Victor Saville was born on September 25, 1895
Saville directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954, and produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962.
Saville produced his first film, Woman to Woman, with Michael Balcon in 1923. After its success, he produced pictures for 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 Balcon worked together again on a talkie remake of Woman to Woman, with Saville directing, for Balcon’s company, Gainsborough Pictures.
From 1931, as Gainsborough Pictures and the Gaumont British Picture Corporation joined forces, Saville produced 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 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 USA as well as in Britain.
When WWII broke out in 1939, Saville was in the U.S., where 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 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, though Spillane thought that what really motivated him was 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).
He died on May 8, 1979 at the age of 84.
Selected filmography
1927
A Woman in Pawn
The Glad Eye
Roses of Picardy
The Arcadians, also directed
The Flight Commander
1928
Tesha, directed
1929
Kitty
Woman to Woman, directed
1930
The W Plan, directed
A Warm Corner
1931
The Sport of Kings, directed
Sunshine Susie
Michael and Mary
Hindle Wakes
1932
Love on Wheels
The Faithful Heart
1933
The Good Companions
I Was a Spy
Friday the Thirteenth
1934
Evergreen
Evensong
The Iron Duke
1935
First a Girl (1935)
The Dictator
1937
Dark Journey, directed
Storm in a Teacup, directed
1938
The Citadel
South Riding, directed
1939
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
1940
Bitter Sweet
1941
A Woman’s Face
1943
Above Suspicion
Forever and a Day, directed
1945
Tonight and Every Night, directed
1946
The Green Years, directed
1947
Green Dolphin Street, directed
1949
Conspirator, directed
1950
Kim, directed
1951
Calling Bulldog Drummond, directed
1952
24 Hours of a Woman’s Life, directed
1953
I, the Jury (only produced)
1954
The Long Wait, directed
1954
The Silver Chalice, produced and directed
