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One of England's leading director/producers, Victor Saville originally entered the movie industry as a salesman. He subsequently joined Gaumont-British pictures as a production manager and screenwriter, and directed his first movie in 1927. He emerged as one of England's top filmmakers in the early '30s, principally as director of a series of comedies and musicals featuring British stage star Jessie Matthews, most notably Evergreen, adapted from a stage show by Rodgers and Hart, which became the most popular and successful musical ever made in England. In the late '30s, Saville became the head of production of MGM's British studio, and had a hit with Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939), starring Robert Donat. Saville went to America in 1940, but somehow never made pictures as distinguished or succesful as he had done in England in the '30s, although his production company, Parklane, did secure the film rights to Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels, and was responsible for producing Kiss Me Deadly, one of the most celebrated crime thrillers of the '50s.