Long Career With Many "Auteur" Directors and Varied Genres
Dorothy Spencer entered the film industry when she joined the employ of the Consolidated-Aller Lab in 1924. She moved to Fox, becoming a member of the editorial department. Worked at First National Studios assisting editors Louis Loeffler, Al DeGaetano and Irene Morra. At Fox, she and Loeffler were part of an editorial team that also included, at one time or another, Barbara McLean, Robert Simpson, William Reynolds and Hugh S. Fowler.
Dorothy Spencer also edited several of Alfred Hitchcock's films such as Foreign Correspondent (1940) and 1944's Lifeboat (featuring a particularly feisty and well-edited Tallulah Bankhead performance). Spencer also edited director Elia Kazan's feature film debut, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945).
Spencer edited the disaster film Earthquake (1974) starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and George Kennedy. Variety's review of the film touted, "... Earthquake is an excellent dramatic exploitation extravaganza, combining brilliant special effects with a multi-character plot line...". Dorothy Spencer was nominated for an Oscar for Earthquake, which was her fourth nomination after editing what still reigns as the most expensive movie ever made, Cleopatra (1963). Her prior nominations were, Decision Before Dawn (1951) and the John Ford-directed, Stagecoach (1939).
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