Victor Saville (25 September 1895 – 8 May 1979) was an English

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

, producer, and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. 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 Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in West London from 1938 to 1955. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film ...

in 1923, and on the back of its success produced pictures for the veteran director

Maurice Elvey Maurice Elvey (11 November 1887 – 28 August 1967) was one of the most prolific film directors in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year. He a ...

, 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 Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, north London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The com ...

. This time Saville directed it. From 1931, as Gainsborough Pictures and the

Gaumont British The Gaumont-British Picture Corporation produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. It was established as an offshoot of the Gaumont Film Company of France. Film production Gaumont-British was founded in 18 ...

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 Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)London Films London Films Productions is a British film and television production company founded in 1932 by Alexander Korda and from 1936 based at Denham Film Studios in Buckinghamshire, near London. The company's productions included ''The Private Life o ...

at Denham studios. As an independent producer he had purchased the film rights to

A. J. Cronin Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981), known as A. J. Cronin, was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is ''The Citadel'' (1937), about a Scottish doctor who serves in a Welsh mining village before achievi ...

's novel ''

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a Public college, public United States senior military college, senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one ...

''. He was persuaded to sell them to

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

in return for the chance to produce the film and another big-budget adaptation, ''

Goodbye Mr Chips ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' is a novella about the life of a school teacher, Mr. Chipping, written by English writer James Hilton and first published by Hodder & Stoughton in October 1934. It has been adapted into two feature films and two televi ...

'' (1939). Both films starred

Robert Donat Friedrich Robert Donat (18 March 1905 – 9 June 1958) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's '' The 39 Steps'' (1935) and ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1939), winning for the latter the Academy Award for ...

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'' 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 The Windmill Theatre in Great Windmill Street, London, was a variety and revue theatre best known for its nude ''tableaux vivants'', which began in 1932 and lasted until its reversion to a cinema in 1964. Many prominent British comedians of t ...

in London. After the war Saville continued directing films for MGM but eventually returned to Britain. Saville acquired production rights for

Mickey Spillane Frank Morrison Spillane (; March 9, 1918July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have ...

Mike Hammer Michael Hammer or Mike Hammer may refer to: *Michael Armand Hammer (1955–2022), American philanthropist and businessman *Michael Martin Hammer (1948–2008), engineer and author *Mike Hammer (character), a fictional hard boiled detective ** ''Mick ...

mysteries and produced a few features, though Spillane thought he was interested in doing so only to acquire the money to produce ''

The Silver Chalice ''The Silver Chalice'' is a 1952 English language historical novel by Thomas B. Costain. It is the fictional story of the making of a silver chalice to hold the Holy Grail (itself here conflated with the Holy Chalice) and includes 1st century b ...

''. He produced two final films in the 1960s, ''

The Greengage Summer ''The Greengage Summer'' (called ''The Loss of Innocence'' in the U.S.) is a 1961 British drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Kenneth More and Susannah York (in her first leading role). It was based on the novel ''The Greengage S ...

'' (1961), adapted from the novel of the same name, and ''

Mix Me a Person ''Mix Me a Person'' is a 1962 British crime drama film directed by Leslie Norman, starring Anne Baxter, Donald Sinden, Adam Faith, Walter Brown and Carole Ann Ford. The screenplay concerns a young London criminal who is faced with being hang ...

'' (1962).

Selected filmography

Notes

References

* BFI

screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lot ...

biograph
"Saville, Victor"
Retrieved on 2 February 2009 * Lloyd & Robinson (1983). ''Movies of the Thirties''. Orbis Publishing, London. .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saville, Victor 1895 births 1979 deaths English film directors English film producers English male screenwriters People from Birmingham, West Midlands 20th-century English screenwriters 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English businesspeople