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.
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Doylenf10 April 2012Robert Donat gives a very spirited performance as a British spy fluent in languages who is assigned to sabotage a Nazi gas factory in Czechoslovakia. He's more action-oriented than usual in a role requiring a lot of physical action while keeping one step ahead of the Nazis.
His spying activities also include some romantic moments with lovely Valerie Hobson, a woman who openly flirts with Nazi officers while working with the Czech underground. She and Donat join forces eventually but some misunderstandings almost ruin their partnership. The clever plot takes a number of interesting twists as the story unfolds in a brisk and very compelling manner.
Photography is first rate as are the various sets, especially the unique looking laboratory with its glass elevator overlooking an elaborate looking set design. Donat is charming in the central role and gets solid support from an excellent British supporting cast. Especially good are Walter Rilla as an officer in love with Hobson and Glynis Johns in a small role as an ill-fated Czech loyalist.
Highly recommended as one of the best espionage yarns from the U.K. during the war years. -
smithy-817 January 2004"Sabotage Agent", also known as "Adventures of Tartu", is a first-rate British spy thriller. It is a quick and entertaining movie about a British spy, whose mission is to destroy the poison gas factory in Rumania.
Robert Donat is very good as the British spy who poses as a Greek and a Rumanian. His performance is spirited and his accent is amusing. His accent seems to be the same for the Greek and the Rumanian, but who cares, it is a fun movie to watch about a serious subject.
The supporting cast is perfect. Both his leading ladies are lovely and fill the bill: Valerie Hobson and Glynis Johns. Ms. Johns is still working today. Never seen Walter Rilla before or since, but he gave a good performance as the German officer, Otto, who is one of the villains, who loves Ms. Hobson's character. -
GManfred11 August 2010"The Adventures of Tartu" is a marvelously entertaining espionage picture which for some reason is seldom seen on TV nowadays. It clocks in at 103 minutes but the pacing is such that you are not aware of its length. It stars Robert Donat, one of England's best actors. He had an unforgettably mellifluous voice and is fondly remembered for, among others, "The Thirty Nine Steps". Not really remembered as an action hero, he portrayed an inner strength reminiscent of the kind Leslie Howard showed in some of his roles. Here, however, he is in fact a man of action, two-fisted and able to handle a pistol as well, sort of a James Bond-type character.
He gets good back-up acting support from some dependable character actors and shares billing with lovely Valerie Hobson, who seldom gave a bad performance, and with whom there is apparent chemistry, the kind that two pros can generate. Actually, it's hard to find fault with any aspect of this MGM/British production. I thought the dialogue was especially good.
There are a good handful of unheralded or forgotten movies made about WWII that are worth watching, among them "Manila Calling" (1942), and "Joan Of Paris" (also 1942). "Decision Before Dawn" is another but it was made after the war, in 1951. But "Tartu" is worth seeing regardless of genre because it succeeds on several levels. -
mstomaso7 September 2008This propaganda film pits a British-born, German-educated, chemical engineer (Stevnson - Robert Donat) who speaks Rumanian, German and Russian fluently against Nazis in Eastern Europe. Captain Stevenson becomes an Iron Guard named Tartu (the real Tartu is dead) and heads off, with minimal briefing and no espionage experience, to upset a Nazi plot. Stevenson seeks to infiltrate a German chemical weapons plant but needs help from the local resistance to succeed. But how, posing as a Nazi, can he get the underground to trust him?
Although the basic premise is a tad ludicrous, the film is very carefully plotted and the characters are likable, well-written and well played. Donat, Glynnis Johns and Valerie Hobson are especially good. The cinematography, directing and editing are very standard for early-mid-20th century British film - very straightforward and focused on the story - little to no experimentation and very few pans. But the pace of the film complements - or at least compensates for - the theatrical camera work fairly well.
Recommended for Donat fans and those interested in WWII-era war films. -
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre14 November 2004Robert Donat had movie-star looks and considerable acting talent, but he also had chronic asthma that shortened his life. Ironically, the asthma also helped his acting career. He took acting lessons in the first place in the hope of strengthening his voice, and the condition gave his voice a plaintive whisper that he used quite effectively on screen. In 'The Adventures of Tartu', Donat plays several scenes with Glynis Johns, whose voice was even more whispery (whisperier?) than Donat's. They sound quite interesting together on screen.
