It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Best movie ever!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Usually when you delve into films this old and minor, its a slog through the ordinary. But every once in a while, you encounter something pretty radical.This is a story of an ersatz Sherlock Holmes played by Douglas Fairbanks (senior), and is framed by him as himself trying to sell the script.Within the story proper, we have two components. One is a spoof of Sherlock as a dope fiend, someone who literally cannot go more than 60 seconds without an injection. The second component is a reduced mystery involving drug smuggling and ending with the detective "Coke Ennyday" getting the girl. Both of these use the same comic devices involving the effects of cocaine, then legal.Its a bit tiresome after a while, but the thing continues to surprise with secondary comic effects that are quite clever. In fact, I enjoyed this more than the last twenty contemporary comedies I have seen. But then I am a particularly receptive audience because I take the detective form so seriously.The talent here is Tod Browning, from the era of "Intolerance." It shows. Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Douglas Fairbanks (as Coke Ennyday) is the world's greatest scientific detective. A comic "Sherlock Holmes", Mr. Fairbanks regulates his day with a special spinner-type clock - with hands for "Sleep," "Eat," "Dope," and "Drink." Obviously, given the name "Coke Ennyday", doping is his preferred activity, and cocaine his drug of choice. Police Chief Tom Wilson (as I.M. Keene) implores Fairbanks to investigate suspected opium smuggler A.D. Sears. Along the way, he meets fish-blower Bessie Love (her real name). Alma Rubens and Charles Stevens lend their support. All this, and written by D.W. Griffith and Tod Browning! Due to its subject matter, "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" has been elevated far above its worth. It is, nevertheless, fun. As the dope fiendish detective, Douglas Fairbanks hits the spot. **** The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (6/11/16) John Emerson ~ Douglas Fairbanks, Bessie Love, Allan Sears

What an amazing piece of history! Most people don't know that, yes, cocaine was in extremely wide recreational use in the years between 1900-1925. In fact it was something of an epidemic in the latter years of that period. The facts that hospitals were swamped with cocaine addicts and that as much as a 1/5 of some city populations were registered as addicted are lost to common historical knowledge.However this film, made by Tod Browning (the infamous creator of "Freaks"), has absolutely nothing negative to say about cocaine: Cocaine is funny, cocaine is fun, and cocaine lets you do superhuman things.Fairbanks, who was a coke addict in real life, stars in this film. It's funny simply for the fact that it's an unapologetic pro-drug comedy, though if you don't find that kind of thing funny, you won't find this movie interesting at all. In fact it seems like the movie was made on drugs, the titles go by so quickly that you'd have to be a member of Mensa just to read them without pausing. The plot is nonexistent, it's just a series of cheap drug gags, in the vein of Cheech & Chong had they lived in 1915.

One of the funniest movies ever (in my unhumble opinion) and must be seen to be believed. Modern "scientific" detective Douglas Fairbanks gets on the case of an opium smuggling gang and rescues the kidnapped girl from the gang's Chinese hideout.Contains what may be the first television shown in a movie.