Victor Saville
Victor Saville | |
---|---|
Born | Birmingham, England | 25 September 1895
Died | 8 May 1979 London, England | (aged 83)
Occupation(s) | 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
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
As an independent producer he had purchased the film rights to
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 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 he was interested in doing so only to acquire the money to produce The Silver Chalice.[1] 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
Notes
- ^ "Mickey Spillane Interview Page". www.crimetime.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
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 IMDb
- Victor Saville at AllMovie