Donat spends most of this WW2 drama wearing a Nazi uniform and saying things like 'Heil Hitler'. No worries; he's a British agent undercover in occupied Czechoslovakia. To make his loyalties absolutely clear to the audience, the first reel of this film shows Donat on fire-watch duty during the Blitz, courageously disarming a doodlebug in the wreckage of a hospital, while a twee little boy asks annoying questions from his hospital bed. We see some brief stock footage of the actual Blitz, with London in flames; unfortunately, this dose of reality contrasts sharply with the fictional sequences that follow.
Donat is soon conscripted to go undercover in Czechoslovakia, using the identity of a dead man named Jan Tartu. Donat's mission is to make contact with the Czech resistance and blow up a Nazi chemical factory. From here onward, we get some very implausible cloak-and-daggery. Donat's password is the first line of a Wordsworth poem ... and the countersign is the next line of the same poem! This is utterly ridiculous: a countersign should never be intuited from a password. A much better (and more plausible) example was in the film 'Twilight's Last Gleaming', in which Burt Lancaster is challenged to identify three passwords. The first one is 'Romeo' and the second one is 'And' ... so he knows the third password cannot possibly be 'Juliet'!
Back to Donat: matters get more annoying very quickly. In order not to blow his own cover, Donat must stand by and murmur 'Heil Hitler' as his contact man (an elderly cobbler) is hauled off by the Gestapo. Donat continues his Nazi act when another resistance agent (a haggard middle-aged woman) is arrested. But the third time the Nazis try to bounce a Czech, the resistance agent is an attractive young woman ... so *this* time, for some reason, Donat endangers himself and his mission to save her.
Valerie Hobson, whom I've always liked, is cast as a Czech woman who appears to support the Nazi cause but who is actively involved in the resistance. In one sequence, to vamp a German officer (Walter Rilla, the perennial movie Nazi), Hobson gets dressed up in a chic black outfit with a cape. She looks dead sexy in this rig, and the sexiest part of the ensemble is a large black picture hat that frames Hobson's face and hairstyle very attractively. I was annoyed when Hobson tries to seduce Rilla by telling him that she might take off her hat. This line is meant to seem very kinky, but Hobson is so sexy with the hat *on* that I found this line annoying.
There are some impressively tense situations in which Donat can't tell whom he can trust. The scenes in the chemical factory are excellent, with some splendid camera work in sequences featuring a glass-doored lift that rises through several levels of the factory, with the camera alongside it in the lift shaft. There's also a very impressive matte shot (credit to Henry Harris) in which four tiny figures are seen moving in a large empty area. The budget is much higher than usual for a British feature of this period. The excellent and well-paced direction is by the unjustly obscure Harold S Bucquet, who may be the father-in-law of Hyacinth Bucket (he pronounced it 'bouquet'). I'll rate this spy thriller 7 out of 10. I would have liked it more if there had been more footage of Valerie Hobson in that picture hat. -
ilprofessore-121 March 2009This 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.
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blanche-227 April 2009A 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. -
planktonrules20 June 2009When the film begins, Robert Donat is a bomb disposal expert working during the Blitz. However, he's asked by superiors to go behind enemy lines to sabotage a Nazi gas factory. The reason he was chosen was his knowledge of languages, background in chemistry and time he spent in both Romania and Germany.
A serious problem develops, however, when his contact person in Czechoslovakia is captured. Because of this, he still needs to contact the Underground but has no way of doing it. So, he takes a risk and drops his cover for a Czech he thinks will work with him. Why did he pick her? Well, he could "see in her eyes that she hated the Nazis"!! Despite this stupid plot element, the rest of the film is pretty interesting--especially when the Underground decides he is a Nazi and mark him for death! Oops.
But, before they can kill him, Donat is transferred to the gas factory. This is a very large and impressive underground facility. I was actually very surprised that the British film industry had such sets or had access to a factory like this--it was huge and impressive. Perhaps they achieved this effect with matte paintings...I just know it looked pretty realistic.
Now that he works in this factory, he still needs help from the Underground. That's because the gas factory is way ahead of schedule and they'll soon be dropping these poison gas bombs on Britain. So it's up to him to scramble quickly--there isn't any time to lose.
