To Be Frank

Frank Borzage was born on this date in 1894.  Maybe not that well remembered today, he was a major film director in the 20s, 30s and 40s.  He had a solid visual sense and an intense romanticism. I was pretty sure he won an Oscar, so I checked and it turned out he won two--the first ever Best Director award for 7th Heaven (1927) and again for Bad Girl (1931).

It got me thinking--Frank was a big name for directors in the early days of the Oscars.  Frank Capra told a story about how he was nominated for Lady For A Day (1933) and host Will Rogers announced "Come up and get it, Frank!" Capra got up only to discover Frank Lloyd won it for Cavalcade (1933).  It's true Lloyd won, and Capra was nominated, but the tale, like so much in Capra's autobiography, turns out not to be true.  But why would a good director let truth get in the way of a good story?

Anyway, thought I'd check how many times a Frank won in the early Oscar races for Best Director.  Here are the stunning stats: of the first twelve Best Director winners, a full seven were Franks.  Two for Borzage, two for Lloyd, three for Capra.

However, since then, the Oscars have been Frank-free, unless you count Franklin J. Schaffner for Patton (1970) or Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Part 2 (1974).