Dorothy Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979) was an American film director whose career in feature films spanned from the silent era of the late 1920s into the early 1940s. She was one of the very few women who established a name for herself as a director in the film industry during this time. Her body of work remains to this day the largest by a woman director within the studio system.
Early life and career
Born in San Francisco, California, Arzner grew up in Los Angeles, where her father owned a restaurant frequented by many Hollywood celebrities. After finishing high school, she enrolled at the University of Southern California with hopes of becoming a doctor. During World War I, she left school to work overseas in the ambulance corps. By the time the war ended, she decided against returning to her medical studies and, after a visit to a movie studio, decided to pursue a career as a film director.
Through connections with director William C. DeMille, Arzner got a job as a stenographer in 1919 at Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, which later became Paramount Pictures. She moved on to be a script writer, was promoted to film editor within six months and quickly mastered the job. Her first assignment as an editor was in 1922 for the renowned classic Blood and Sand, starring Rudolph Valentino. She was soon receiving accolades for the high quality of her work. Impressed by her technique, director James Cruze employed her as a writer and editor for several of his films, including Old Ironsides (1926).
The fourth quarter takes in some of the Columbia films from the period made about or by women, a notable example being Dorothy Arzner’s 1936 Broadway drama adaptation...Columbia was the studio at which Dorothy Arzner made her finest work ... .
Dorothy Arzner, one of just a few women directors who managed to have a long and successful career in Hollywood in its early days and later became a focus for students of film and relationships, directed the film from a screenplay by Mary C.
Take a look inside.The hotel's Dorothy Theater can be used for reviewing new sound recordings, watching live edits, and hosting larger ADR sessions.The Dorothy Theater is named after famed film director Dorothy Arzner.
Yet they are there ... In the past, Hollywood filmmakers such as George Cukor, Dorothy Arzner, and James Whale could operate with a certain kind of freedom since most moviegoers neither knew nor cared what directors did in their private lives ... ....
Show additional share options. Show additional share options ... She was 90 ... RelatedStories ... (From the mid-1930s through the mid-’60s, only Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino could boast of having sustainable careers as female directors in Hollywood ... ....
On March 22, 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière held a private screening in Paris of a film they made of workers leaving their factory ... Over in America, the openly gay Dorothy Arzner spent more than a decade as Hollywood’s only female director ... ....
In March, the Sunrise Theater presents the film series “She Shoots ... “This is despite women directors going back to the silent film days with Dorothy Arzner ... × This page requires Javascript ... Please enable it in your browser settings ... .
SOUTHERN PINES — Sunrise Theater, 250 NW Broad St., Southern Pines, will host a film series showcasing the talent and creativity of women directors. "She Shoots ... “This is despite women directors going back to the silent film days with Dorothy Arzner ... .
Vogue. What sparked the idea for “Sapph-O-Rama”?. AndreaTorres... Can you describe the programming process?. Torres ... Then to Dorothy Arzner’s pre-Code comedy The Wild Party, with Clara Bow in her first “talkie,” which skyrocketed lesbian Arzner’s career ... .
The arc ran from screenwriters such as Anita Loos (with dozens of silent-movie credits and author of the 1925 novel-turned-film “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”) to director Dorothy Arzner, with ...
The lineup concludes tomorrow morning with three of Hepburn's earliest films.Christopher Strong(1933), a drama directed by Dorothy Arzner that was Hepburn's second feature; the 1934 drama The Little...
Although RuthAdler is not a real Hollywood director, female directors were not such a rare beast in 1920s Hollywood and abroad, with one of the most successful among them being Dorothy Arzner.
Fort Worth Weekly
13 Jun 2024
Fort Worth Weekly
13 Jun 2024