Victor Saville

Producteur, Directeur, Scénariste

25 septembre 1895 — 8 mai 1979 (83 ans)
Victor Saville (25 September 1895, Birmingham, England – 8 May 1979, London) 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.

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 (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 Gaumont British 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's London Films at Denham studios.

As an independent producer he had 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, 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 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. 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).

Films & Séries sur Plex

  • Le mystère de la section 8
    Le mystère de la section 81937
  • Tempête dans un verre d'eau
    Tempête dans un verre d'eau1937

Connue pour

  • En quatrième vitesse
    En quatrième vitesse1955
  • Au revoir Mr. Chips!
    Au revoir Mr. Chips!1939
  • La Flamme sacrée
    La Flamme sacrée1943
  • La Tempête qui tue
    La Tempête qui tue1940
  • Kim
    Kim1950
  • Le Pays du dauphin vert
    Le Pays du dauphin vert1947
  • Le calice d'argent
    Le calice d'argent1954
  • Le mystère de la section 8
    Le mystère de la section 81937
  • Un espion a disparu
    Un espion a disparu1943
  • La Citadelle
    La Citadelle1938
  • Cette nuit et toujours
    Cette nuit et toujours1945
  • Guet-apens
    Guet-apens1949
  • Les vertes années
    Les vertes années1946
  • My Gun Is Quick
    My Gun Is Quick1957
  • Quand vient l'hiver
    Quand vient l'hiver1947
  • Toujours vingt ans
    Toujours vingt ans1934
  • Tempête dans un verre d'eau
    Tempête dans un verre d'eau1937
  • Nettoyage par le vide
    Nettoyage par le vide1954
  • Chante mon amour
    Chante mon amour1940
  • First a Girl
    First a Girl1935

Filmographie