Sabotage Agent (1943)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Harold S. Bucquet

Writers:

John C. Higgins (story)
John Lee Mahin (writer) ...

Release Date:

October 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller | War

Plot:

Stevenson, a British soldier fluent in Rumanian and German, goes undercover to sabotage a German poison-gas factory...

Plot Keywords:

Factory | Sabotage | Poison Gas | Nazi | Laboratory

Cast

Robert Donat	...	Captain Terence Stevenson, aka Jan Tartu
Valerie Hobson	...	Maruschuka Lanova
Walter Rilla	...	Inspector Otto Vogel
Glynis Johns	...	Paula Palacek
Phyllis Morris	...	Anna Palacek
Martin Miller	...	Doctor Novotny
Anthony Eustrel	...	German MP Officar (as Anthony Eustral)
Percy Walsh	...	Dr. Willendorf
David Ward	...	Bronte, the Underground Pilot
Friedrich Richter	...	General Weymouth (as Frederic Richter)
John Penrose	...	Lieutenant Krantz at the Skoda Factory
Hubert Leslie	...	Peter Valek, Shoemaker Contact
Mabel Terry-Lewis	...	Mrs. Stevenson (as Mabel Terry Lewis)
Miki Iveria	...	Female Worker Shot at the Skoda Factory

Also Known As:

Tartu (USA) (reissue title)
The Adventures of Tartu (USA)

Runtime:

UK:111 min | USA:103 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (colorized)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

B.A.F. Sound System

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #9245)

Filming Locations:

Gainsborough Studios, Islington, London, England, UK

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios

Trivia:

The poem that Donat and the others quote is from English poet William Wordsworth: "I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils"

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Star Wars (1977)

very good wartime spy film

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 seemingly 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 quite interesting. A very exciting and well-acted film, highly recommended.