Overall, it's a well made and entertaining film--even though I must admit that the ending seemed a tad far-fetched. While far from Robert Donat's best, it's a solid WWII propaganda movie from start to finish. -
jbetke20 March 2006This 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." -
jt_3d20 July 2010The Adventures of Tartu aka Sabotage Agent is a cut above the mass produced war movies of the 40s. The acting is very good. The sets are fantastic. Special effects are very good. And the story is pretty good even if it is just one of many, many 'go behind enemy lines to destroy X' stories. The script is very well written.
Our story starts with Cpt. Stevenson being called to defuse a bomb in a hospital, which of course he succeeds in doing. Immediately after he is called to head off to Czechoslovakia on a secret mission because he grew up in Romania and speaks the language like a native, as well as speaking German. Soon enough he's off to try to contact the Czech underground, disguised as one Jan Tartu, a now deceased Romanian Iron Guard member. But before he can make contact his link to the underground is arrested and he has to try to make contact on his own.
Stevenson becomes a Nazi official and keeps trying to make contact with the underground so he can get help to complete his mission before the deadline. Which leads to my favorite scene of the movie. After a great performance in a pub, Tartu/Stevenson is captured by a group of men who have to find out who he is. It's a cool scene, well conceived though I was able to figure out what was going on before it was revealed so it may have went on a bit too long.
Naturally Stevenson is able to complete his mission and escape by way of a rather implausible shootout in which he never misses and the Nazis can't hit the floor with their hat. Nevetheless, this movie is somewhat better than the rest of the period, thanks mostly to Donat's somewhat comical portrayal of a Romanian Nazi puppet and his great acting. As well as the excellent sets and effects. I'd give it 8 stars but since this plot has been done oh so many times I only gave it 7/10.
And by the way, Tartu only says Heil Hitler 15 times, though it seems like more because nine of them are within one 10 minute section. -
bkoganbing22 November 2005Robert 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. -
chrisart73 December 2013"The Adventures of Tartu" has a fine opening scene, quickly establishing Robert Donat as a cool and collected expert in defusing bomb which hadn't exploded in one of the Nazi's blitzes of London. The scenes which follow are a bit erratic. Donat's acting is always superb, but the dialog and situations which he has been given generally do not build suspense or audience sympathy. There are fleetingly good lines and occasionally good moments, but the opening and the finale are the finest parts of the film---it would seem that these were the most concentrated upon by the filmmakers, with the centre section being somewhat secondary.
The closing scenario and its seemingly expansive set anticipate that of "Dr. No" and many subsequent Bond films. Donat essayed a similar role in "Knight Without Armour" (1937) in which he was a British spy posing as a Russian revolutionary during and after WWI, but that film was far superior on every level to this one. Still, any film with Donat is interesting at the very least, and "Tartu" is fairly good.
Thus far (as of 2013) a very clear print of this motion picture hasn't surfaced, but perhaps Criterion will restore/release one in the future, should the British Film Institute or some such other organisation have a good transfer from the original negative on hand. -
kapelusznik1820 March 2015***SPOILERS*** With the British Foreign Office getting wind of a plot by the evil Nazis developing this new strain of poison gas that's 1,000 times more powerful then mustard & chlorine they decide to go into action to stop them. It's decided to parachute drop British bomb defusing expert and part time chemical engineer Terry Stevenson played by Robert Donat, who's been rumored to be the hair to the "Dunkin Donut" fast food empire, being dropped into Nazi occupied Czechoslavakia where the Nazis are secretly developing the deadly gas.
Taking the identity, with false papers provided to him by the British Foreign Office, of deceased Romanian chemical engineer and army officer Jan Tartu Stevenson gets a job at the Czech Skoda works or factory where the poison gas is being developed. While staying in Czechoslavakia at the Palacek residence Stevenson using the name Jan Tartu then tries to get in contract the the Czech Underground, a group of real bad dudes, to help him sabotage the Nazis attempt to make the gas. The Nazis plan to put the gas into mass production to be used in terror raids by the German Luftwaffe against Great Britain. And even worse Tartu gets romantically involved with Nazi loving Maruschka Brunn, no relation to Eva, played by Valerie Hobson who if she finds out who he really is and what he's up to, destroy her beloved Nazis plans to developing the super poison gas, can blow his and the British Foreign Offices plans of stopping them out of the water!
