The Adventures of Tartu (1943)
1h 31m | PG-13
British Captain Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat) accepts an assignment even more dangerous than his everyday 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 factory where it is being manufactured.
Director: Harold S. Bucquet
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre: Romance, War
Video: 720p
Cast
Robert Donat
as Captain Terence Stevenson, aka Jan Tartu
Valerie Hobson
as Maruschuka Lanova
Walter Rilla
as Inspector Otto Vogel
Glynis Johns
as Paula Palacek
Phyllis Morris
as Anna Palacek
Martin Miller
as Doctor Novotny
Reviews
There were quite a few of these medium-budget films made - not quite as propaganda, but serving to bolster the morale in Britain in the depths of WWII. This is one of them. Robert Donat plays a fictional British intelligence officer charged with seeking out and destroying a secret Nazi factory that was developing a lethal nerve-gas deep within enemy territory. He plays his part with style and a little humour, ably supported by Valerie Hobson and Walter Rilla, as he inveigles his way into the brutal Nazi infrastructure and risks life and limb to achieve his goals. It's a great boys own adventure story.