Directed by Dorothy Arzner [Paperback]

Dorothy Arzner was the exception in Hollywood film historythe one woman who succeeded as a director, in a career that spanned three decades. In Part One, Dorothy Arzner's film careerher work as a film editor to her directorial debut, to her departure from Hollywood in 1943is documented, with particular attention to Arzner's roles as star-maker and woman's director. In Part Two, Mayne analyzes a number of Arzner's films and discusses how feminist preoccupations shape them, from the women's communities central to Dance, Girl, Dance and The Wild Party to critiques of the heterosexual couple in Christopher Strong and Craig's Wife. Part Three treats Arzner's lesbianism and the role that desire between women played in her career, her life, and her films.

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part I
The Cinderella Girl of the Movies

1. Apprenticeship
2. Successes and Failures
3. The Independent
4. After Hollywood

Part II
Films for Women Made by Women

5. Working Girls

6. Odd Couples

7. Dance, Girls, Dance

Part III
Girl Director Sets New Standards of Beauty

8. Looking for Dorothy

Conclusion: Lesbian Detection

Notes
Filmography
Index

JUDITH MAYNE, Professor of French and Women's Studies at Ohio State University, is the author of Cinema and Spectatorship, The Woman at the Keyhole, Kino and the Woman Question: Feminism and Soviet Silent Film, and Private Novels, Public Films.