Victor SAVILLE

Victor Saville was born on 25 September 1897 in Birmingham as Victor Salberg. He was invalided out of the army during the First World War after sustaining serious wounds. On his return home he entered the nascent British film industry, becoming the manager of a small cinema in Coventry. He worked for Pathé in London and then in 1920 he formed a film rental company with the young Michael Balcon. This led in turn to an interest in production and in 1923 he and Balcon co-produced Woman to Woman. At Gaumont-British he formed a successful partnership with the director Maurice Elvey for whom he produced five films including Hindle Wakes (1927). Later the same year he made his directorial debut with The Arcadians and in 1928 established his own production company, Burlington, for whom he directed Tesha (1928). In 1929 he went to America to add sound sequences to Kitty and while there directed a remake of Woman to Woman (1929) with sound.

Returning to Britain, he made the popular spy movie The W Plan (1930) and then joined Gainsborough, where Balcon was head of production. Saville made sixteen films in five years working for Balcon, proving to be a reliable, proficient director who could turn his hand to most genres. He made a sound version of Hindle Wakes (1931), two vehicles for the comic Leslie Hanson – A Warm Corner (1930) and The Sport of Kings (1931) – and one for Jack Hulbert, Love on Wheels (1932), as well as historical dramas and romances.