The Adventures of Tartu

Robert Donat's Eastern European background and fluency in a few languages make him the ideal choice for British Secret Service to send on a mission to destroy a Nazi poison gas factory in occupied Czechoslovakia. In a brief prologue with Donat disarming a buzz bomb that landed in a hospital, we see an example of how he keeps his cool under fire.

Sabotage Agent next has Donat in Czechoslovakia disguised as a refugee from the Nazi sympathizing Iron Guard of Romania. Donat moves effortlessly from the stiff upper lip British agent to the bumptious Jan Tartu of Romania. He keeps his wits about him pretty good in a whole bunch of situations.

Especially since he loses his contact upon arriving in Czechoslovakia almost immediately and is flying blind. Another agent is Valerie Hobson who like Donat is always good. She's a Czech who's a collaborator officially, but is really working for the Czech underground. She doesn't know what to make of Donat. One thing is sure, her Nazi boy friend Walter Rilla is plenty jealous.

I have to say that the action packed ending was a bit much. It was like Donat was trying to compete with Errol Flynn. Something a little more clever I would have expected from his character. This was more like something from James Bond.

Nevertheless Donat and Hobson give good characterizations and also Glynis Johns as another Czech patriot gives a memorable performance.

This is a real good spy yarn. Well written and well acted. The versatile Robert Donat is Captain Terrence Stevenson a.k.a. Jan Tartu, a British spy well versed in Russian and Rumanian that is assigned to aid Czech partisans in destroying a poison gas factory operated by Nazis. Donat is excellent as the calm and cool spy. Notable work also turned in by Glynis Johns, Friedrich Richter, Walter Rilla and Valerie Hobson. The version I watched was SABOTAGE AGENT; this movie was also released as ADVENTURES OF TARTU. Very interesting atmospheric black and white. Catch this on Turner Movie Classics.

This extremely well-paced 1943 spy film shot in England during the Second World was directed for MGM by British-born Harold S. Bucquet, remembered today only for a series of Dr. Kildaire films he made in the States for the MGM Culver City "B" film unit. Perhaps Bucquet's return to his homeland during the war inspired him here as he rarely ever again displayed such high-style. Robert Donat as the faux Rumanian Dandy steals the show; he is perfectly charming and romantic as a modern-day Scarlet Pimpernal. There is a particularly good supporting cast of German heavies and Brits playing Czechs. Walter Rilla and Freidrich Richter in particular are excellent as the sort of movie Nazis who showed up the year before at Rick's café in Casablanca. The Gainsborough Studios sets by John Bryan ("Pygmalion" and "Major Barbara") are exceptionally atmospheric and realistic. If the film has a weakness it is the performance of that wooden English rose, the beautiful Valerie Hobson,(Mrs.Profumo in life) whose not quite up to Donat's delightful mix of romance and melodramatics.

A good-sized budget, wonderful stars, a good script and excellent direction by Harold Bucquet make for a top-notch British film, "Sabotage Agent," made in 1943 and starring Robert Donat, Valerie Hobson, and Glynis Johns. Donat plays a British soldier sent to destroy a poison gas the Nazis are making in Czechoslovakia. There, posing as an Iron Guard member, Jan Tartu, he draws attention to himself as a loud dresser and a ladies' man while trying to infiltrate the underground.

The severely asthmatic Donat goes all out in this one, playing his Tartu character to the hilt, preening and raising his arm as he says "Heil Hitler" every other minute, it seems. He definitely mines the humor in the role. His costar is the beautiful and elegant Valerie Hobson, who rooms in the same house as Tartu. Her family has lost everything and now she consorts with Nazi generals, hoping to feather her nest. Glynis Johns plays a young girl who lives with her mother in the conscripted house, but she also works in the factory where "Tartu" is assigned as a guard. When she is caught at sabotage, his work is threatened.

The film uses newsreel footage of London being bombed, and the laboratory set is amazing, as is the photography throughout the film. The shot of silhouetted soldiers against the skies in the beginning is beautiful. A very exciting and well-acted film, highly recommended.

This excellent espionage film begins with newsreel footage of London being bombed in 1940. An unexploded bomb sits in the rubble, about to blow up whatever remains standing, including a bedridden child and his nurse. Robert Donat, as a British army captain, rushes in to defuse the bomb. What a wonderful way to begin a smart, engaging wartime thriller. Donat's army captain gets drafted to impersonate a German-speaking Rumaninan dandy, to infiltrate and destroy a German poison gas camp in Czechoslovakia. This is a side of the war, featuring Czech freedom fighters, that many people are unfamiliar with.

This is a great film that belongs up there with Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondant."