Best Director Doesn’t Guarantee Best Picture

Most filmmakers who win the best director Oscar see their films go on to win the Academy Award for best picture. But there have been exceptions over the decades that, thanks to video, you can revisit at home.

“Mutiny on the Bounty,” starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, was named best picture of 1935. But director Frank Lloyd failed to bring home the gold. Instead, John Ford was the winner for his masterful direction of “The Informer” (Turner, $15), a powerful drama set during the Irish Rebellion. Oscar-winner Victor McLaglen plays a hard-drinking Dubliner who betrays his buddy to the English in order to collect a monetary reward.

The following year, the all-star but empty-headed musical “The Great Ziegfeld” was named best picture. But it was Frank Capra who won best director for the beloved comedy “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” (Columbia TriStar, $20). Gary Cooper stars in this enchanting film about a shy, poetic everyman who inherits a fortune. Jean Arthur also stars.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted the 1937 best film Oscar to the serious drama “The Life of Emile Zola.” The best director Oscar, though, went to Leo McCarey for “The Awful Truth” (Columbia TriStar, $20), one of the screwiest screwball comedies ever made. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne star.

Alfred Hitchcock’s romantic mystery “Rebecca” took top honors of 1940. But once again John Ford was the spoiler, winning for his haunting, moving and gritty adaptation of John Steinbeck’s landmark Great Depression novel, “The Grapes of Wrath” (Fox, $15). Henry Fonda and Oscar-winning Jane Darwell star.

Laurence Olivier directed himself to a best actor Oscar in his 1948 version of “Hamlet.” Though “Hamlet” went on to win for best film, it was John Huston who was named for his direction of “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” (MGM, $20). Humphrey Bogart and Huston’s father, Walter, star in this study of greed.

Vincente Minnelli’s Technicolor delight “An American in Paris” waltzed off with the best picture honors of 1951. George Stevens, though, won for his direction of “A Place in the Sun” (Paramount, $15), a well-acted, handsomely mounted adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy.” Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters star.

Cecil B. DeMille’s big-top melodrama, “The Greatest Show on Earth,” was awarded the best film Oscar of 1952. But it was Ford again who won for best director, picking up his fourth Academy Award for his splendid work on the engaging, funny and very romantic “The Quiet Man” (Republic, $20), starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.

Five years after winning for “A Place in the Sun,” Stevens received his second Oscar for “Giant” (Warner, $25), his sweeping saga of a Texas family based on Edna Ferber’s novel. Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, in his final film, star. The best film of the year? “Around the World in 80 Days,” producer Mike Todd’s overstuffed adventure-comedy based on the Jules Verne story.

Although Norman Jewison’s acclaimed murder mystery “In the Heat of the Night” was the big winner of 1967, the director lost out to Mike Nichols for his seamless work on the landmark comedy “The Graduate” (New Line, $15). Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross star.

Everyone expected Francis Ford Coppola to win best director for 1972’s “The Godfather.” Though his contemporary masterpiece won best film, it was Bob Fosse who served up the evening’s upset when he won for his innovative, stylish musical “Cabaret” (Fox, $20). Oscar-winners Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey star.

The academy embraced the 1981 British historical drama “Chariots of Fire,” but it gave Warren Beatty the directing Oscar that year for the historical epic “Reds” (Paramount, $25). Beatty’s sprawling saga explored the life of Communist American writer John Reed.

Oliver Stone took home his second Oscar for best director for 1989’s gut-wrenching “Born on the Fourth of July” (Universal, $20), starring Tom Cruise as Vietnam vet-turned-antiwar activist Ron Kovic. The best film honors went to “Driving Miss Daisy.” That film’s director, Bruce Beresford, failed to get an Oscar nomination.