Cinema '62: Best Director

Although we've seen this before, rare indeed is the Best Director lineup where the majority of nominees are representing films not nominated for Best Picture. Indeed, I believe since the category went five-wide in 1936, three lone directors have only occurred five times: 1954, 1955, 1962, 1963, 1966. Curious that they're all within a 12-year span, coinciding with the winnowing-away of the Hays Code and the growing appreciation for international cinema. 

The lone directing nominees here represent David and Lisa, a drama about youths in a residential home for mental health issues; Divorce Italian Style, an Italian comedy about a man who plots the death of his wife so he can seduce his teenage cousin; and The Miracle Worker, a surprise Best Picture snub, about Anne Sullivan teaching Helen Keller how to communicate. The directors "snubbed" are The Longest Day's triumvirate of Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki (with significant though uncredited contributions from Gerd Oswald and Darryl F. Zanuck); The Music Man's Morton DaCosta; and Mutiny on the Bounty's Lewis Milestone (with uncredited filming from Carol Reed, who was fired mid-production). Here's who made it:

Day Four: Best Director, 1969

Fifty years ago, when Best Picture was still only five-wide, it was common to see a marked difference between that category and the Best Director lineup - 1969, for instance, is only three-for-five. While it's rarer nowadays, it occasionally happens - just this past year, Pawel Pawlikowski was nominated for Cold War, which did not get a Best Picture citation. Rarer still than the Lone Director Nominee is the Best Director Orphan, in which the nominated helmer is the sole representative of their film. This was more common in the early days of the Oscars, but has since, become the kind of phenomenon trivia buffs love to bring up - David Lynch has been the Director Orphan twice (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr.), Martin Scorsese once....

But I think only Arthur Penn can boast of not just being a Best Director Orphan, but of being the only person nominated for a film based on a song. Alice's Restaurant is based on the Arlo Guthrie song-story of the same name, and if you've ever listened to the radio on Thanksgiving Day, chances are you've heard it. I believe one station - can't remember if it was my own South Florida or another or many - even played the song on repeat, non-stop, until they hit a particular number in their pledge drive. Annually.

So yes, that's an Oscar-nominated story! Did Penn do it justice? A look at his work and his fellow nominees, after the jump...