***SPOILERS*** As it later turns out the Nazi loving Maruschka is really working for the take no BS, from the Nazis and anyone else, Czech Underground and using her both beauty and charms to get vital information from the Nazi high Command, who are falling all over themselves to get a date with her, to relay back to them as well, by short wave radio, the allies. It takes a while for Tartu to convince the bad a** Czech Underground that he's the real deal a British secret agent not a die in the wool Nazi for them to go along with him on his mission. That's to blow up the Skoda Works Factory with everyone in it the Nazis and even the slave Czech worker, which considering the circumstances was a small price to pay, to keep the deadly gas from being developed and later used against the allied forces fighting a life and death struggle against Hitler's Germany. It would have been enough for Tartu to just have blown up the Skoda Works Factory but he still has a lot of work to do after that. That's in his shooting it out with the pursuing Nazis as well as hijacking a Luftwaffe plane and together with his now lover Maruschka bomb a German military anti-aircraft installation! As he, without ever taking a single flying lesson, flies to the safety of his home in the friendly British isles! That without as much as a mark or scratch, in dodging hundred of bullets and ack ack shells, on him! -
oscar-3516 May 2012*Spoiler/plot- 1943, A British Army native Romanian chemist is sent into learn about and destroy a Natzi poison gas and its factory plant. He assumes the identity of a Romanian Natzi officer and with the help of the Czech underground is successful.
*Special Stars- Robert Donat, Glynis Johns
*Theme- Natzism must be stopped by brave men and women of the world.
*Trivia/location/goofs- British, Watch for a very young new actress, Glynis Johns as a munitions worker sabotage agent.
*Emotion- An rather enjoyable WW2 spy film with all the intrigue and suspense of a mystery novel. The happy ending is story book, but satisfying. This film is fun and romantic from another time in filmmaking. -
jacobs-greenwood13 December 2016aka Tartu (1943) aka Sabotage Agent (1943)
Directed by Harold Bucquet, with a story by John Higgins and a screenplay by John Lee Mahin and Howard Emmett Rogers, this slightly above average espionage thriller was the first film MGM Studios was able to get Robert Donat to agree to do after his Oscar winning performance in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939); he had a right of refusal clause in his contract.
As British Captain Terence Stevenson, who defuses a bomb in a partially collapsed London hospital during World War II, Donat's character is asked to assume the identity of Romanian chemist Jan Tartu in order to infiltrate and destroy a German poison gas factory hidden in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Stevenson was chosen to become a spy because of his familiarity with the area and the languages from his youth. As Tartu, he pretends to be a dandy that wants to serve der Fuhrer (Adolf Hitler), but must make contact with the Czech resistance while avoiding detection and capture by the Nazis for whom he'll work. Valerie Hobson, Walter Rilla, Glynis Johns, Phyllis Morris, and Martin Miller are among those who also appear in key roles.
When the only contact Tartu knows is captured, and later killed, right after they'd met, he must find a way to find and get help from the Czech resistance without alerting Nazi Inspector Otto Vogel (Rilla) and the other Germans. Vogel assigns Tartu to live in Anna Palacek's (Morris) boarding house, and a job watching Czech slave laborers in a munitions plant. Vogel has eyes for Maruschuka Lanova (Hobson), who lives in the same boarding house as Tartu, and Anna's daughter Paula (Johns).
Tartu soon learns that all three women are part of the resistance movement and, after protecting Paula when she'd killed a German general, he earns Maruschuka's trust such that she approaches the resistance board, run by Doctor Novotny (Miller). In the meantime, careless Paula is caught trying to sabotage some of the artillery shells by another Nazi officer right while Tartu is nearby.
Quick on his feet, Tartu decides to go straight to the plant's manager with a cover story that he'd been making friends with some of the Czech's to infiltrate their resistance. This leaves him free and clear, but another in the resistance hears this "confession" and tells it to Novotny who now, along with Maruschuka, suspects Tartu really is a Nazi. So, Maruschuka, who'd begun to fall in love with Tartu (beware the woman scorned!) decides to use Vogel to kill Tartu, who's now frustrated that he can't make contact with the resistance at the very time that he's gotten reassigned to the secret chemical plant.
