"The inspector" is a bad title for it suggests a detective story ,which it is not; only the beginning will make you think of a routine thriller ;but the murder (or accident ,who cares anyway?) is quickly forgotten .The alternate title "Lisa" is much more adequate .
This is some kind of Otto Preminger's "Exodus" (1960) in miniature ; a Dutch cop, who feels guilt because he did nothing to save a deported during WW2 (many people ,in occupied Europa looked the other way when there were Jews round -ups ;see the Vel' D'Hiv round-up in Paris ,with the help of the French police ).
Deaf to the disapproval of his family who wants to prevent him from doing such a foolish thing , the man decides to help a young Jewish girl to get to Palestine .It will be a long way ,full of pitfalls , from Amsterdam via Paris and Morroco to the promised land ; all along the way ,colorful characters (the owner of the barge) and people who claim to help them but actually want the girl to testify in Nuremberg.The scene when Lisa depicts the horror of the concentration camps (all these eyes staring at her naked body) is not unlike Sal Mineo 's questioning in "Exodus" when he shouts :"they treated me like a woman!"or Montgomery Clift 's only scene in "judgement in Nuremberg ".
There are gaps in the screenplay ,but the story remains absorbing till the last picture : like Eva -Marie Saint in "Exodus" , Boyd seems to have embraced a cause that was not his.
This is some kind of Otto Preminger's "Exodus" (1960) in miniature ; a Dutch cop, who feels guilt because he did nothing to save a deported during WW2 (many people ,in occupied Europa looked the other way when there were Jews round -ups ;see the Vel' D'Hiv round-up in Paris ,with the help of the French police ).
Deaf to the disapproval of his family who wants to prevent him from doing such a foolish thing , the man decides to help a young Jewish girl to get to Palestine .It will be a long way ,full of pitfalls , from Amsterdam via Paris and Morroco to the promised land ; all along the way ,colorful characters (the owner of the barge) and people who claim to help them but actually want the girl to testify in Nuremberg.The scene when Lisa depicts the horror of the concentration camps (all these eyes staring at her naked body) is not unlike Sal Mineo 's questioning in "Exodus" when he shouts :"they treated me like a woman!"or Montgomery Clift 's only scene in "judgement in Nuremberg ".
There are gaps in the screenplay ,but the story remains absorbing till the last picture : like Eva -Marie Saint in "Exodus" , Boyd seems to have embraced a cause that was not his.