The highlight of the supplemental section is the DVD premiere of a new transfer from a very good to excellent 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 graytones and excellent 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. 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!

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

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

Other silent era Douglas Fairbanks films available on DVD home video:
American Aristocracy (1916)
The Black Pirate (1926)
Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925)
The Gaucho (1928)
The Habit of Happiness (1916)
His Picture in the Papers (1916)
The Iron Mask (1929)
The Man from Painted Post (1917)
Manhattan Madness (1916)
The Mark of Zorro (1920)
Robin Hood (1922)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
The Three Musketeers (1921)
Wild and Woolly (1917)

Douglas Fairbanks filmography in The Progressive Silent Film List