Here is the biography of Dorothy Arzner:
Dorothy Arzner was a pioneering female film director in Hollywood's Golden Age. Born on January 3, 1897, in San Francisco, California, to a German-American father and a Scottish mother, she grew up in Los Angeles where her parents ran a café that attracted silent film stars. After working as a waitress, Arzner began her career in the film industry as a stenographer, then a writer, and eventually an editor.
Arzner's impressive editing skills earned her recognition, and she was promoted to script girl and then editor. She worked on 52 films, including the Rudolph Valentino headliner "Blood and Sand" (1922),and "The Covered Wagon" (1923). Her editing skills were praised, and she received official screen credit as an editor, a first for a cutter of either sex.
Arzner's ambition to become a director was met with resistance, but she persisted, eventually directing her first film, "Fashions for Women" (1927). She became the first woman to direct a sound picture with "Manhattan Cocktail" (1928) and continued to direct successful films, including "The Wild Party" (1929) starring Clara Bow.
Arzner's collaboration with Katharine Hepburn in "Christopher Strong" (1933) was marked by tension, but she prevailed as the director. She became the first female member of the Directors Guild of America and was known for directing "women's pictures" that showcased strong, interesting women.
Arzner's films were ahead of their time, challenging dominant, androcentric mores and featuring ambiguities of life. She was gay and cultivated a masculine look, but refused to be categorized as a woman or gay director, insisting she was simply a "director."
Arzner continued to direct films throughout the 1930s, including "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney" (1937) and "The Bride Wore Red" (1937),starring Joan Crawford. After the war, she made training films for the U.S. Army's Women's Army Corps and documentaries for television.
Arzner taught film-making at the Pasadena Playhouse and the University of California-Los Angeles, and one of her students was Francis Ford Coppola. She was honored in her lifetime, becoming a symbol and role model for female directors, and her oeuvre was given a full retrospective at the Second International Festival of Women's Films in 1976.
