The Adventures Of Tartu (1943)
In 1940. Captain Terence Stevenson is with the British Army in the bomb disposal unit in London, his primary job is to defuse them. Despite having no experience as a spy, he is asked by his superiors, because of his academic background as a chemical engineer and being fluent in Romanian and German, to lead a spy mission deep in the Nazi occupied territory. The Nazis have near perfected a formula for a new poisonous gas to use in chemical warfare, Stevenson's mission is to infiltrate the gas plant near Pilsen in the occupied Czechoslovakia where it is being mass produced. He must steal the formula to bring back to Britain, and blow up the plant before the Nazis are able to distribute the gas for their war efforts. He is to assume the identity of chemical engineer Jan Tartu of the Romanian Iron Guard. The real Tartu has been killed but the Nazis are unaware of it. To carry out his mission, Stevenson will require the assistance of the Czech underground and is given the name of a contact through which he is to work. Stevenson needs to improvise, most specifically because his contact is arrested. In this light, he has to learn who he can and cannot trust, especially among those with whom he is assigned to live: Anna and Pavla Palacek, the owner of the house and her daughter who works at the ammunition plant; Otto Vogel, an inspector the Nazis have assigned to be his guide; and Marushka Lanova, a beautiful young woman who has a sense of entitlement and who uses her feminine wiles to get what she wants, most specifically from Nazi officers such as Vogel who is in love with her. Conversely, those secretly working for the Allied cause may have to figure out if "Tartu" is really on their side.
He lived and loved for danger alone!
Capt. Terence Stevenson: Well - take care of yourself - I'll turn up again before you know where you are!
Gainsborough Studios, Islington, London, England, UK
(Studio)
Westminster, London, England, UK
(Exterior)
The poem that Robert 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".
The depiction of the Skoda Works as taken over for the German war effort is accurate. Skoda is still in operation today as Czechoslovakia's leading producer of automobiles, including models specialized for racing in FIA's World Rally Cup.
This film was first telecast in Los Angeles on 1/16/57 on KTTV (Channel 2); it first aired in Philadelphia on 3/10/57 on WFIL (Channel 6), in New Haven (CT) on 3/17/57 on WNHC (Channel 8), in Chicago on 3/28/57 on WBBM (Channel 2), in Minneapolis on 4/22/57 on KMGM (Channel 9), in Norfolk (VA) on 5/23/57 on WTAR (Channel 3), in Seattle on 6/2/57 on KING (Channel 5), and in Altoona (PA) on 6/30/57 on WFBG (Channel 10); it was first shown in New York City on 4/18/58 on WCBS (Channel 2) and in San Francisco on 9/10/59 on KGO (Channel 7).
Factual errors
When Tartu escapes from the plant, he gets into the getaway car from what should be the driver's side, and the steering wheel is on the right. Obviously, they were using an English car to film this scene.
Revealing mistakes
Obvious models used to depict Stevenson's getaway car speeding away, then the plant's explosion.
Stevenson pointing the gun in the SS officer's back, then ushering him into the control cage is speeded up.
The poster warning the Czechs that they will be shot if they don't obey the curfew is in English.
Plot holes
The Germans did not make poison gas during the Second World War.
Character error
The SS uniforms have the collar tabs reversed - the SS rune should be on the right and the rank insignia on the left.
When Maruschka is consoling Paula (after Paula had killed a German officer earlier in the day), Paula says, "But Karl got his revenge today, because I had Karl's own revolver...." In an earlier scene, however, Paula was hiding a semiautomatic pistol (presumably the murder weapon) and not a revolver.
The voice on the PA says "shoot on sight" and other commands in English to the SS chasing Stevenson through the plant's tunnels.