This film exists in the Library of Congress and I recently viewed a safety print there. There is some decomposition in the 4th reel (out of 6), but overall it's a print of excellent quality. De Luxe Annie is a neat little pulp story - the kind Roland West would later specialize in. It's also the earliest film of his that I have seen and his earliest that may very well exist. Norma Talmadge plays a happily married woman who gets amnesia and is tricked into believing she is a master criminal. After redemption, she returns to her family in the end. West shot this as he would his later films - with a dark edge and a passion for telling a crime story. The film has excellent settings, good cutting and nice compositions. Not a heck of a lot of camera movement, but West didn't really start that until The Dove (of which 4 impressive reels also reside at LOC). There is an awesome dream sequence that utilizes split frames. Shadow-y in places with some striking under-lighting we'd later see much more of in The Bat Whispers, this is a solid film for 1918 and reminiscent of The Penalty (1920) in tone and style. And Talmadge had charisma. Hopefully it will come out on video one day.
Review of De Luxe Annie
