The secret of the flying fish

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Movie
German title The secret of the flying fish
Original title The Mystery of the Leaping Fish
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1916
length 2 reels, 600 meters, at 20 fps c. 26 minutes
Rod
Director William Christy Cabanne, John Emerson
script Death Browning
production Triangle Film Corporation
camera John W. Leezer, Karl Brown (Assistant)
cut Benjamin F. Zeidman
occupation

The Secret of the Flying Fish is the German title of the silent American two-act film The Mystery of the Leaping Fish , which William Christy Cabanne and John Emerson realized in 1916 based on a screenplay by Tod Browning for Triangle Film Co. under the artistic direction of DW Griffith . Anita Loos wrote the subtitles. Douglas Fairbanks played the main role of the eccentric private detective 'Coke' Ennyday, who owes his nickname to cocaine use . The character is interpreted as a parody of Sherlock Holmes , who also resorted to intoxicants to inspire his acumen.

action

In this unusually hearty comedy film, the acrobatics lead actor Fairbanks plays the private detective 'Coke' Ennyday, who injects cocaine and is designed as a caricature of Sherlock Holmes. He wears a belt with hypodermic syringes over his chest like an ammunition belt and repeatedly and generously uses a round can with the inscription “Cocaine” on his desk that is the size of a hat box.

Fairbanks also caricatures Holmes with his diced detective's hat, coat, and even his car, all of which are diced, along with the aforementioned tendency of injecting cocaine as soon as he feels uncomfortable for a moment and then forward Desire to laugh out loud. On top of that, he observes visitors standing in front of his door, as if through a television camera through a "scientific periscope" as the subtitle calls it, and divides the time into "sleeping", "eating", on a clock-like scale on the wall, "Drink" and "Stuff" a.

The film shows a frivolous and funny attitude towards the use of cocaine and opium tincture by 'Coke' Ennyday, but condemns the smuggling of opium as the Asian gangsters in the film do. Ennyday uncovered their hustle and bustle, which they camouflaged with a laundromat, for the police: they transported the drug in the eponymous "Flying Fishes", patented rubber swimming animals that a girl inflated for bathing customers. She is blackmailed and kidnapped by a stranger who desperately wants to marry her. But Ennyday also solves this case. He frees the girl from her captivity in Chinatown and brings down the smugglers' gang. And of course he also eagerly tastes the opium he has captured.

background

The film started by W. Christy Cabanne, but it was kicked out of production. John Emerson was hired in his place and he completed the film with the support of Tod Browning. John W. Leezer photographed the film, Karl Brown was his assistant on camera. Benjamin F. Zeidman did the editing. The film premiered in America on June 11, 1916. It was shown in France under the title Le mystère du poisson volant and was also shown in Hungary, where it was called A hal rejtélye .

reception

Fairbanks did not shy away from slaughtering "Sacred Cows" in his films; this included drug use in America during the First World War, especially among the nouveau riche and film people. Not only because of the subject matter, the film was Fairbanks' last two-act, but also because from then on it could appear in full-length films. Today The Mystery of the Leaping Fish has become a kind of cult film because it deals with the topic of drugs in a humorous way. Fairbanks, on the other hand, did not like the film and is reported to have even wanted it to be taken out of distribution.

The film is quoted in episode 2 of the documentary series Birth of Hollywood . The MOM Museum of Modern Art in New York City displayed a restored 35mm copy of the film on January 10, 2009.

