Victor Saville

Victor Saville was born on Sep 25, 1895 in UK. Victor Saville's big-screen debut came with Woman to Woman directed by Graham Cutts in 1923. Victor Saville is known for Kiss Me Deadly directed by Robert Aldrich, Ralph Meeker stars as Mike Hammer and Albert Dekker as Dr. G.E. Soberin. The upcoming new movie Victor Saville plays is Loss of Innocence which will be released on Apr 28, 1961.

An art dealer's son, Victor Saville was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Birmingham. He served in the British Army during World War I, was wounded 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. Between 1926 and 1927, he 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, alongside Alfred Hitchcock, the studio's foremost director of romantic comedies, espionage and crime thrillers and glamorous musicals.The latter often starred Jessie Matthews, whose Toujours vingt ans (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, Le pays du dauphin vert (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, Le calice d'argent (1954), hastened Saville's eventual retirement from the industry.