Sabotage Agent
Fluent in Romanian and German and having studied chemical engineering, he is parachuted into Romania to assume the identity of Captain Jan Tartu, a fascist Iron Guardist. He makes his way to Czechoslovakia to obtain the formula of a new Nazi poison gas and sabotage the factory where it is being manufactured.
However, his contact is arrested before he can arrange for a job in the factory.
Tartu is assigned work as a foreman at a munitions plant instead. Among the other occupants of the house in which he resides are his landlady Anna Palacek (Phyllis Morris), her daughter Paula (Glynis Johns), who works in the plant, German Inspector Otto Vogel (Walter Rilla), and lovely Maruschka Lanova (Valerie Hobson), who makes herself popular with the German occupiers, especially Vogel and the local commandant.
Tartu gains Paula's confidence by providing her with an alibi after she shoots a German officer.
He asks her for help contacting the Czech underground and is surprised to learn that Maruschka is one of them. Though Maruschka trusts Tartu, Novotny is more cautious.
When Paula is detected attempting to commit sabotage at the factory, she whispers to Tartu to denounce her to deflect suspicion away from him.
This, along with the death of Tartu's contact, causes the underground to believe that he is a Nazi agent and break off contact. Fortunately, Tartu is transferred to the gas plant without their help.
He goes to work for Dr.
Desperate, he pretends to get drunk in a bar and blurts out that he knows the names of Czech resistance members who will be arrested soon, then staggers out into the dark street. With a great deal of effort, he finally convinces them they are on the same side.
He manufactures small bombs that, in the right places, are enough to demolish the plant.
The next day, he goes to work. Though his cover is blown soon afterwards, he manages to plant the bombs and escape from the heavily-guarded plant, which blows up as he drives off.
Then, he, Maruschka, and a pilot steal a German airplane and fly away.
Cast
Robert Donat as Captain Terence Stevenson
Valerie Hobson as Maruschka Lanova
Walter Rilla as Inspector Otto Vogel
Glynis Johns as Paula Palacek
Phyllis Morris as Anna Palacek
Martin Miller as Dr.