This extremely well-paced 1943 spy film shot in England during the Second World was directed for MGM by British-born Harold S. Bucquet, remembered today only for a series of Dr. Kildaire films he made in the States for the MGM Culver City "B" film unit. Perhaps Bucquet's return to his homeland during the war inspired him here as he rarely ever again displayed such high-style. Robert Donat as the faux Rumanian Dandy steals the show; he is perfectly charming and romantic as a modern-day Scarlet Pimpernal. There is a particularly good supporting cast of German heavies and Brits playing Czechs. Walter Rilla and Freidrich Richter in particular are excellent as the sort of movie Nazis who showed up the year before at Rick's café in Casablanca. The Gainsborough Studios sets by John Bryan ("Pygmalion" and "Major Barbara") are exceptionally atmospheric and realistic. If the film has a weakness it is the performance of that wooden English rose, the beautiful Valerie Hobson,(Mrs.Profumo in life) whose not quite up to Donat's delightful mix of romance and melodramatics.
Review of The Adventures of Tartu