The Mystery of the Leaping Fish is included in the DVD edition “Douglas Fairbanks: A Modern Musketeer” from edition filmmuseum (box with 5 DVDs and a booklet with texts on the films by Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta), which Brian Peterson organized .

literature

  • Eileen Bowser, Paolo Cherchi Usai (Eds.): The Griffith Project. Volume 9: Films Produced in 1916–1918. British Film Institute, 2005, ISBN 1-84457-097-5 , p. 103. (English)
  • Janet Farrell Brodie, Marc Redfield (Eds.): High Anxieties. Cultural Studies in Addiction. University of California Press, 2002, ISBN 0-520-22751-4 . (English)
  • Mark Griep, Marjorie Mikasen: Reaction! Chemistry in the Movies. Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-532692-5 , pp. 220, 328. (English)
  • Phil Hardy: The BFI Companion to Crime. University of California Press, 1997, ISBN 0-520-21538-9 , pp. 169, 254. (English)
  • Thomas Leitch: Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone with the Wind to The Passion of the Christ. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8018-9187-8 , p. 213. (English)
  • Paul Manning: Drugs and Popular Culture in the Age of New Media. Verlag Routledge, 2013, ISBN 978-1-317-97466-6 , pp. 42, 85. (English)
  • John Markert: Hooked in Film. Substance Abuse on the Big Screen. Scarecrow Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-9131-9 , pp. 15–16, 319–320 (English)
  • Thomas G. Plante (Ed.): Abnormal Psychology Across the Ages [3 volumes]. Verlag ABC-CLIO, 2013, ISBN 978-0-313-39837-7 , p. 159. (English)
  • Marty Roth: Victorian Highs. Detection, Drugs and Empire. In: JF Brodie, M. Redfield (Eds.): High Anxieties. 2002, p. 85 f.
  • Merrill Singer, J. Bryan Page: Social Value of Drug Addicts: Uses of the Useless. Left Coast Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1-61132-118-0 , p. 128 (English)
  • John T. Soister: American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929. McFarland Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7864-8790-5 . (English)
  • Jeffrey Vance, Robert Cushman (Eds.): Douglas Fairbanks. Photos by Robert Cushman. Contribution: Tony Maietta. University of California Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-520-25667-5 , pp. 35-36, 364. (English)

Web links

Commons : The Secret of the Flying Fish  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. in Arthur Conan Doyle ’s story “The Sign Of Four” (1890), Holmes takes cocaine, also in “The Man with the Twisted Lip” (1891), cf. Roth pp. 85-86.
  2. "the name" Coke Ennyday "is play on Craig Kennedy, the American version of Holmes who debuted in the December 10 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine," is claimed on answers.com ; on Craig Kennedy cf. en.wiki Craig Kennedy
  3. the deerstalker , cf. en.wiki Deerstalker
  4. The American stage actor and playwright William Gillette brought his great theatrical success “Sherlock Holmes” into the cinemas as a film in 1916, cf. Vance p. 36, imdb.com , on the piece cf. en.wiki Sherlock Holmes (play)
  5. The trade in and consumption of narcotics such as cocaine and laudanum had come into the focus of the authorities since the Harrison Act of 1914 and began to be socially ostracized: “Cocaine was a controlled substance in the United States after the passage of the Harrison Act of 1914. Drug abuse was still widely considered a social indiscretion in 1916 ” , cf. Vance p. 36.
  6. “getting married” is just a euphemism for rape, according to Markert p. 16
  7. cf. Soister pp. 159-160, Vance p. 36
  8. cf. Vance p. 36
  9. cf. en.wiki BF Zeidman
  10. cf. imdb.com
  11. cf. Markert S. 16: “... the period around WWI was when cocaine was reinvented. The nascent film industry spurned the first millionaires originating from among the masses. Ordinary folks suddenly had more money than they knew what to do with, and on the back of untrammeled wealth ... came sex and drug scandals ”
  12. cf. Announcement from Stephan von Bothmer “Your vision of drug intoxication is completely absurd, cult and in a class of its own” at stummfilmkonzerte.de and comment from Janiss Garza “It had a small cult revival in the early '70s because of its brazen displays of drug usage ” At answers.com
  13. cf. Vance & Cushman, p. 36.
  14. by Paul Merton, broadcast on June 3, 2011 on BBC Two, cf. en.wiki Birth of Hollywood (English, accessed July 10, 2014)
  15. cf. edition-filmmuseum.com