Victor Saville

Biography

An art dealer's son, Victor Saville was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Birmingham. He served with the London Rifles in the British Army during World War I, was wounded by a mortar shell at the Battle of Loos in 1915 and invalided out the following year. His first involvement with the film business was as manager of a small theater in Coventry, where he worked during the evenings. In the daytime, he was employed in a film distribution office. From 1917, Saville worked in the Features and Newsreels Department of the Pathé organisation in London. Just two years later, he co-founded Victory Pictures in conjunction with Michael Balcon. Early productions of the Saville-Balcon partnership included the hit movie Woman to Woman (1923) and the less successful White Shadows (1924), both directed by Graham Cutts and co-written by Alfred Hitchcock. Between 1926 and 1927, Saville produced feature films for Gaumont, based at their Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush. Under the banner of his own production company, Burlington Film, he made his first foray into directing with The Arcadians (1927). In 1931, Saville returned to Gaumont and became, along with Hitchcock, the studio's foremost director of romantic comedies, espionage and crime thrillers and glamorous musicals. The latter often starred Jessie Matthews, whose Evergreen (1934) became Britain's most popular musical of the day. In 1936, Saville set up yet another company, this time under his own name (Victor Saville Productions) with the noted screenwriter Ian Dalrymple as his partner. They made several features for Alexander Korda at Denham Studios, including South Riding (1938), often cited as Saville's best film. He often tackled controversial subjects, such as women's rights and the British class structure, in the process eliciting strong performances from his cast. In 1938, Saville replaced Balcon as head of MGM's British division. He moved to Hollywood the following year, working primarily as producer first at MGM then at Columbia. He did manage to direct one more A-grade picture, Green Dolphin Street (1947). Though briefly touted as a possible successor to Louis B. Mayer at MGM, the massive critical and artistic failure of a decidedly stodgy and miscast biblical epic, The Silver Chalice (1954), hastened Saville's eventual retirement from the industry. In the mid 50s, Saville acquired the rights to the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer detective novels. He ended up producing three low budget second features. The last of the trio, My Gun Is Quick (1957), marked his swan song as a director. Victor Saville died in May 1979, aged 83. He predeceased his wife of 59 years, Phoebe Vera Teller (1899-1984), the niece of pioneer film distributor C.M. Woolf.