Dorothy Arzner

Directing

Dorothy Arzner

Born 1897-01-03 · San Francisco, California, USA

Dorothy Emma Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979) was an American film director whose career in Hollywood spanned from the silent era of the 1920s into the early 1940s. From 1927 until her retirement from feature directing in 1943, Arzner was the only female director working in Hollywood. Additionally, she was one of a very few women able to establish a successful and long career in Hollywood as a film director until the 1970s. Arzner made a total of twenty films between 1927 and 1943 and launched the careers of a number of Hollywood actresses, including Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, and Lucille Ball. Additionally, Arzner was the first woman to join the Directors Guild of America and the first woman to direct a sound film.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Get Your Man poster
6.4

A young American girl in Paris falls in love with a handsome nobleman, but he is about to wed in an arranged marriage. She hatches a plan to overcome that obstacle and get her man.

Get Your Man

1927

Dance, Girl, Dance poster
6.4

Judy O'Brien is an aspiring ballerina in a dance troupe. Also in the company is Bubbles, a brash mantrap who leaves the struggling troupe for a career in burlesque. When the company disbands, Bubbles gives Judy a thankless job as her stooge. The two eventually clash when both fall for the same man.

Dance, Girl, Dance

1940

Merrily We Go to Hell poster
6.5

A drunken newspaperman, Jerry Corbett, is rescued from his alcoholic haze by an heiress, Joan Prentice, whose love sobers him up and encourages him to write a play, but he lapses back into dipsomania.

Merrily We Go to Hell

1932

Craig's Wife poster
6.5

Harriet, Walter Craig's wife, is an upper-class woman obsessed with control, material possessions and social status whose behavior makes difficult her relationship with domestic service and family members.

Craig's Wife

1936

Paramount on Parade poster
5.9

This 1930 film, a collection of songs and sketches showcasing Paramount Studios' contract stars, credits 11 directors

Paramount on Parade

1930

Charming Sinners poster
7.5

Charming Sinners was a stilted adaptation of Somerset Maugham's play The Constant Wife. Robert Miles (Clive Brook) starts the ball rolling when he falls in love with Anne-Marie Whitley (Mary Nolan), the best friend of his own wife Kathryn (Ruth Chatterton). In retaliation, Kathryn begins a flirtation with her former boyfriend Karl Kraley (William Powell). After reels and reels of verbal fencing, the status quo is re-established, and Robert and Kathryn are reunited.

Charming Sinners

1929

The Bride Wore Red poster
6.7

A poor singer in a bar masquerades as a rich society woman thanks to a rich benefactor.

The Bride Wore Red

1937

The Wild Party poster
6.9

Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets in trouble, her professor has to rescue her. Gossip linking the two escalates until Stella proves she is decent by shielding an innocent girl and winning the professor's respect.

The Wild Party

1929

Christopher Strong poster
5.9

A romance develops between a happily married middle-aged British politician and an adventurous young aviatrix.

Christopher Strong

1933

First Comes Courage poster
6.6

Merle Oberon plays a Norwegian resistance figure in a small town, married to a Nazi commandant. When his superiors begin to suspect her, the Allies land an assassin to kill him -- an assassin who happens to be her former lover.

First Comes Courage

1943

Working Girls poster
7.1

Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for the scientist Joseph von Schraeder, while June gets work as a telegraph operator at Western Union.

Working Girls

1931

Honor Among Lovers poster
5.9

Jerry Stafford falls for his secretary, Julia Traynor, but instead she marries a shady character who causes trouble for both of them.

Honor Among Lovers

1931

Fashions for Women poster
3.3

Celeste de Givray is renowned throughout Europe as the most beautiful and best-dressed model in all Paris. Her press agent DuPont concocts an attention-getting publicity scheme by having Celeste undergo cosmetic surgery, then unveiling her "new" face at a posh fashion show. But thanks to a delay in the surgery, DuPont is forced to hired a substitute for Celeste, a look-alike American girl named Lulu Dooley

Fashions for Women

1927

Sarah and Son poster
5.5

A ne'er-do-well husband, after years of abusing his wife, disappears with their son, and winds up selling him to a wealthy family. Years later, the wife, now a world-famous opera singer, finally has enough time and money to begin a search for him.

Sarah and Son

1930

Anybody's Woman poster
6.6

A lawyer, left by his wife, gets drunk and marries a chorus girl, or so he learns the morning after.

Anybody's Woman

1930

When Husbands Flirt poster
3.3

Directed by William A. Wellman. With Dorothy Revier, Forrest Stanley, Tom Ricketts, Ethel Wales.

When Husbands Flirt

1925

Nana poster
6.0

Young Parisian Nana wards off of a boozed-up military officer at a local restaurant, and fellow diner Gaston Greiner is so impressed with her pluck that he decides to make her a performer at his musical theater. Soon, Nana is a star, and the girlfriend of Greiner and two other men. But when he learns that she's been getting around, Greiner fires her. As she tries to reclaim her singing job while dodging yet another suitor, her treachery might get the better of her.

Nana

1934

Behind the Make-Up poster
6.8

Gardoni, a down-on-his-luck vaudeville performer, is taken in by a fellow performer, a clown who has a bicycle riding act. Gardoni shows his appreciation by stealing the clown's act and his girlfriend, whom he marries.

Behind the Make-Up

1930

Inez from Hollywood poster
8.0

Inez Laranotta is an actress who is notorious for her vamp roles and for the wild parties she attends. But images are deceiving -- the parties (and police raids) are staged by Inez's press agent, and she is actually very devoted to her innocent younger sister, Fay Bartholdi.

Inez from Hollywood

1924

Manhattan Cocktail poster
8.0

Nancy Carroll stars in Manhattan Cocktail as Babs, a college coed who dreams of becoming a famous actress. Joining up with her campus chums Fred (Richard Arlen) and Bob (Danny O'Shea), likewise aspiring thespians, Babes heads to Broadway with stars in her eyes. The winsome threesome are quickly disillusioned by the heartless machinations of nasty producer Renov (Paul Lukas) and his harridan wife (Lilyan Tashman). Before the plot proper gets under way, the audience is regaled with a cute "mythological" prologue, featuring the same three leading actors. Manhattan Cocktail was a silent picture, except for two brief musical numbers showcasing Nancy Carroll.

Manhattan Cocktail

1928

Ten Modern Commandments poster
10.0

A chorus girl falls in love with a budding composer.

Ten Modern Commandments

1927

No artwork available
NR

Dramatised recruitment film for the Women's Army Corps, formerly the WAAC.

To the Ladies

1944

No artwork available
NR

Short documentary film on achievements of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC).

Hail and Farewell!

1943