I don't want to spoil what happens next, but it's cleverly done and, naturally, works out for the best. Plus, just when you think the story's over, there's another few minutes of drama involving an escape. -
THE ADVENTURES OF TARTU, aka SABOTAGE AGENT contains some of the most wonderfully silly propaganda to survive WW2. In the darkest days of the war, British propaganda used every means possible to raise the moral of the British people. Char women would go to France and destroy gestapo headquarters. Churchill's friend and a member of the Royal family disobeyed orders and lost his ship and this became the uber heroic IN WHICH WE SERVE. Lesle Howard, a real life secret agent, reprised the Baroness Orczy character in Nazi held Europe as Pimpernel Smith. While full scale efforts against Germany in Norway, Greece and France were full scale disasters, the notion in propaganda films was that one man could wreak almighty justice upon the Nazi monster.
In SABOTAGE AGENT aka ADVENTURES OF TARTU, the slight and sickly Robert Donat is gotten up as a master war hero. He is introduced as a cool headed, cold blooded bomb disposal expert who is drafted into being flown to Romania in the disguise of a well known (but dead) Rumanian near do well, giving Donat a chance to do a stereotypical and quite insulting imitation of what some more offensive Englishmen would call a 'greasy wog'. As a repulsive womanizing slime ball who is also a high ranking member of the Rumanian equivalent of the fascists, it doesn't take long before Donat has presented himself at a Czechoslovakian factory producing poison gas. It is Donat's mission to blow up the factory before they can ship the gas which he does escaping with his new girlfriend and assorted helpers and contacts in a stolen JU-88 .
Its been said that when Goebbels saw British propaganda he was so thrilled that it was so crude because that meant German propaganda was so superior. In the end, of course, the quality of propaganda had no effect on the war. Except for seven films, all German propaganda films were made to lull the population into a sense of well being by NOT focusing on the issue at hand (the war). The British preferred to show how they were prevailing (which they weren't) and would prevail over the enemy. In other words - lies all around.
The reality was very different. Nationalists su generis hate each other nationalities, even their allies, and the Germans were quite contemptuous of the Rumanians who were considered unreliable in battle. They wouldn't have allowed one no matter how puffed up their CV and references were within a million miles of a top secret project. The Germans are seen as a bunch of horny buffoons easily outsmarted with out their being any sense of the systematic rings of security and cumbersome but defensive bureaucracy surrounding a military occupation.
Attempts at sabotage in Czechoslovakia by organized resistance, particularly in the Skodawerk were met with mass reprisal, particularly at the Skoda werk. The most famous operation in Czechoslovakia was the assassination of the Reich protector Heidrich, which was carried out, for political reasons, by members of the Czechoslovakian Army parachuted in for the task which resulted in repression so serious that the Czech resistance was effectively eliminated as a fighting force for the rest of the war and the town of Lidice was destroyed, the men murdered, the women and children scattered and the town razed and plowed under. The incident was so notorious in its time, plays, operas, poetry and at least two films (HANGMEN ALSO DIE, directed by Fritz Lang and HITLER'S MADMAN, directed by Douglas Sirk, were made of the story. The free world swore to remember Lidice forever. It forgot. And poison gas, the Germans had plenty of it which, even to the end, they didn't use in battle. Except on Jews in the Concentrations Camps.
Such isn't the concern of the propaganda film however. What's needed is one guy with a steel resolves, good nerves and a bit of luck on his side. A briefcase full of little bombs are enough to take out a whole mountainside. Today the ideal hero, or 'Good Guy' would be SFX'd committing visually unlikely and physically impossible deeds to a crashingly loud soundtrack a la MISSION IMPOSSIBLE or others of that ilk. This is the ancestor of those super action heros, when there was still a lingering illusion that somehow he'd be, well, a gentleman. Hence Donat and not Schwarzenegger or Stallone shows up.
