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.

"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.

"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.

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."