Everything you need to know about
Dorothy Arzner in 5 key points

PostED ON AUGUST 23, 2016

She was the first - and for a long time the only - woman filmmaker accepted by Hollywood… Dorothy Arzner directed some fifteen films in the midst of the "golden age," from the twilight of silent films to the first signs of the big studios' decline. Born in San Francisco circa 1897 (her birth certificate was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake), this daughter of a restaurateur (LA's Café Hoffmann was a popular haunt for directors of the 20s) climbed the ladder of the profession, rung by rung. First an editor, she became a screenwriter, then finally a director in 1927, with Fashions for Women. The attention she gave to female characters along with her personality made Arzner a unique figure in Hollywood.

1 / A singular look

"He always treated me as if I were his son," said Dorothy Arzner, without batting an eyelash, of James Cruze, the silent filmmaker who gave her her first leg up in the business. Indeed, photos of the set of Old Ironsides (1926), which she co-wrote, show her as the brazen shipmate, clutching the helm, at the center of the film's action. Dorothy Arzner openly dressed like a man and loved women; in lesbian terms she was "butch" (a masculine woman who makes no secret of her sexual preferences). In the Hollywood of the 20s or 30s, homosexuality (male or female) was tolerated, but never publicly discussed. Industry professionals were well aware that Dorothy Arzner shared her life with choreographer Marion Morgan, who had worked on her first films. The two women eventually retired to La Quinta, California, where Arzner died in 1979.

2 / The star-maker

If it was initially her technical expertise - notably the editing and additional scenes of Fred Niblo's 1992 film, Blood and Sand - that propelled her into the industry, it was Arzner's ability to cast actresses that cemented her reputation. She thus "managed" the transition to talkies for Clara Bow, the former "it girl" of the late silent era, even posing in the famous photograph with the actress sitting on her lap... Less famous, actresses Esther Ralston (who judged Arzner "too enterprising"), Ruth Chatterton, and later, Katharine Hepburn or Rosalind Russell (in Craig's Wife, 1936, considered by many her best film) or Lucille Ball - all benefitted enormously from the "Arzner touch." Arzner however found Hepburn too haughty on the set of Christopher Strong (1933) and the latter hastily declared her preference for George Cukor...

3 / Women among women

Arzner made her share of lofty tragicomedies - with heiresses unhappily married to unfaithful husbands, for instance - yet she particularly excelled in filming societies of women in settings like the workplace. A case in point was Working Girls (1931), where two provincial sisters land in New York and proceed to look for love and career success. Another prime example: Dance Girl, Dance (1940), perhaps Arzner's most famous film, details the misadventures of a dance troupe (the imperative title gives us an idea of their skills). In real life, Arzner would also bring together these "women among women" seeking to exist in a man's world. Along with the many actresses that she handled with finesse and firmness, as well as the previously mentioned Marion Morgan, we should also count editor Nan Heron, who taught Arzner the trade, and screenwriters Zoe Akins and Mary McCall who flourished in her presence… Collectively, they formed an ultra-creative gynaeceum. Throughout her career, Arzner would be criticized for her weakling male characters...

4 / A woman's director

As noted by the researcher Judith Mayne in Directed by Dorothy Arzner (the only book on the filmmaker), the same "label" was applied to George Cukor and Dorothy Arzner, meaning the two directors made room for the feminine characters in their films and catered primarily to female audiences. Yet Cukor did not shy away from the "glamour," whereas Arzner tracked down the truth. There is something incredibly spontaneous, sincere and genuine in the way Arzner's heroines smile… Sylvia Sidney's smile of indulgence in Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) is an expression of splendid generosity. Her character Joan wholeheartedly wants to believe in her husband Jerry, who carries on with his alcoholic and cheating ways. Then there is the spellbound smile of Joan Crawford as she discovers the ritzy suite of her Tyrolean hotel in The Bride Wore Red (1937). Passing herself off as a wealthy woman, she is perfectly aware that the charade cannot last... Such authenticity is rare.

5 / Post-cinema

It is not known with certainty why Dorothy Arzner gave it all up in 1943. She left, ill, while filming First Comes Courage (completed by Charles Vidor). In all probability, the Hollywood "bosses" rejected her: Harry Cohn of Columbia gave her a hard time on this last film, and in particular Louis B. Mayer of MGM spread the rumor that she was a "difficult" film director after the (undeserved) failure of The Bride Wore Red. Arzner left Hollywood in 1951. She still filmed commercials (with Joan Crawford), wrote amusing radio shows (using fiction to help her listeners gain emancipation), and became a professor at UCLA. Among her students was a certain Francis Ford Coppola. "You should always keep that ego of a young man who thinks he knows everything," she told him, in true rebellious fashion. He would not forget her advice.