Dorothy Spencer

Four-time Oscar nominee Dorothy Spencer was one of the versatile stalwarts of the Hollywood studio system. She began her career as a cutter with Fox and subsequently enjoyed a close collaboration with the independent producer Walter Wanger at Paramount (1936) and United Artists (1937-41). Her longest career spell was at 20th Century Fox, from 1943 to 1963, during which time her assignments ranged from war/action movies and gothic thrillers to large-scale Biblical epics shot in CinemaScope. Testimony to the high level of competence and consistency of her work can be found in the frequency of her associations with prominent directors: Tay Garnett (Stand-In (1937), Trade Winds (1938), Eternally Yours (1939)); John Ford (Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946), What Price Glory (1952)); Ernst Lubitsch (To Be or Not to Be (1942), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Cluny Brown (1946)); Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Dragonwyck (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Cleopatra (1963)); Edward Dmytryk (Broken Lance (1954), The Left Hand of God (1955), The Young Lions (1958)); Henry Hathaway (Down to the Sea in Ships (1949), North to Alaska (1960), Circus World (1964)); and Mark Robson (Von Ryan's Express (1965), Valley of the Dolls (1967), Earthquake (1974)). Spencer was at her best working on action subjects, her cutting instrumental to augmenting the director's work in creating or sustaining the desired level of suspense. Arguably, the most difficult task of her lengthy career was having to pare down the 70,000 feet of film shot for the epic production of "Cleopatra" to 'a mere' 22,000 feet. Spencer retired in 1979. Though the Oscar ultimately eluded her, she was awarded an American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award in 1989. She was also presented with a 'Golden Scissors Award' for her outstanding work on the disaster epic "Earthquake".