The Adventures of Tartu (DVD)

Jan Tartu is a British secret agent sent to sabotage a Nazi facility for manufacturing poison gas on a huge scale. He meets the gorgeous and mysterious Maruschuka, who lives a sumptuous lifestyle financed by the German officers she dates. Jan learns that she too leads a double life, sacrificing her virtue to gain intelligence for the Czech underground. The two "spies" fall in love. But when her best friend is shot at the factory by a sadistic SS officer, Maruschuka is convinced that Tartu betrayed her. Consumed with vengeance, she convinces her German contacts to arrange for the assassination of her own lover!

The Adventures of Tartu is stylishly directed by Harold S. Bucquet and boasts an outstanding cast. Robert Donat appeared in many classic films including The 39 Steps (1935), The Citadel (1938) and Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) which won him a Best Actor Oscar. Beautiful Valerie Hobson had two horrifying screen marriages (Bride Of Frankenstein, 1935 and Werewolf of London, 1935) but is probably best remembered for steadfast loyalty to her real-life husband in Britain's Perfumo scandal. A very young Glynis Johns appears as the doomed factory worker.

• war