The weirdest thing I found about the film is the escape. I've looked at the film multiple times and I can't figure out from certain shots if they were somehow using a real JU-88 or a mock -up. Would they, in circa 1942-43, take the time and expense to make a flyable JU-88, or did they actually have a flyable one on hand? I can piece out how they might have gotten a hold of one and why they would want to keep it flyable. (One was flown to Great Britain in May 1943). And was the 'they' behind this project MGM or either or both the British and American governments? The director and writers were from Hollywood though the film was made in London and all of the technicians were British. Some shots of the JU-88 could be a miniature (when the plane is seen flying into a cloud), some could be file film (the JU-88 is first seen in a rear projection process shot), some shots could be made using a full scale mock up (very expensive) and even be made to appear to be taxiing, but there are some other shots that could only be made by a flyable airframe. A Beaufort Bomber had been used for a few seconds in the beginning of the film and I thought one could have been given some cosmetic surgery but the long nacelles for the Junkers Jumo engines behind their large radial radiators are pretty unmistakable. Apparently the propaganda films could be somewhat cheesy as film but never cheep. -
lastliberal13 November 2008On a Nazi twin bill, I watched this film, also known as The Adventures of Tartu, or simply Tartu. It was a much more involved thriller with Robert Donat as a British Officer who goes to Romania to hopefully destroy the latest in Nazi poison gas. Unlike Saddam Hussein, the Nazis really did have WMDs and the release of a gas like this could have turned the war.
Donat is best remembered for his Academy Award winning performance in Goodbye Mr. Chips. he was likened to Clark Gable, so it was interesting that his win came at Gable's expense in Gone With the Wind. He is also remembered for Hitchcock's The 39 Steps.
Donat was magnificent in the film as a Romanian dandy. He was totally believable and his constant Heil Hitler reminded me so much of Roberto Benini's performance in Life is Beautiful. Maybe Benini modeled his performance on Donat's.
We also see an early Glynis Johns, who got an Oscar nomination for The Sundowners, and a Golden Globe nomination for The Chapman Report. Many may remember her as Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins.
The aristocratic Valerie Hobson played the love interest. She is best known for being married to John Profumo, who brought down the British Government in the Christine Keeler Affair. She was a "stand by your man" wife and gave up acting to work with the developmentally disabled.
She gave an excellent performance as someone who openly flirted with the Nazi's, but was actually a member of the underground. -
Robert Donat is one of my favorite actors of the 1930s to 1950s. Despite a relatively small film output (roughly 25 movies I believe) Donat showed a wide variety of different parts, including comedy, historical, character studies, spy films (including THE 39 STEPS for Hitchcock), and straight drama. He never gave a bad performance even if the film left some problems. And all was accomplished despite being a serious asthmatic. To top it off, he pulled off the all time miracle "Oscar" for best actor. He beat Clarke Gable in 1939, when Gable's "Rhett Butler" was the odds favorite for best role. Donat trumped it with the schoolmaster, "Mr. Chipping", in GOODBYE MR. CHIPS. Fans of GONE WITH THE WIND may have cause to grumble (forgetting Gable already won the Oscar as "Peter Warne" in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT) but fans of Donat (and they included Walter Matthau, who said he was his favorite actor) have never complained.
SABOTAGE AGENT is known in the U.S. as THE ADVENTURES OF TARTU. The title change is understandable. There are so many films with "sabotage" in the title (Hitchcock had "SABOTAGE" in 1936 and "SABOTEUR" in 1943). But the name is misleading accidentally. "Jan Tartu" is the false identity name given to Donat's character Captain Terence Stevenson when he is sent on a mission into Czechoslovakia during World War II. The ADVENTURES OF STEVENSON would have been less misleading on this point, but people might have thought that it referred to the author of TREASURE ISLAND.
Stevenson, a linguist, has been on home watch duty, but is selected for the mission due to his grasp on central European languages, specifically, Czech, Roumanian, and German (a neat trick, by the way, as these are from three separate language groups: Slavic, Latin, and Germanic - Stevenson must have been like my father, a real super expert on foreign tongues). The real Tartu (who has conveniently been killed) was a member of Roumania's native Fascist group, "The Iron Guard". The Roumanians joined the Axis in 1941, having seen what happened to the most pro-Western Balkan state (Yugoslavia) which was invaded and bombed (as was Greece). Roumania and Bulgaria (the latter reluctantly) joined the Nazis (Roumania did it willingly in expectation of expanding its borders, Bulgaria to protect itself from the Russians under Stalin). It's instructive to follow what happened in both countries. From the King on down in Bulgaria there was a general refusal to cooperate in sending Jews to their deaths in German camps, so that 90% of Bulgaria's Jews (the largest number of ANY country in Europe) survived World War II. Roumania handed the bulk of them over.
