Films of Dorothy Arzner

Though Beverle Houston (1994) maintains Dorothy Arzner remains ôlargely invisibleö to the contemporary public, the films she wrote and directed in the 1930s and beyond made stars out of Clara Bow, Katharine Hepburn, and Rosalind Russell (p. 271). In a number of films, especially those directed by her, Arzner is able to turn conventional notions of heterosexual roles and gender roles upside down. This is particularly true in films like Christopher Strong but it also evident in a number of others from Honor Among Lovers to Nana. As Cousins (1995) writes of ArznerÆs females, ôthe struggle of ArznerÆs heroines is predominantly waged against definitions of women, of images they are supposed to adhere to without, however, being able to escape them finally because the penalty for doing so would be isolationö (p. 47). In the case of Cynthia in Christopher Strong, she chooses suicide rather than risk such isolation. This analysis will discuss how Arzner slips meanings into her films in ways that contradict traditional heterosexual and gender roles.

Perhaps the film that most shows ArznerÆs ability to contradict traditional heterosexual and gender roles in illuminated by Cynthia in the film Christopher Strong. Cynthia is having an affair with a much older married man, Christopher Strong. He demands she give up flying and Cynthia does so for a while but when she learns she is pregnant she decides to

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