Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)

This two-reel comedy, directed by John Emerson from a screen story by Tod Browning, stars Douglas Fairbanks as Coke Ennyday, a hopped-up detective who liberally avails himself of any drug that will help him solve his latest case. The surreal short features Bessie Love, Tom Wilson, Allan Sears, Alma Reubens, Charles Stevens and George Hall in support.

The film itself is a parody of super detective Sherlock Holmes, with Doug appearing as Coke Ennyday, the hopped-up detective who liberally avails himself of cocaine and a number of injections of another narcotic to assist him in his investigations. The film also stars a young Bessie Love as the object of A.D. Sears’ brusque attentions, who is himself a drug smuggler!

The film includes several detailed views of seaside piers, street scenes and location stores (we think in the New York area), serving as a great documentary glimpse back into another time. We have to wonder whether Coke Ennyday’s checkered automobile has survived intact somewhere, perhaps?

This DVD edition has been mastered from the 2003 restoration conducted by Lobster Films from a good to very-good 35mm print, with inserts from other prints. The source material moderately marred by emulsion scuffing, with dust, speckling, long vertical scratches, and other print flaws present.

The film is accompanied by a musical score arranged and performed on a Fotoplayer by Robert Israel.

Supplemental material includes a 32-page booklet with film notes by Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta; production stills and pressbook reproductions; an audio essay for A Modern Musketeer by Vance and Maietta; and a reproduction of Fairbanks’ first film contract. This boxset collection won an award at Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2009 for excellence.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .

The highlight of the supplemental section is the DVD premiere of a video transfer from a good to very-good 35mm print of Fairbanks’ bizarre comedy short The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916). The film has previously been available on a number of VHS tapes transferred from lousy 16mm reduction prints. The 35mm print is slightly speckled and lightly scuffed, but with a broad range of greytones and very-good image detail. The transfer is generously cropped and presented full-frame. The print does seem to be missing a few bridging snippets of footage and some intertitles slip by a little too quickly, but it is a pleasure to behold after years of viewing horrible 16mm copies.

This strange film is accompanied by an equally strange and spare score for acoustic guitar, trombone and bass composed by Larry Marotta.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

The film is likely accompanied by soundtracks compiled from preexisting music sources.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from ALPHA VIDEO through . . .

Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.