1962 has to be one of the oddest years in Oscar history in that only two of the five Best Picture nominees and their directors were nominated – Lawrence of Arabia’s David Lean and To Kill a Mockingbird’s Robert Mulligan. But then, they were the two most likely to win anyway.

With ten nominations to Mockingbird’s eight, Lawrence of Arabia was the early favorite. It had already won the Golden Globe, though it lost the National Board of Review award to The Longest Day, one of the other three nominees. The New York Film Critics didn’t vote due to a prolonged newspaper strike at year’s end. Mockingbird would have been ineligible anyway as it didn’t open in New York until March, 1963.

The Longest Day had earned five nominations. The Music Man earned six, while the fifth nominee, the critically lambasted remake of Mutiny on the Bounty earned seven, mostly in technical categories. At the end of the day, Lawrence of Arabia won seven Oscars, To Kill a Mockingbird three, The Longest Day two, The Music Man one and Mutiny on the Bounty none.

Nominated for Best Director instead of The Longest Day’s triumvirate of Bernhard Wicki, Ken Annakin and Andrew Marton; The Music Man’s Morton DaCosta and Mutiny on the Bounty’s Lewis Milestone were The Miracle Worker’s Arthur Penn; David and Lisa’s Frank Perry and Divorce – Italian Style’s Pietro Germi.

A ten Best Picture scenario would certainly have room for David and Lisa and The Miracle Worker. The Italian made Divorce – Italian Style would seem to have a tougher time but with acting and writing nominations as well as its nod for Best Director, it, too, may well have made a list of ten.

The Directors Guild was of less help than usual. It had eight finalists this year out of its initial sixteen nominees. They agreed with the Academy on Lean and Germi, but not Mulligan, Penn or Perry. Perry, in fact, had been left off their initial list of sixteen.

The DGA’s other six finalists were John Frankenheimer for The Manchurian Candidate; John Huston for Freud; Stanley Kubrick for Lolita; Sidney Lumet for Long Day’s Journey Into Night; Peter Ustinov for Billy Budd and the triumvirate of Wicki, Annakin and Marton for The Longest Day.

Included in the DGA’s initial list were Robert Aldrich for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane; DaCosta for The Music Man; Frankenheimer again for Bird Man of Alcatraz; Milestone for Mutiny on the Bounty; Ralph Nelson for Requiem for a Heavyweight and Tony Richardson for A Taste of Honey, as well as the previously mentioned Mulligan and Penn.

It’s like shooting darts in the dark, but in addition to the Academy’s initial five plus Billy Budd and The Miracle Worker, I would expect DGA finalists The Manchurian Candidate, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Billy Budd to have made the list of ten shutting out Divorce – Italian Style.