the hero spends all day snorting cocaine?
1 comment:
I actually saw the picture (30 years ago as part of a silent film festival). If you have the chance it's probably worth seeing for the sake of completeness, but I don't rate it highly on the "watch it again" scale. IIRC it had trouble deciding whether it wanted to be a straight mystery or a slapstick comedy. "Bizarre" is a good description.
The cocaine jokes anticipated Cheech & Chong... large clouds of white powder, etc. Example: Title card: "Full of Hop." Following shot: Coked-up Ennyday bouncing off the walls.
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