WOMEN AS DIRECTORS

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 5

WOMEN AS DIRECTORS

DOROTHY ARZNER SPEAKS ** Directing motion pictures as a profession. offers' a fascinating career to women, but only a few wiilever successfully compete with men in a business that by its nature must remain dominantly male.” Dorothy Arzner, Hollywood’s only woman director, who was behind the cameras during filmipg of the new Joan Crawford starring film, ‘ The Bride Wore Red,’ would welcome women into the _ field, but gives this warning. “ There is no shortcut to becoming a director,” she said. “ Like the professions of law and medicine, the training is long, arduous, and often disheartening. The rewards are equally great for those who succeed, but the opportunities are far less.” Miss Arzner served an apprenticeship of seven years as a stenographer, script girl, film editor,. and scenarist before attaining her goal. In a profession which boasts less than a hundred topflight directors, she has maintained a position of leadership for 11 years, and is the first woman to do so. “ Only a woman who looks upon directing as a life-time job and is willing to devote her entire attention to learn every detail of the intricate technique can hope to make good,” said the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer director. “It takes from seven to ten years to do this and necessitates a thorough study of every phase of the industry.” In Miss Arzner’s opinion, women are handicapped by a lack of avenues leading to directing. “ Before many women can direct in any great number,” she declared, “ they will have to interest themselves in the technical and executive branches of the motion picture business, as they have in other industries.”