diff -r e1f0881d2cb4 Lib/tarfile.py
--- a/Lib/tarfile.py	Fri Apr 15 08:25:16 2011 +0300
+++ b/Lib/tarfile.py	Fri Apr 15 09:24:41 2011 +0300
@@ -2196,9 +2196,11 @@
         """
         source = self.extractfile(tarinfo)
         target = bltn_open(targetpath, "wb")
-        copyfileobj(source, target)
-        source.close()
-        target.close()
+        try:
+            copyfileobj(source, target)
+        finally:
+            source.close()
+            target.close()
 
     def makeunknown(self, tarinfo, targetpath):
         """Make a file from a TarInfo object with an unknown type