People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photograph: Silent Era image collection.

Dorothy Arzner

Born 3 January 1897 in San Francisco, California, USA.
Died 1 October 1979 in La Quinta, California, USA.

Dorothy Arzner was raised in Los Angeles and broke into the motion picture industry with Famous Players-Lasky Corporation in 1918 under the guidance of director William C. deMille. Arzner’s path through the film business was as a film cutter, a continuity assistant, and soon moved into film editing with such productions as Too Much Johnson (1919) and The Six Best Cellars (1920). Before long Arzner was an editor on big Paramount productions, including Blood and Sand (1922) and The Covered Wagon (1923).

On the independent market, Arzner also wrote scenarios and screen stories, including The Breed of the Border (1924) and The No-Gun Man (1924) for Harry Garson Productions, When Husbands Flirt (1925) with Paul Gangelin for Columbia Pictures Corporation, and The Red Kimona (1925) for Mrs. Wallace Reid Productions.

When Columbia offered her the opportunity to direct, Paramount promoted Arzner to director and she helmed the films Fashions for Women (1927), Ten Modern Commandments (1927), Get Your Man (1927), Manhattan Cocktail (1928) and The Wild Party (1929). Arzner is credited with the idea for boom microphone recording of moving actors on set.

References: Website-IMDb.