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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Lisa (1962)

In 1946 Holland, a policeman (Stephen Boyd) takes it upon himself to rescue a Jewish concentration camp survivor (Dolores Hart, WHERE THE BOYS ARE) from a pimp and take her to Palestine. In this manner, he hopes to redeem himself as he did nothing when the Nazis took his Jewish fiancee to the death camps where she was put to death. Based on the novel THE INSPECTOR by Jan De Hartog and directed by Philip Dunne. Tthis is a touching but restrained romance filtered through a thriller sensibility with an excellent performance by Hart in the title role. The scenes set on a Dutch barge as the pair travel from Holland to France have a tranquil yet adventurous quality that are the best portions of the film and as Hart's character says, "I wish it would go on forever". The movie loses a bit of its charm when it reaches Morocco and the dream is over and we're dealing with realities. Arthur Ibbetson did the CinemaScope photography and Malcolm Arnold the subdued underscore. With Leo McKern (who steals the film) as the barge captain, Hugh Griffith, Donald Pleasence, Marius Goring, Harry Andrews, Robert Stephens, Finlay Currie and Jean Anderson.

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