The Adventures of Tartu
| The Adventures of Tartu | |
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| Directed by | Harold S. Bucquet |
| Produced by | Irving Asher |
| Written by |
John C. Higgins (story) John Lee Mahin Howard Emmett Rogers Miles Malleson (uncredited) |
| Starring |
Robert Donat Valerie Hobson Walter Rilla Glynis Johns |
| Music by |
Louis Levy Hubert Bath |
| Cinematography | John J. Cox |
| Edited by | Douglas Myers |
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Running time
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111 minutes (UK) / 103 minutes (US) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Adventures of Tartu (alternate British title and American release title: Sabotage Agent, aka Tartu), is a 1943 British Second World War spy film starring Robert Donat. It was a typical "flag waver" of the era, portraying Nazis as highly corruptible due to their desire to seduce women and to gain personal advancement.
British Captain Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat) accepts an assignment even more dangerous than his everyday wartime job of defusing unexploded bombs. Fluent in Romanian and German and having studied chemical engineering, he is parachuted into Romania to assume the identity of Captain Jan Tartu, a member of the fascist Iron Guard. He makes his way to Czechoslovakia to steal the formula of a new Nazi poison gas and sabotage the chemical plant where it is being manufactured.
However, his contact is arrested before he can arrange for a job in the factory. Tartu is instead assigned work as a foreman at a munitions factory, where he is issued a German uniform. He is billeted in the house of Anna Palacek (Phyllis Morris) and her daughter Pavla (Glynis Johns), who works in the plant; also living there are German Inspector Otto Vogel (Walter Rilla) and the lovely Maruschuka Lanova (Valerie Hobson), who lives well by making herself popular with the German officers.
That day Pavla shoots a German who earlier had had the man she loved executed. Tartu provides her with an alibi, winning her trust, and then reveals himself as a secret agent. Needing to get into the chemical plant, he asks her help to contact the Czech underground, and is surprised when she contrives for him and Maruschuka to go on a date. They talk guardedly but make it clear they are both working against the Nazis.
At work the next day, Pavla is seen attempting sabotage. She whispers to Tartu to protect himself by denouncing her. He does, and she is summarily executed. The factory manager rewards Tartu by arranging the transfer he wants, to the chemical plant.
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Wikipedia