Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Console best movie i've ever seen.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

jacobs-greenwood aka 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.

chrisart7 "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.

blanche-2 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.

mstomaso This 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.