Donat goes to Prague as Tartu, and plays him as a flamboyant nitwit. The Nazis have little real use for him in Prague (he is there on some trivial diplomatic excuse) and find him more of a nuisance than anything else. Donat decides to allow the Nazis to find just useless he is - in one sequence he manages to insist on "helping" them capture an anti-Nazi partisan. Of course the partisan escapes while the Nazis are forced to see "Tartu" pounding on a wall as though he is doing something remarkably clever.
The mission is to find the secret factory where a deadly new gas is being manufactured (this is a running theme in many films of the 1930s and 1940s - a secret poison gas that some country is manufacturing to use on the battlefield: memories of the battles of World War I prevented people from considering poison gas used on civilian prisoners for "ethnic cleansing" purposes). With the assistance of Glynis Johns and Valerie Hobson Donat does find the factory, cleverly hidden within a mountain. Now the problem is to destroy it, which leads to an exciting conclusion within the factory within the mountain.
Unusual for most Donat films (only KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOUR has as much daring-do involving Donat and co-star Marlene Dietrich fleeing the Bolsheviks in 1919) THE ADVENTURES OF TARTU is a good escapist film. Although the references in it put it firmly in 1943 when it was made it is still an entertaining film for today. The performances are good, with Johns quite moving as she sacrifices herself for Donat's mission, and Hobson being forced to descend to murder to help as well. I recommend it for those performances, as well as Donat's over-the-top one as the eccentric "Iron Guardist". -
During WW2, Robert Donat (Tartu) is selected to act as a British agent with the mission to blow up a factory that is making poisonous gas for the Nazis in Czechoslovakia. He is to assume the identity of a Rumanian Nazi sympathizer by the name of Jan Tartu and papers are organized so that he can pass himself off in his new identity. However, he has to make contact with the Resistance whilst in Czechoslovakia and this proves difficult as things don't work out too well on meeting his contact. Can he succeed with his mission?
The acting is good and Donat plays his Romanian character as a bit of a cheerful fool – Donat the Doughnut. He convinces the Nazis but has more difficulties with the Resistance. Valerie Hobson (Lanova) plays a Nazi sympathiser who is lodging at the same house as Donat but is she what she seems? Factory worker Glynis Johns (Paula) is also at the house.
The film has a story that keeps you watching and at the end it turns into a bit of a James Bond adventure as Donat has to do some pretty miraculous things all in the name of action sequences. There are also some hard-hitting scenes where Donat has to remain in character in order not to blow his cover. Unfortunately, the sound is pretty poor in this film so the dialogue is not always clear but it is manageable. One word of advice – don't let Valerie Hobson take off her hat. -
My first hint that this movie was great was an early scene between Robert Donat and the actress who plays his mother, Mabel Terry-Lewis. It was so moving I busted out crying! Glynis Johns has a small but affecting and effective role.
The statements made about Czechoslovakia were even more poignant, now that we know the country's history.
The movie has a nice, fast pace that modern movie-goers will appreciate. Donat plays each of his secret identities with a confident, warm-hearted air.
I usually hate chase scenes but the only one in this film was truly exciting.
TCM advertised this movie as Sabotage Agent, so keep an eye out for it under that title. You won't be disappointed. -
rmax30482325 November 2008"The Adventures of Tartu." Sounds like a children's movie, doesn't it? Maybe about an orphan elephant or a unicorn. But it's more serious than that. Robert Donat is a British chemist sent into Rumania, through Germany, into Czechoslovakia to sabotage a huge industrial plant where the Nazis are manufacturing vast amounts of poison gas. Since he is fluent in Rumanian and German, he is able to impersonate a real Rumanian "Iron Guard" officer named Jan Tartu. In Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, whence "Pilsener" beer, he lodges with a patriotic Czech family, along with Valerie Hobson, the soul of elegance. The youngster in the family, a factory worker, is the teen-aged Glynis Johns, she of the wide brow and slanted eyelids.
