Victor Saville

Victor Saville
File:Victor Saville 1936.jpg Victor Saville in 1936
Born	(1895-09-25)25 September 1895 Birmingham, England
Died	London, England
Occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1923-1962

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

He 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 in 1927. In 1929, he and Michael Balcon worked together again on a talkie remake of Woman to Woman for Balcon's company, Gainsborough Pictures, this time directed by Saville himself.

From 1931, as Gainsborough Pictures and the Gaumont British Picture Corporation joined forces, Victor 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, and 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 USA as well as in Britain, providing Saville with a passport to Hollywood.

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

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

Selected filmography

Year	Film	Director	Producer
1927	A Woman in Pawn		Yes
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	Yes
1931	Hindle Wakes	Yes
1932	Love on Wheels
1932	The Faithful Heart
1933	The Good Companions	Yes
1933	I Was a Spy	Yes
1933	Friday the Thirteenth	Yes
1934	Evergreen	Yes
1934	Evensong
1934	The Iron Duke
1935	First a Girl (1935)	Yes
1935	The Dictator
1937	Dark Journey	Yes
1937	Storm in a Teacup	Yes
1938	The Citadel		Yes
1938	South Riding	Yes
1939	Goodbye, Mr. Chips		Yes
1940	Bitter Sweet		Yes
1941	A Woman's Face		Yes
1943	Above Suspicion		Yes
1943	Forever and a Day	Yes
1945	Tonight and Every Night	Yes
1946	The Green Years	Yes
1947	Green Dolphin Street	Yes
1949	Conspirator	Yes
1950	Kim	Yes
1952	24 Hours of a Woman's Life	Yes
1953	I, the Jury		Yes
1954	The Long Wait	Yes
1954	The Silver Chalice	Yes

References

• BFI screenonline biography "Saville, Victor" Retrieved on 2 February 2009
• Lloyd & Robinson (1983). Movies of the Thirties. Orbis Publishing, London. ISBN 0-85613-523-2.

External links

• Victor Saville at the Internet Movie Database
• Victor Saville at AllMovie