Victor Saville

Victor Saville (25 September 1895 – 8 May 1979) was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954. He also produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962.

Biography Saville produced his first film, Woman to Woman, with Michael Balcon in 1923, and on the back of its success produced pictures for the veteran director Maurice Elvey, including the classic British silent Hindle Wakes (1927). His first picture as director was The Arcadians (1927). In 1929 he and Balcon worked together again on a talkie remake of Woman to Woman for Balcon's company, Gainsborough Pictures. This time Saville directed it.

From 1931, as Gainsborough Pictures and the Gaumont British Picture Corporation joined forces, Saville produced a string of comedies, musicals and dramas for Gainsborough and Gaumont-British, including the popular Jessie Matthews pictures. In 1937, he left to set up his own production company, Victor Saville Productions, and made three pictures for Alexander Korda's London Films at Denham studios.

As an independent producer he had purchased the film rights to A. J. Cronin's novel The Citadel. He was persuaded to sell them to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in return for the chance to produce the film and another big-budget adaptation, Goodbye Mr Chips (1939). Both films starred Robert Donat and were a great success in the US as well as in Britain, providing Saville with a passport to Hollywood.

When the war broke out in 1939, Saville was in America and was advised to remain there. He produced pictures in support of the war effort, such as The Mortal Storm (1940) and Forever and a Day (1943) (in which he worked for the last time with his former star Jessie Matthews), and in 1945 Tonight and Every Night, based on the history of the Windmill Theatre in London.

After the war Saville continued directing films for MGM but eventually returned to Britain. Saville acquired production rights for Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer mysteries and produced a few features under the Parklane Pictures banner, though Spillane thought he was interested in doing so only to acquire the money to produce The Silver Chalice. He produced two final films in the 1960s, The Greengage Summer (1961), adapted from the novel of the same name, and Mix Me a Person (1962).

Selected filmography Year Film Director Producer 1927 A Woman in Pawn 1927 The Glad Eye 1927 Roses of Picardy 1927 The Arcadians 1927 The Flight Commander 1928 Tesha 1929 Kitty 1929 Woman to Woman 1930 The W Plan 1930 A Warm Corner 1931 The Sport of Kings 1931 Sunshine Susie 1931 Michael and Mary 1931 Hindle Wakes 1932 Love on Wheels 1932 The Faithful Heart 1933 The Good Companions 1933 I Was a Spy 1933 Friday the Thirteenth 1934 Evergreen 1934 Evensong 1934 The Iron Duke 1935 First a Girl 1935 The Dictator 1937 Dark Journey 1937 Storm in a Teacup 1938 The Citadel 1938 South Riding 1939 Goodbye, Mr. Chips 1940 Bitter Sweet 1941 A Woman's Face 1943 Above Suspicion 1943 Forever and a Day 1945 Tonight and Every Night 1946 The Green Years 1947 Green Dolphin Street 1949 Conspirator 1950 Kim 1951 Calling Bulldog Drummond 1952 24 Hours of a Woman's Life 1953 I, the Jury 1954 The Long Wait 1954 The Silver Chalice 1955Kiss Me Deadly 1957 My Gun Is Quick