Donat is given one of those black Nazi uniforms with the tight boots and wide riding breeches that the movies required of the Nazis at that time, and he is appointed supervisor of the workers at the plant. He needs the help of the Czech underground but he doesn't know how to get in touch with them. Can he trust Valerie Hobson, who seems like a closet patriot under all that arrogance? The Gestapo keep nosing around though, so he must be ever vigilant.
Identities get mixed up. Mistakes are made. Glynis Johns is caught sabotaging some of the shells being manufactured in the plant and is executed. But Donat succeeds in his mission, blows the plant to smithereens, and makes a suspenseful escape with Hobson and a few other patriots in a Junkers 88.
For such a complicated yet slight tale, the story generates a good deal of suspense. And it's an appealing piece of work, due in large measure to Donat's performance as the ersatz Iron Guard officer. He overplays the womanizing trait of the character but that's a problem with the script and the direction, not Donat's performance. He's charming in the role and seems a likable kind of guy. The rest of the cast consists of seasoned players and provides good support.
The story seems a little trite now. There were so many like it during the war. Errol Flynn's "Desperate Journey" was a lot more fun, and Fritz Lang's "Hangmen Also Die" did a better job of capturing the ethos of occupied Czechoslovakia. Still, this is not a bad example of the genre.
It's too bad that Czechoslovakia has been split into the Czech Republic and that other independent nation whose name I can never remember. It makes one of the London Times' crossword puzzle entries obsolete. Quick -- name a major seaport in the middle of Czechoslovakia.
Oslo. CzechOSLOvakia. Get it? What can you do with a name like The Czech Republic? "Name a British saloon near the end of The Czech Republic"? That's ridiculous. -
SimonJack7 August 2011"Sabotage Agent" (aka, The Adventures of Tartu) is an excellent WWII action film. It begins with the bombing of London in 1940. It then moves into an espionage and spy thriller, and gives a very good account of the underground that operated in Nazi-occupied countries. The area covered is the Czech Republic. Until the fall of the Iron Curtin 20 years ago, very little was known about the underground that operated in eastern European countries. This film tells one story about it.
The acting is top notch by all involved. The plot, writing and direction are first rate. A "best" movie for the quality of the production and what it shows about one aspect of WWII that is still so little told or understood today. The film has considerable historical value for these reasons, as well. A first-rate war, action and intrigue film produced in England. Excellent all around. -
Petr-1025 August 2023Originally, many years ago, I gave the film 6 out of 10. I was upset. Today, I can block my irritation and be more fair.
They got the uniforms wrong, they got the Czech language badly wrong everywhere. They even abused our national anthem. To repeat that Pilsen is in Czechoslovakia might be politically correct but irritating, too. If they did not want to call it Protektorat, they should have said "occupied Czechoslovakia".
And the main idea is wrong, Hitler would not allow the use of chemical weapons. He was scared of them because he himself was poisoned on the front. He was not a coward in WWI, on the contrary, he earned the iron cross.
Pity. Still 7 out of 10. -
ETO_Buff7 July 2016As clearly demonstrated by this film, prior to the Normandy invasion, the Allies were convinced that the Germans were manufacturing weaponized gas to use during the Second World War, just as they did during the the First World War. This assumption spawned this very typical propaganda film in which all of the Germans in occupied Czechoslovakia wear black SS uniforms with the skull and crossbones insignia of the Totenkopf Verband (the "Death's Head" Brigade was the SS unit that administered the concentration camp system) on their caps and greet each other and civilians with the Hitler salute. It's a melodramatic and very simplistic film where everything is reduced in complexity due to the näiveté of the filmmakers and the film audiences of the period. For this reason, instead of a team of well-trained saboteurs going in to execute the mission, a single tri-lingual army captain (Robert Donat) is parachuted in and has to make contact with "the Underground" in order to carry out what would be a huge, complicated mission in real life. Fortunately for our hero, the German tools in this film aren't the brightest ones in the Third Reich's shed and "the Underground" is easily convinced of his authenticity. It also doesn't hurt that one of the Underground's important members (Valerie Hobson) falls in love with him after spending an hour in his company. I should have given it three or four stars, for the lack of realism, but it is typical of the time period, so I gave it five.