Made by MGM British studios in 1942, Sabotage Agent was released in the U.S. in 1943 as The Adventures of Tartu, perhaps to avoid confusion with two Hitchock films, the British Sabotage (1936), and Saboteur (1942). In Sabotage Agent, a fast-paced wartime adventure saga, Robert Donat plays a British officer posing a Romanian named Tartu in order to sabotage a Nazi poison-gas factory in Czechoslovakia.

Donat, the son of a Polish father and British mother, was a leading actor of British stage and films. Talented, dashing and handsome, Donat had attracted international attention in 1933's The Private Life of Henry VIII, and several American film studios wanted to sign him to a contract. But Donat had no interest in Hollywood stardom, and preferred to work in Britain. Finally, in 1938, Donat agreed to a six-picture deal with MGM, on the condition that the films be made in England. That was fine with the studio. In response to a U.K. quota imposed on the exhibition of foreign films, MGM had recently set up a production unit in England, planning to use the studio's production talent and British actors.

Donat's first MGM film, The Citadel (1938), earned him excellent reviews. The second, Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939), won him a best actor Oscar. Then came the war, and MGM wanted Donat to go to Hollywood. But he again refused to leave Britain, rejected script after script, and became embroiled in lawsuits with MGM over his contract. They eventually settled the litigation with two more films, the first of which was Sabotage Agent.

Sabotage Agent is hardly the prestige vehicle that Donat's two previous MGM films had been. But even critics who found the plot the somewhat contrived and confusing were charmed by Donat's witty performance. "That it is fun despite the looseness with which it stacks its cards is due largely to the gusto that Mr. Donat brings to the film," said the New York Times. "Mr. Donat seems to be having the time of his life." Critics also praised the performances of the elegant leading lady, Valerie Hobson, and a very young Glynis Johns as a Czech patriot.

Director: Harold S. Bucquet
Producer: Irving Asher
Screenplay: John Lee Mahin, Howard Emmett Rogers; story by John C. Higgins
Editor: Douglas Myers
Cinematography: John J. Cox
Art Direction: John Bryan
Music: Hubert Bath
Cast: Robert Donat (Capt. Terence Stevenson, AKA Jan Tartu), Valerie Hobson (Marushka Lanova), Walter Rilla (Inspector Otto Vogel), Glynis Johns (Paula Palacek), Phyllis Morris (Anna Palacek), Martin Miller (Dr. Novotny)
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By Margarita Landazuri